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[Grief.exe]

http://www.pcgamer.com/durantes-dark-souls-3-port-analysis/

As a first for the series, Dark Souls 3 is launching globally on PC alongside consoles, but does this mean we can expect the best Dark Souls PC port so far? That's the question I try to answer in this article, going into detail on the CPU and GPU requirements of this next-gen iteration of the series.

Beyond discussing all the game's graphical options - and elaborating which ones I consider essential and which I would turn down in a pinch - I've put particular effort into figuring out just how much CPU power is needed to guarantee a smooth 60 FPS. And talking about 60 FPS, due to the series' unfortunate history with that number I've also spent a considerable time hitting walls so you don't have to.

Durante gets right to the meat and potatoes

To start things off, I decided to spend some time checking up on the basic features I consider essential. Dark Souls 3 supports arbitrary resolutions (tested up to 5120x2880) and variable frame rates up to 60 FPS.

Just for you before I go to bed:

 

[ponpo]

Re: judging whether or not damage taken is tied to framerate by looking at the actual HP bar

I initially thought I had actually managed to confirm that report - though only to the extent of a few pixels on my health bar—but after repeating the measurement three times at each framerate I realized that there is simply some general uncertainty as to the exact amount of damage sustained.

Can't you check current/total HP in the status menu?

 

[Durante]

Note that

1. This is a friggin' 3500 word article.
2. I tried to cover everything I ever overlooked in any previous port report, or which anyone else might overlook if just quickly benchmarking the game.
   - Various gameplay tests at multiple framerates? There.
   - Different audio channel and frequency configurations? Tested.
   - Steam controller and streaming compatibility? It's in there!
   - Every single setting? You bet.
   - CPU benchmarks at multiple areas throughout the game? Yep, and was it ever important!
3. PC gamer just had a design change, and right now you can't zoom in on the images. This sucks, but it will hopefully get sorted out.

And all of that while avoiding any (non-technical) spoilers!

I'm off to bed now, it's 1 am. Will try to answer any additional questions tomorrow.

 

[WGMBY]

Awesome, can't wait to read this.

 

[Grief.exe]

Note that

1. PC gamer just had a design change, and right now you can't zoom in on the images. This sucks, but it will hopefully get sorted out.

I've been clicking with no results, that explains it.

 

[CountAntonius]

Just read it well done Durante and well done From. Glad to see they did well.

 

[Struct09]

Great article. Happy to hear the PC port turned out alright, From has come a long way since Dark Souls 1.

 

[Kintaro]

Note that

1. This is a friggin' 3500 word article.
2. I tried to cover everything I ever overlooked in any previous port report, or which anyone else might overlook if just quickly benchmarking the game.
   - Various gameplay tests at multiple framerates? There.
   - Different audio channel and frequency configurations? Tested.
   - Steam controller and streaming compatibility? It's in there!
   - Every single setting? You bet.
   - CPU benchmarks at multiple areas throughout the game? Yep, and was it ever important!
3. PC gamer just had a design change, and right now you can't zoom in on the images. This sucks, but it will hopefully get sorted out.

You don't get told this enough, but you are pretty damn Godlike. I appreciate everything you do and your input throughout these forums.

Thank you. \o/

 

[Dictator93]

GOtta go to bed, but will comment tomorrow. From what I read it look awesome!

Great work! I did chuckle when I read the caption "Screenshot downsampled from 2560x1440." and then nothing happened when I clicked on it.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Overclocking a brand new i7-6700K may help bump up your minimum framerate in the game's most CPU-bound areas, but likely won't guarantee a locked 60 FPS.

I need a refund

 

[Nyoro SF]

I'll definitely check this out later. I've never had performance problems in a PC Souls game (Thanks to DSFix and good work with DS2) but I may need to reference it just in case

 

[epmode]

It's so reassuring that this turned out to be a good port after all. The 60 FPS limit is disappointing but that's about it!

Thanks for the article.

 

[iRAWRasaurus]

NIce! Will read it when I have time!

 

[jshackles]

Excellent read, as always. Keep up the good work!

 

[Durante]

GOtta go to bed, but will comment tomorrow. From what I read it look awesome!

