'Assassin's Creed: Syndicate' Benchmarks: A Stressing Experience

It might not have come out at the same time as its console counterparts, but less than a month after the original release, Assassin's Creed: Syndicate is finally available on PC. As usual, the Tom's Hardware news team used the game as another benchmark for our various builds.

Before we present the builds and final data, it should be noted that this is only a sampling of the game's performance across a variety of systems. It shouldn't be considered comprehensive.

Testing Systems And Procedures

The builds used to benchmark Assassin's Creed: Syndicate were the same builds used for Star Wars Battlefront. However, we added a new entry: an AMD APU build. Although the game's minimum requirements ask for a discrete GPU, the use of integrated graphics is warranted with an APU.

Each build's graphics settings were automatically detected and changed by the game. Some settings decreased the resolution to 720p or increased it to 4K. However, 1080p was still the standard. The AMD build used a 16:10 display, so it displayed in resolutions of 1280x800 and 1920x1200.

The Results

Across the board, all the GPUs had difficulties with reaching high frame rates. At 1080p, our reference system combined with the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980Ti managed to pull off an average of only 41.775 fps on Ultra High settings. The same system with a PowerColor Radeon R9 390X provided a 41.05 fps average, but that was on High settings.

My budget build was able to post more than satisfactory results in Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront. Unfortunately, it failed to even reach 40 fps, with averages of 38.36 fps and 39.65 fps at 720p and 1080p, respectively. The only system that reached the 60 fps average was the Intel Core i5-4670K and the EVGA GTX GeForce 760 build, which hit 61.68 fps, and that was on Low.

With this amount of stress on the desktop builds, it's no surprise that the game performed worse on the laptop (its highest score was a 7.138 fps average at 720p on Low). The fact that the discrete GPUs didn't reach the 50 fps average also bodes ill for the AMD APU, which delivered just an 8.05 fps average at 1200x800, and an even worse 4.225 fps average at 1920x1200.

Tweaks

The 40 fps range is a respectable range, but for those who want to achieve 60 fps, a series of tweaks to the graphics settings is in order. We performed a majority of the tests on settings dictated by the game, but you can change elements such as anti-aliasing, ambient occlusion, the overall graphics settings or even the resolution to get the smooth framerate.

Another option is optimization through the GeForce Experience (Nvidia) or Raptr Gaming Evolved (AMD) apps. Both programs optimize the game based on your settings, but you can also manually make changes in both apps, as well.

Of the three games tested so far, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate was, by far, the most taxing on all builds. Half of the systems used GPUs that met or surpassed the required VRAM specs on the GPU, but it wasn't enough on automated settings. To get the most out of the latest Assassin's Creed title, you'll need to spend a few minutes in the settings section before donning the hood and hidden blade.

______________________________________________________________________

Rexly Peñaflorida II is a Contributor at Tom’s Hardware. He writes news on tech and hardware, but mostly focuses on gaming news. As a Chicagoan, he believes that deep dish pizza is real pizza and ketchup should never be on hot dogs. Ever. Also, Portillo’s is amazing.

Follow Rexly Peñaflorida II @Heirdeux. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.