Mafia III VGA Graphics Performance Benchmark review - System requirements

Visual Image Quality

The game uses the graphics software Simplygon. Simplygon is a 3D computer graphics software for automatic 3D-optimization, based on proprietary methods for creating Level of detail LODs, through smart Polygon mesh reduction and other optimization techniques. The development team were interested in creating a world based on New Orleans, and eventually decided on setting the game in 1968. The team used a collection of old photographs to recreate the world. Various alterations to the world were made to suit the narrative: the bayou and the city have been positioned at close proximity, despite being at a further distance in real Louisiana; the Superdome stadium was being constructed in 1968, but is excluded from the game. The team intended the world to be accessible for high-speed chases. The team also wanted to move away from the stereotypical Italian mafia scene and represent a different side of gang-related crime scenarios. Another aspect of setting a special tone and atmosphere in the game has been the choice of licensed music. Haden Blackman indicated that Mafia III will include a "ton of great music" from the sixties.

Albeit based on the same game rendering engine that was used in the previous edition the game looks good at both Medium and High quality settings, especially High has very better textures but annihilates any graphics card starting at WQHD. 2K Games has revealed the official PC requirements for Mafia III. PC gamers will need at least a modern-day quad-core CPU with 6GB of RAM, 50GB of free hard-disk space and a Radeon HD7870 or an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660.

Minimum:

• Windows 7 64-bit
• Core i5-2500K or AMD FX-8120
• RAM: 6GB
• Radeon HD7870 or GeForce GTX 660
• Graphics Memory 2GB
• 50GB (free HDD space)

Recommended:

• Windows 7 64-bit
• Core 7-3770 or AMD FX 8350 4.0 Ghz
• RAM: 8 GB
• Radeon R9 290X or GeForce GTX 780 or GeForce GTX 1060
• Graphics Memory 4GB
• 50GB (free HDD space)

The game allows you to tweak all a lot of graphics settings, but has your typical presets ranging from the lowest to the best image quality settings. With a mainstream graphics card, as our tests will show you we are going to recommend the Optimal or High quality settings mode. The presets make full use of all the available settings – the 'High' preset is the highest on everything which while the 'Low' preset is the absolute lowest settings on all counts. 

At the launch the devs made the terribnle mistake to lock the framerate towards 30 FPS with a framerate cap. This has been fixed with the new 1.01 patch as the game now allows unlimitaed framerates, 30 FPS and 60 FPS locks as well as VSYNC off.