Good Watch_Dogs settings with a R9 290

[PCunicorn]

Just gonna post what settings I use with my R9 290 on Watch_Dogs. After a lot of fiddling around, I've found these give me a good mix of performance and aesthetics.

Turn AA to FXAA under "Display" in the Options.

Set the preset to High under "Graphics Quality". That simple. Looks similar to console, even though the R9 290 is much more powerful, because the game is poorly optimized. Still looks good though.

 

[G80FTW]

Wasnt FXAA an nvidia only thing? I forget.

I dont know what problems ATi or AMD is having, but Im able to max it out at 1080p with TXAA 4x. I tried using different levels of MSAA, but even 8x MSAA didnt seem to look good to me. I like how TXAA looks. Granted it does add somewhat of a blur effect but better than jaggies to me. Unless I have something overriding in my driver settings, MSAA should look better I would think.

 

[PCunicorn]

AMD must just be having problems (or it's my GPU, but i doubt it as i get a good FPS on Crysis 3) with WD.

TXAA is nVidia only. FXAA is just a very easy to run AA.

Maxed out with 8X AA I'm only getting 35 FPS or so. What are you getting?

 

[G80FTW]

AMD must just be having problems (or it's my GPU, but i doubt it as i get a good FPS on Crysis 3) with WD.

TXAA is nVidia only. FXAA is just a very easy to run AA.

Maxed out with 8X AA I'm only getting 35 FPS or so. What are you getting?

Ah ok I got em confused. I havent measured exactly, with 4x TXAA I would say Im well in the 30s maybe 40s. With 8x MSAA it still runs pretty smooth for the most part. I also played around with the GPU frame rendering option, found that when I set it to 5 it dropped my performance quite a bit so I have it set at 2. I think the default is 3.

I also have heard that they decreased the graphics prior to release because they were having problems optimizing it for the consoles. I am pretty sure they could have done better, but I dont think the graphics are too bad. For a massive open world game, they are a bit better than GTA5 (although I havent got GTA5 on PC yet) but I dont like the lighting.

I have been reading alot of complaints about performance...and I really dont have any complaints here. It ran just as I expected it to on my machine. I think its just a problem with ATi cards right now, and the fact that its a RAM hog. So systems with less than 3GB of VRAM and 12GB of system RAM might be the reason why their performance is suffering. Its a pretty big world to render after all.

From here, I honestly cant say that I think the game itself is any more "poorly optimized" than AC4. And I think that game runs swell on my machine. Like I said, I think it just comes down to RAM usage. I think machines with lower amounts of RAM are probably the ones suffering the most. GTA4, now THAT was a poorly optimized game for PC.

 

[PCunicorn]

It might be because your okay with the 30-40 FPS. Personally I have problems with anything below 50 FPS which is what I get with the settings in OP (50 FPS+).

 

[G80FTW]

It might be because your okay with the 30-40 FPS. Personally I have problems with anything below 50 FPS which is what I get with the settings in OP (50 FPS+).

Yea. Some people are more picky about their framerates. 30-40s dont bother me any. Low 30s I dont like. Found this:

http://static.techspot.com/articles-info/827/bench/Ultra_03.png

So at least we know what to expect I suppose. Granted I am running 1080p and not 1600 so I probably am well into the 40s. Ill measure and see what I get.

 

[G80FTW]

Heres some screens of my FPS at different AA settings. Everything Ultra with GPU Max buffered frames set at 2 1920x1080:

4x MSAA 35fps:


4x TXAA 34fps:


Temporal SMAA 44fps:


No AA 48fps:


After really going through these, I realize how horrible TXAA looks haha. Ill stick with 4x MSAA. I dont mind being in the mid 30s.

However, I did notice that it was stuttering slightly with FRAPS open. Never stuttered before.

Its also using 3.6GB of VRAM with 4x TXAA and 4x MSAA.

 

[Aastii]

The game is shocking on AMD cards, which is surprising given all consoles now use AMD graphics.

On my 7970 I am on full settings, 4xAA @ 1920x1080 and never notice any frame drop. I don't know what FPS it is, but I don't notice any reduction so assume it is at least 40+ constant.