Middle-Earth Shadow of War: PC graphics performance benchmark review

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Graphics memory (VRAM) usage and conclusion

Graphics memory (VRAM) usage

How much graphics memory does the game utilize versus your monitor resolution with different graphics cards and respective VRAM sizes ? Well, lets have a look at the chart below. The listed MBs used in the chart are the maximum measured utilized graphics memory during the test run. 

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Above you can see the game without the texture pack. 4GB is the framebuffer domain. Don't be afraid if you have a 3 GB card though, this is caching mostly. So at 1080p with a 3GB card you should be fine as well. Graphics cards at the 4GB marker combined with the best quality settings will be sufficient, but the game eats it all of that. 

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Once we use the Ultra Texture pack we see a dramatic effect on the graphics memory usage. 8GB is the new domain. Now as we see very often (and much like COD) this again is cached textures mostly. The effect of a 4GB versus an 8GB or even 11GB card on performance really is minimal. So here again fact remains that with a 4GB card you will not experience any problems as the game simply tries to fill up memory wherever it can and is needed. Up-to Full HD (1920x1080) any 3 or 4 GB graphics card of decent caliber will do the job well. 4 GB will be sufficient for for 2560x1440. If you want to play Ultra quality with Ultra HD as preferred monitor resolution , 4GB or better is always advised. 

Concluding

Middle-Earth Shadow of War is a fun title serving a very specific audience, truth be told-  the graphics combined with the texture pack are really lovely but the game certainly could look better. I did like it way more at Ultra HD though the PC and graphics card horsepower needed there is high. But with a 1080 Ti you will sit at that 55 FPS range. After the 2014 version this game has been brought up-to 2017 specs and received a few tweaks and options. Any card to date should run fine at 1080p on any modern GPU. Going upwards in resolutions is more demanding though. Again, despite the texture caching we see versus frame-buffer usage do not worry too much about that when you have a 3GB or 4GB graphics card. The game fills as much as it can and cleverly seems to prioritize the most important textures in memory. Please do make sure you have installed the latest compatible graphics card driver, the new 17.10.1 or higher driver from AMD as well as at least GeForce 387.92 or the newer drivers as these have been optimized for the game. You can download the latest AMD Catalyst drivers here and the Nvidia GeForce drivers here.

- H.

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