Great work! I did chuckle when I read the caption "Screenshot downsampled from 2560x1440." and then nothing happened when I clicked on it.

Just for you before I go to bed:

 

[Korezo]

So will my 2600k affect me from achieving 60fps even with 980ti sli in some parts?

 

[Se7enSword]

Note that

1. This is a friggin' 3500 word article.
2. I tried to cover everything I ever overlooked in any previous port report, or which anyone else might overlook if just quickly benchmarking the game.
   - Various gameplay tests at multiple framerates? There.
   - Different audio channel and frequency configurations? Tested.
   - Steam controller and streaming compatibility? It's in there!
   - Every single setting? You bet.
   - CPU benchmarks at multiple areas throughout the game? Yep, and was it ever important!
3. PC gamer just had a design change, and right now you can't zoom in on the images. This sucks, but it will hopefully get sorted out.

And all of that while avoiding any (non-technical) spoilers!

I'm off to bed now, it's 1 am. Will try to answer any additional questions tomorrow.

Thanks for the clarification, and again, thank you for the excellent article & analysis. Sleep well!

 

[Deleted member 325805]

I won't be able to afford this day one (went for UC4 instead, don't hate me) so I'm hoping by the time I get it they would have patched the CPU problem areas, 60fps all the time would be lush. I'm rocking an old 3570k @ 4.4GHz so it should hopefully do the job.

 

[civilstrife]

If wonder if I can expect anything close to 60fps on my i5-3570k and AMD 7970.

PS. Durante, you rock!! Your fix of DS1 got me into the series in the first place. I have you to thank for countless hours of joy.

 

[Alo81]

On that rolling note, I don't think rolls were shorter in DS1 at 60fps. It was shorter specifically on in and declines in some cirucmstances. The jump distance wasn't shorter either, just the fall animation played slightly earlier. So the pre-canned jump animation was the same. Jumps that switch to fall animation fall earlier.

 

[Durante]

So will my 2600k affect me from achieving 60fps even with 980ti sli in some parts?

Unless you are doing LN2 overclocking, or they patch it, no one will get a truly locked 100% 60 FPS in one particular area of the game.

(However, note that from what I heard of the console performance in that area, this is not so much a "bad port" issue as a "bad area" issue)

Bed etc.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Our lord and savior.

*digs in*

 

[Tiger Mask]

Note that

1. This is a friggin' 3500 word article.
2. I tried to cover everything I ever overlooked in any previous port report, or which anyone else might overlook if just quickly benchmarking the game.
   - Various gameplay tests at multiple framerates? There.
   - Different audio channel and frequency configurations? Tested.
   - Steam controller and streaming compatibility? It's in there!
   - Every single setting? You bet.
   - CPU benchmarks at multiple areas throughout the game? Yep, and was it ever important!
3. PC gamer just had a design change, and right now you can't zoom in on the images. This sucks, but it will hopefully get sorted out.

And all of that while avoiding any (non-technical) spoilers!

I'm off to bed now, it's 1 am. Will try to answer any additional questions tomorrow.

How can I buy you a Mimosa?

 

[Shahadan]

Wait they've changed the min specs? Argh. I have a gtx 660 and the minimum is 750 ti now.

Crap. I prefered the earlier requirements :lol:

 

[Mifec]

How can I buy you a Mimosa?

He has a donation button somewhere on his blog.

 

[Kieli]

Looks like Pascal/Polaris will be needed to fully tame this beast at higher-than-1080p resolutions.

 

[MegaMelon]

Great work on the article dude! This helps a ton as I know exactly what I should drop down in order to get that glorious 60fps.

 

[def sim]

Thanks for your effort. I'll give this a read before one of my appointments later in the week.

 

[DPB]

Wait they've changed the min specs? Argh. I have a gtx 660 and the minimum is 750 ti now.

Crap. I prefered the earlier requirements :lol:

A 660 is faster than a 750 ti. Not by a great deal, but it edges it in most games.

 

[Grief.exe]

So the engine isn't multithreaded?

Another clear result from this data is that 6 cores don’t really increase performance at all over 4 cores in this particular game, though it does scale up pretty well with parallelism up to 4 cores.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

So the engine isn't multithreaded?

