Benchmarks: FPS, Frame Time & Smoothness
Benchmark Sequence
Destiny 2 does not have an integrated benchmark, so we had to create a test that represents what you'll see across various maps. Rather than using the opening scene, we collected data from The Farm. It's a controllable location with indoor and outdoor environments offering a large field of vision, and numerous reflection, shadow, and lighting effects. Though different from most of the other benchmarks out there, this sequence passes through several demanding areas that perfectly represent what you can expect from real-world gameplay.
Performance at 1080p
Given that Destiny 2 is supposed to be playable on modest configurations, our first results were run at 1920x1080 with quality set to Highest.
With these settings, the Radeon RX 460 2GB and GeForce GTX 1050 2GB can't maintain a minimum frame rate of 30 FPS. Moreover, you'll need a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB to reach 60 FPS.
On the Radeon side of things, RX 470, 570, 480, and R9 390 offer more or less similar performance, and they all trail Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1060 3GB. One last surprising finding: Radeon RX Vega 64 flirts with a 99 FPS average, but drops as low as 47 FPS, particularly in scenes with considerable depth of field. We suspect, however, that there is a driver bug causing these frame time spikes.
After we finished our benchmarks on RX Vega 64, AMD released its Radeon 17.10.3 drivers. Therefore, we redid our tests to see if the results would change. Sadly, they did not.
Performance at 1440p
We retained the same Highest quality preset for our 2560x1440 benchmarks.
Not surprisingly, Radeon RX 460 2GB and GeForce GTX 1050 2GB forfeit this round, with both cards running mostly below a 25 FPS average. On the other hand, Radeon RX Vega 64 makes a surprise comeback by surpassing the GeForce GTX 1080 FE!
In general, all of the Radeons, from RX 470 to the RX 480 (and including R9 390/RX 570), pass the GTX 1060 3GB and 6GB, whereas they trailed the Nvidia cards at 1920x1080. Without a doubt, AMD still has work to do on its drivers in order to improve performance at 1080p.
Day vs. Night
Destiny 2 offers a complete day/night cycle, and with different lighting effects at night, we wanted to know how performance would be affected at both test resolutions. Our quality settings remain unchanged.
Radeon RX Vega 64 pulls ahead of GeForce GTX 1080 FE at 1080p. Might this help shed some light on our daytime results at the same resolution? One thing is certain: some setting that was causing AMD issues during the day (shadows or ambient occlusion, perhaps?) is no longer an issue at night.
On the other hand, Radeon RX 470, RX 570, and RX 480 continue to trail both GTX 1060s.
At night and at 1440p, the rankings are nearly the same as during the day.
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