Video memory usage - Final Words & Conclusion

Graphics memory (VRAM) usage

How much graphics memory does the game utilize versus your monitor resolution. Well, lets have a look at the chart below. Anno 2205 offers the option to adjust the overall quality in one go, even mid-game you can change settings and resolutions without the need for a restart.

That one thing that Anno 2205 is not demanding in is graphics memory. Really up-to 2560x1440 a 2GB maybe 3GB card is sufficient and at Ultra HD a 3GB maybe 4GB card is all you need. If you have a 3GB card simply flock down in AA and watch your free graphics card memory rise. The benefit here is that there's less cached and loaded (shaders/textures/etc) from your SSD. The graphics card memory utilization was very similar on for both AMD and Nvidia cards, so what you see above is roughly it aside from anomalies and perhaps a 20% deviation perhaps once your scene gets more complex.
  

It's a colony!

It is time to conclude this article. We have a great time testing the game. Ubisoft did not disappoint when it comes to weird DRM stuff. We tested a few weeks after the initial release, meaning this game has had a few patches and yeah, it offers solid performance and a really terrific graphics experience on the PC platform. Meanwhile both Nvidia and AMD have released new drivers, that might have helped as well. One side-note, we tried the game in Crossfire with a R9 295x2, during load up of the level it crashes, hence we left out multi-GPU gaming.
  

 
Another side-note, we measured actual game-play as shown above. Now please do understand that if you select postcard moved (F1) your framerate will drop tremendously, sometimes even half. That's not gameplay measuring though. The same goes for the cinematic fly-by. I have seen a few websites measure the game based on the fly-by (which is low FPS), again that is not measuring actual gameplay and hence we felt its invalid to use such a mode. What you see above is what is roughly measures. that equals to you in control building stuff and zooming/moving over the island. 

Game-play wise nothing is very new, you either hate or like it I guess, but that is personal.  It still is a pretty okay game though as the combination of a story-line, city-building, the space element and sub-level fights and missions combined with this visual experience definitely make this a worthwhile game. With pretty good quality settings modern age graphics card will do fine with the game. As always, up-to Full HD at 1920x1080/1200 an 2GB~3GB graphics card will be sufficient. Once you pass that resolution 3GB~ 4GB or better is recommended. So up-to 1080p a GeForce GTX 950/960 or a Radeon R9 380/290 would be a pretty good match in terms of value for money. For 2560x1440 a GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon R9 290/290X/390 is a really good value for money offering. Anno 2205 is a nice title with pretty lovely  graphics. 

Hilbert out, peace. 

Handy stuff at the end

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