Do consoles only have access to 8 threads? That would probably explain it.

 

[Serra]

Nice article! Haven't finished it yet but you hooked me with the first page.

It boggles the mind how a new site redesign launches without the ability to enlarge images.

 

[Mechazawa]

[*]PC gamer just had a design change, and right now you can't zoom in on the images. This sucks, but it will hopefully get sorted out.

This is what I was gonna come in to ask about.

Pictures for ants, etc.

 

[Tain]

Excellent. Great article, I'm very excited.

 

[Durante]

So the engine isn't multithreaded?

Well, if it wasn't multi-threaded at all it wouldn't scale to 4 cores

It's not parallelized to the extent that it can make effective use of more than that though, and particularly the highly CPU-bound sections seem to run into some sequential bottleneck.

Looks like Pascal/Polaris will be needed to fully tame this beast at higher-than-1080p resolutions.

A 980ti should keep you from being GPU limited throughout the game at 1440p.

(I'm brushing my teeth!)

 

[UpDownLeftRight]

Looks like Pascal/Polaris will be needed to fully tame this beast at higher-than-1080p resolutions.

Now me and my 970 are concerned. I wasn't expecting to fully max it out but I'd like to be close to it. Still only got a 1080p screen though so hopefully that will help me out here.

 

[wutwutwut]

Any 21:9 info?

 

[ponpo]

Re: judging whether or not damage taken is tied to framerate by looking at the actual HP bar



Can't you check current/total HP in the status menu?

Pls respond.

 

[Souless Squirrel]

Great article!
Having to wait for a game that has been out on the internet for almost a month now has been eating me but this article brings the hype back.

 

[Durante]

This is what I was gonna come in to ask about.

Pictures for ants, etc.

For now:

Please do still read the article for actual interpretation of these numbers!

Pls respond.

As I say in the article, the numbers are not 100% consistent across falls even at the same framerate.

 

[roadrunn3r]

Excellent work! The only bad thing is that from now on I'll pretend similar port analysis for every game I'm interested in the future.

 

[tariniel]

Wow, there's no way in hell my poor old 680's gonna run this at 1440p it seems. I guess I'll have to deal with 1080 this time around! Excellent read and I'm really happy to hear that the port it good.

 

[Azar]

This is what I was gonna come in to ask about.

Pictures for ants, etc.

I'm churning away on Vive review stuff now since I spent a good chunk of the day getting the article published, but I can go back in a bit later and add manual links to the full-res images.

 

[nilbog21]

this dude is such a bad ass

 

[dmr87]

Thanks for the article Durante, sooo close now.

 

[Durante]

I'm basically asleep already, but before I forget about it, the late-game area CPU performance testing wouldn't have been possible in time without the help of the good people at PC gamer!

 

[tcrunch]

Nice article!

 

[phaeta]

Note that

1. This is a friggin' 3500 word article.
2. I tried to cover everything I ever overlooked in any previous port report, or which anyone else might overlook if just quickly benchmarking the game.
   - Various gameplay tests at multiple framerates? There.
   - Different audio channel and frequency configurations? Tested.
   - Steam controller and streaming compatibility? It's in there!
   - Every single setting? You bet.
   - CPU benchmarks at multiple areas throughout the game? Yep, and was it ever important!
3. PC gamer just had a design change, and right now you can't zoom in on the images. This sucks, but it will hopefully get sorted out.

And all of that while avoiding any (non-technical) spoilers!

I'm off to bed now, it's 1 am. Will try to answer any additional questions tomorrow.

Thank you sir. Your contribution to our enjoyment of Dark Souls games on the PC is greatly appreciated!!

 

[Phionoxx]

Great article as usual! Thanks for including the misc. section going over the different audio channels and sample rates.

Disappointing to see the game doesn't take advantage of more than 4 cores very well, as my next PC build will be based around a 5820K but hopefully over time games will start to take advantage of the additional 2 cores.

 

[QFNS]

Based Durante coming through with analysis once again.

Looks like I'm set on playing it for the most part. I will have to figure out how to get Borderless full screen working for my second monitor to stay useful, but I doubt that will take much work (not the first time a game hasn't bothered to support that).