Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Benchmarked

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CPU/RAM Utilization And Conclusion

Processor Usage: Intel Core i5-6500

While Resident Evil 7 does not seem to be CPU-limited at Full HD, the RE Engine seems to be more at ease with the RX 480 than the GTX 1060 6GB. The difference in CPU utilization is noticeable, to AMD's advantage. This isn't particularly surprising for a console port.

For what it's worth, activating Shadow Cache doesn't seem to have a serious impact on CPU usage.

Video Memory Usage

Once again, we see maximum on-board memory usage is higher on the Radeon RX 480 than the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB. The former reaches ~7GB, while the latter approaches 6GB.


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Conclusion

Should you buy a Radeon RX 480 or GeForce GTX 1060 6GB for Resident Evil 7? It's hard to pick a winner. The first benefits from lighter CPU usage; the second has a slightly higher maximum frame rate.

One thing is certain: this game requires lots of on-board memory, even if you only plan to play it at 1920x1080. As the resolution goes up, so do the memory requirements.

The Radeon RX 480 and R9 390, along with Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, should be fast enough for playable performance in virtual reality, if you want to experiment with VorpX (as some enthusiasts have). After all, slower movements in the game are satisfactory, even at lower frame rates.

While the RE Engine handles large textures with ease, it remains somewhat faded-looking on traditional screens. It'll only reveal its true potential on an HDR-capable display, or even better a VR headset. Then you can really scare yourself...


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Yannick Guerrini
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27 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Verrin
    Great analysis! I hope you guys do more game-specific benchmarks, I can't remember seeing them too often on here anymore. :)
    Reply
  • shadowmaster625
    love those new frame time graphs!
    Reply
  • stairmand
    Now they just need to fix bigger FOVs, extra wide monitors and multiscreen setups.
    Reply
  • waltsmith
    Not being a fanboy for this comment, this certainly sounds like another example of Nvidia strong arming a game developer to only put the green team card on the recommended specs. This kind of stuff leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.
    Reply
  • stairmand
    Now if only that would fix multi-screen, extra wide monitors and bigger FOVs. (anyone hoping that they already said they wont)
    Reply
  • anzweidrej69
    @STAIRMAND

    Capcom response about FOV cap

    http://www.pcgamer.com/capcom-explains-why-resident-evil-7s-fov-is-capped-at-90/
    Reply
  • esco_sid
    Hmm wish had some analysis at 4k with gtx 1080
    Reply
  • kiniku
    "Benchmarked" on only two middle-grade GPUs?
    Reply
  • photonboy
    CPU and MEMORY USAGE:
    You talk about more memory usage on the RX-480 8GB vs GTX1060 6GB but don't state if that's a positive or negative. Was there a POINT to that?

    Tying in with that is CPU usage:
    "The difference in CPU utilization is noticeable, to AMD's advantage. This isn't particularly surprising for a console port."

    Since the GTX1060 6GB is using all 6GB's of it's memory it's quite possible that the higher CPU usage is due to memory swapping between system memory and video memory so I'd be careful about making specific points if you aren't certain of the reasons (or pointing out memory usage with no point made at all.. ).
    Reply
  • MarkTech
    Worst RE of all, clearly a rip-off of Outlast, if you wnt truly survival horror packed with action, there is RE:2 and RE:3, still the best two games of the franchise
    Reply