Prototype Performance Analyzed

Benchmark Results: Low Detail

Low detail means no shadows, which in many games would significantly detract from game play quality. But this not the case with Prototype. While shadows add nice depth to the landscape, turning them off isn't all that noticeable while you're playing the game. If your hardware demands it, low detail is a viable option.

Starting at 1280x1024, every card we've tested offers extremely playable performance. In fact, only the lowest-priced card in our tests, the Radeon HD 4650, delivers less than an average of 70 frames per second (FPS). It is extremely telling that the sub-$100 GeForce 9600 GT is achieving frame rates close to the $260+ GeForce GTX 260. This smells like a CPU bottleneck, which is not a big surprise at low detail and resolutions. It's even more expected since this is a sandbox-type game that undoubtedly makes the system work hard to calculate artificial intelligence for the scores of people, cars, and enemies populating Manhattan.

At 1680x1050, only the Radeon HD 4650 has been dragged down to the edge of playability. All of the other cards are still bumping into what is likely the CPU bottleneck.

At 1920x1200, we're starting to see some separation between the cheaper cards and more expensive models. The Radeon HD 4650 has been rendered unplayable.

Finally, at 2560x1600, the Radeon HD 4650 is reduced to a slideshow, while all of the other cards are delivering very smooth performance. While the GeForce 9600 GT is notably slower than the rest of the pack, it's still able to muster a minimum frame rate of about 27 FPS, which is not perfect, but very playable.

  • Wayoffbase
    I don't see anyone upgrading from a C2Q to an i7 for a game that's just not all that great looking on high settings, the performance discrepency there was odd. The gameplay itself looks like it might be interesting though.
    Reply
  • Ramar
    Already beat the game a week ago, but it was a thrill-ride. Not sure why the article's so late getting up though.

    At the least, it'll convince people that their older rigs -can- run it. It's basically an optimized and mostly un-buggy Web Of Shadows engine; I'd expect a 7800GT could probably run it okay.
    Reply
  • Ramar
    Wayoffbase...just not all that great looking on high settings,...
    In action it's much better than these screenshots. It pulls a lot of the same tricks MGS4 does on the PS3, where you can tell it's not actually doing that much processing but it looks like it is. Screenshots don't do the game justice because you rarely see a texture or polygon for more than a few seconds at most; in action the particle effects are actually pretty impressive.

    Reply
  • apache_lives
    could this be the first game that takes full advantage of an i7's 8 threads?
    Reply
  • mcbowler
    Hmm.. all its takes is an XBOX 360! $200.00 It is a great game.
    Reply
  • neiroatopelcc
    What happends if you add 8gb ddr2-1200 (ballistix or similar) to the old quadcore ? the i7 had 50% more memory available as well after all - if the game's 64 bit enabled, perhaps the difference isn't the cpu alone - since even at 2.4 the difference is huge.
    Even saints row, which has shit for graphics, runs close to the 2gb memory limit of 32bit games all the time - so perhaps this actually uses whatever is available?

    I saw this game a few weeks ago running great on a laptop that usually does inventor stuff ... I don't know what processor was in it, but I bet no more than an old dualcore T something processor
    Reply
  • radium69
    My Q6600 @ 3.0 Ghz and Geforce GTS 512 runs this game flawless on high settings. I've tried with aa on 4x but found it runnign at 20fps sometimes. It's a fun game. And not to hard on resources.
    Reply
  • Tknockers
    http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,688240/Prototype-CPU-Benchmarks-System-Requirements-and-Screenshots/Practice/
    Reply
  • Tknockers
    p.s. not so great difference between i7 and core2quad on that site..
    Reply
  • chovav
    my Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz and 8800GT 512mb run the game smoothly at 1980x1080 with anti-aliasing x4 and high details.. I actually don't mind the graphics so much, i think they are better than GTAIV's..

    One of the best games ever BTW!!
    Reply