A Free-To-Play MMO? Neverwinter Performance, Benchmarked
Neverwinter is a new free-to-play MMO in the Dungeons And Dragons universe, sporting an action RPG flavor. We benchmark it with a number of graphics cards and CPUs, uncovering a processor-oriented bottleneck along the way. Does your platform measure up?
Results: Low Quality, 1280x800
Our low-detail tests are performed with the render scale set to 100%, and the graphics slider set to the bottom-rung details.
While we're using a Core i5-3550 for our medium- and high-detail benchmarks, we're using a Core i3-3220 for the low-end benchmarks to better reflect the platform-oriented bottlenecks you might see from an entry-level gaming machine. Of course, the mobile Core i5-3210M has an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 engine and the A10-4600M APU features Radeon HD 7660G graphics.
Only two hardware combinations fall below the minimum 30 FPS threshold: the Core i3-3220/GeForce 210 and A10-4600M with Radeon HD 7660G graphics are unable to serve up playable performance at the settings we're using. Sure, you could slide back the render scale to garner some higher frame rates, but save yourself the effort and find some better hardware for this game.
The rest of the graphics cards are clearly bottlenecked by the platform.
Charting frame rate over time shows how far back the two outliers fall compared to the rest of the pack, even at the meager settings we're using to test.
The only frame time variance we're concerned about comes from AMD's A10-4600M, though its average frame rates are too low to matter anyway.
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Prev Page Test System And Graphics Hardware Next Page Results: Low Quality, 1920x1080Don Woligroski was a former senior hardware editor for Tom's Hardware. He has covered a wide range of PC hardware topics, including CPUs, GPUs, system building, and emerging technologies.