AC: Origins - Performance Guide

[voidofopinion]

So what is this post?

This is a small information dump based upon my bench marking of all the various options in AC:O. Your results will be different based on the age of your card but for the most part, this is a good baseline for you to optimize what little can be optimized until the day of the magic patch.

First things first. I cannot guarantee you will get the same results as me or anyone else. AC:O seems a little unpredictable to the point that even people with the same hardware are experiencing radically different results.

However, hopefully this will give you a launchpad to start tweaking the settings that may have a positive and noticeable impact on your performance. Besides, no one wants to turn stuff down unless they really have to and AC:O seems a little unpredictable on what actually has an impact.

Assassins Creed: Origins - Performance Guide.


- Performance hit ratings -

Below is a generalization of how much of an impact the setting will have on your overall performance. Except where it is significant to note, the various setting increments have not been listed.

Also, please note. Direct benchmark numbers have been intentionally left vague. Who gets what number at what setting isn't nearly as important right now as people having some mark in the sand for their expectations. So we will be using the following performance chart.

Low Impact
The setting will have little to no impact on performance.

Medium Impact
The setting will have a small impact upon performance.

High Impact
The setting will have a noticeable impact on performance.

Very High Impact
The setting will have a severe impact on performance.

- Settings -

- Resolution
Resolution has the highest impact on performance out of any setting.

1920x1080 - Medium Impact
2560x1440 - High Impact
3840×2160 - Very High Impact

Note from Qially:
Resolution Modifier can also have a huge impact on performance. At 80% the game will run a little better but look worse and at 120% the game will look a little better but play worse.

- Environment Detail
High Impact

- Shadow
High Impact

- Texture
Medium Impact

- Tessellation
Low - Very High Impact

This will cripple older cards but have next to no effect on newer ones. For 900 series cards onward its practically free.

- Terrain
Low Impact

- Clutter
Medium Impact

- Fog
Very High Impact

- Water
Medium Impact

- Reflection
Low Impact

- Volumetric Clouds
Very High Impact

- Character Texture Detail
Low Impact

- Character Detail
Low Impact

- Ambient Occlusion

My testing shows this to have the second largest impact on performance (but I have an thing for AO sooo...).

High - High Impact
Very High - Very High Impact

- Depth of Field
Low Impact

- Personal note on Anti-Aliasing.
In my testing, Low & Medium AA had almost no impact on performance.

High had a big impact on performance and above all, made all the textures look a little blurry and lower in detail.

You may want to do a comparison for yourself as to the harm High AA can do to image quality. However, it's ultimately up to your preference.

- - - - -

So there you have it. It's not hugely detailed but it is my hope this gives you a basis from which to tweak the game and get it running acceptably if you have been having problems.

Good luck, and fingers crossed for that magic patch!

[Floid]

Good post, thanks Void.
Should add in resolution scale too, as that can having varying impacts depending on window mode.

[voidofopinion]

Originally posted by Qially:

Good post, thanks Void.
Should add in resolution scale too, as that can having varying impacts depending on window mode.

Thank you.

Yeah, there is a lot left out as there isn't really much point going all detailed because hopefully, all of this info will be outdated by the next patch.

But hopefully this will help a few people until then.

:)

[Buffnuff]

nice post .

[voidofopinion]

Originally posted by Buffnuff:

nice post .

Thank you for saying so!

:)

[masteratt]

It's a very nice idea but on a i7 3770k and GTX1070, as a last measure I put the graphics to the lowest preset and set resolution to 720p (100% resolution scale) and the game was still very uneven in and around towns. Frame pacing issues and FPS fluctuating between 40 and 60.
My GPU was falling asleep, using in game inspector (F1), usage varied around 70% - 85%. CPU all cores were pretty much consistently at 100%.

I just think Ubisoft's engine is currently graded towards CPU and I have low hopes for a patch to fix such a fundamental in this engine's design.
I bought third party site as well so can't refund. I think I'm gonna cut my losses and get it on PS4 after long wait and on a deal.


As per you post specifically, I read character detail has a bigger impact as I think it applies to NPC characters as well, so rendering that many at a higher fidelity is costly.

[voidofopinion]

Originally posted by masteratt:

It's a very nice idea but on a i7 3770k and GTX1070, as a last measure I put the graphics to the lowest preset and set resolution to 720p (100% resolution scale) and the game was still very uneven in and around towns. Frame pacing issues and FPS fluctuating between 40 and 60.
My GPU was falling asleep, using in game inspector (F1), usage varied around 70% - 85%. CPU all cores were pretty much consistently at 100%.

I just think Ubisoft's engine is currently graded towards CPU and I have low hopes for a patch to fix such a fundamental in this engine's design.
I bought third party site as well so can't refund. I think I'm gonna cut my losses and get it on PS4 after long wait and on a deal.


As per you post specifically, I read character detail has a bigger impact as I think it applies to NPC characters as well, so rendering that many at a higher fidelity is costly.

It was not suggested that this is a one stop shop for all performance issues.

It's a light in the dark. Nothing more.

For most the only fix can come from ubisoft.

But this hopfully serves as a starting place for the users who don't know what CpuZ is, let alone the difference between SMAA, MSAA & TSAA or how they affect performance.

It's also important to remember outside of the enthusiast sphere, the only setting most people change is the Low/Medium/High/Ultra preset.

If it helps one person enjoy the game it was worth the 5 minutes it took to write up.

Sorry the game is not working out for you.

[Floid]

Originally posted by masteratt:

I just think Ubisoft's engine is currently graded towards CPU and I have low hopes for a patch to fix such a fundamental in this engine's design.
I bought third party site as well so can't refund. I think I'm gonna cut my losses and get it on PS4 after long wait and on a deal.

Ubi is well known for having a pension for going over the top on future proofing. So alot of the engine aspects are heavily modified, almost to the point that it's performance margin realistically only half overlaps top end rigs at the moment and the other half covers specs that aren't even available yet.

This approach whilst helping to avoid dating in terms of fidelity, is almost kinda counter productive in a way. As the time the game gets the biggest concurrent (and vocal) audience so to speak, is traditionally at release - and not in the so called "long tail" of the life of the product.

In other words, just bloody optimize for current tech guys, and stop worrying about future comparative aesthetics. You'll make your costumer base in situ at the time much more happy.

[d0x360]

Originally posted by Avvance:

Originally posted by masteratt:

I just think Ubisoft's engine is currently graded towards CPU and I have low hopes for a patch to fix such a fundamental in this engine's design.
I bought third party site as well so can't refund. I think I'm gonna cut my losses and get it on PS4 after long wait and on a deal.

Ubi is well known for having a pension for going over the top on future proofing. So alot of the engine aspects are heavily modified, almost to the point that it's performance margin realistically only half overlaps top end rigs at the moment and the other half covers specs that aren't even available yet.

This approach whilst helping to avoid dating in terms of fidelity, is almost kinda counter productive in a way. As the time the game gets the biggest concurrent (and vocal) audience so to speak, is traditionally at release - and not in the so called "long tail" of the life of the product.

In other words, just bloody optimize for current tech guys, and stop worrying about future comparative aesthetics. You'll make your costumer base in situ at the time much more happy.

Uhm...I'd rather a game have the ability to scale a bit past current hardware at its max settings. If no games did that there would be no reason to push boundaries or upgrade hardware. They also make good benchmark titles.

So keep pushing devs. Eventually people will catch up.

Right now I'm playing with everything maxed except AA is on medium. Resolution is 4k and rendering scale is set to 80% and I'm getting 60fps despite the absurd cpu load from the dual layer of drm. Once Ubi removes some of that this game will run much better...of course once devs actually use vulkan or dx12 there will be way more room for them to cram everything they want in a game and not worry too much about min specs.

I'm playing on a i7 5820k@ 4.6gh, 32 gigs DDR4 and a GTX 1080

[namresaw33]

Nice post, thanks.

[PrinceVinc]

I would like to know which of those Settings have a high Impact on the CPU, so far I can fairly certain say, Environmental Details has a very high, if not the Highest Impact on the CPU.

In Alexandria, the first big Town my CPU Tankt to 100% and the FPS was going as low as 40FPS

On a i7-4790k and GTX1080.

After I lowered it to High I got Steady 60FPS. (V-Sync on)

Most of the time in this game it is not the GPU that can't handle the Game. So we may need to find out the settings that Impact the CPU the most and not so much the GPU.

[Floid]

Originally posted by d0x360:

Originally posted by Avvance:

Ubi is well known for having a pension for going over the top on future proofing. So alot of the engine aspects are heavily modified, almost to the point that it's performance margin realistically only half overlaps top end rigs at the moment and the other half covers specs that aren't even available yet.

This approach whilst helping to avoid dating in terms of fidelity, is almost kinda counter productive in a way. As the time the game gets the biggest concurrent (and vocal) audience so to speak, is traditionally at release - and not in the so called "long tail" of the life of the product.

In other words, just bloody optimize for current tech guys, and stop worrying about future comparative aesthetics. You'll make your costumer base in situ at the time much more happy.

Uhm...I'd rather a game have the ability to scale a bit past current hardware at its max settings. If no games did that there would be no reason to push boundaries or upgrade hardware. They also make good benchmark titles.

So keep pushing devs. Eventually people will catch up.

Right now I'm playing with everything maxed except AA is on medium. Resolution is 4k and rendering scale is set to 80% and I'm getting 60fps despite the absurd cpu load from the dual layer of drm. Once Ubi removes some of that this game will run much better...of course once devs actually use vulkan or dx12 there will be way more room for them to cram everything they want in a game and not worry too much about min specs.

I'm playing on a i7 5820k@ 4.6gh, 32 gigs DDR4 and a GTX 1080

Yeah that's fair enough, but I disagree that it's done all simply for the sake of pushing new hardware sales. And yes 'some' scalability is always good. But when it goes way way too far for the sake of ego, then that is helping no one. And then ofc combing that with a reputation and culture of poor optimization prioritization and resource heavy drm - is just a train crash at launch.

Fact is they wanted to have their cake and eat it. They wanted ACO to be able to scale past the current tech generation. But then on top of that put even more resource heavy ancillary stuff in their aswell. Which not only pushes the accessible scalability up past the reach of the average consumer, but also pulls the minimum up away from alot of consumers at the lower tech end. Meaning the whole tech margin the game then requires is inflated, and if that is the case, then they really need to take that into account during development - and NOT do what their doing now, which is to compensate by turning graphic option ranges down, and decreasing LOD range and such.

They were supposed to be more responsible this dev cycle with the new creed game, (for the sake of the brand if noting else) - and it seems like the actual dev team tried to do that, but then the corporate side kinda ruined it lol.

[,]

I hawe problem with game my game fps drop i hawe r7 370 asus stirx 2gb ddr5, 8gb ram and i5 3470 and game work bad .

[evaluer]

nice, thank you!