GRID: Autosport has just been released and it’s time to see how this new racer performs on the PC platform. Codemasters claimed that the PC is the lead platform for this title, and thankfully the PC version performs amazingly well even on relatively older PC systems. There is no doubt that there are some issues with this game, but overall Codies did a great job. Can it be considered a racer pushing the boundaries? Not exactly. Does it look gorgeous? Oh yes, ir certainly does.
For this Performance Analysis, we used an i7 4930K with 8GB RAM, Nvidia’s GTX690, Windows 8.1 64Bit and the latest version of the GeForce drivers. Nvidia has not provided yet an official SLI profile for this title.According to Nvidia’s Andrew, PC gamers can use GRID 2’s profile to force the game utilizing more than one GPU, however they may encounter screen or effect flickering with certain combinations of settings, and when using the ‘Smoke Shadows’ setting during night races. As Andrew noted, Codemasters needs to release a patch that will address those issues and once this patch has rolled out, Nvidia will release a proper SLI profile for GRID: Autosport.
We can confirm that GRID 2’s SLI profile scales well with GRID: Autosport. GRID: Autosport pushed our GTX690 to its limits (1080p + Max Settings + 8xAA) and we did not notice any major flickering side effects. PC gamers will have to use a third party tool like the Nvidia Inspector Tool, browse the available game profiles, remove the executable files from GRID: Autosport’s profile and add them to GRID 2’s profile.
GRID: Autosport is powered by the next version of the EGO Engine and as a result of that, GRID: Autosport scales well on multiple CPU cores. And while there is a slight difference between hexacore, pentacore and quadcore CPUs, we do have to note that it’s not up to what we hoped to. Still, it’s pretty obvious that GRID: Autosport is able to take advantage of more than three CPU cores, something that will delight a lot of PC gamers. And while the game scales well on pentacore CPUs, PC gamers will not need a high-end CPU in order to enjoy this latest GRID title. A dualcore CPU is more than enough. despite some drops to 50fps. Owners of dualcore CPUs like i3 will need to enable Hyper Threading as they will see a 13fps boost by simply doing that.
GRID: Autosport can be considered a GPU-bound title. As we’ve found out, a single GTX680 is unable to provide a constant 60fps experience at 1080p with Max settings and 8xAA (or higher). During the first Benchmark test we noticed some minor drops to 50fps. During the second Benchmark test, however, our framerate dropped to mid-30s when there was heavy smoke on screen. Naturally, by decreasing the quality of AA or Smoke we were able to improve things but still; GRID: Autosport is a title requiring a high-end GPU to shine at max settings. Our GTX690 (with GRID 2’s profile) on the other hand was able to provide a constant 60fps experience with an average framerate of 100fps (do note that Shadowplay had a noticeable performance impact in this game while recording).
Graphics wise, GRID: Autosport is a great looking game. Codemasters has reduced that awful yellow filter, resulting in a more pleasant overall image. Cars are highly detailed and the reflections (at max settings) are a joy to behold. Environmental effects are cool but similar to those found in other games, and the lighting system seems cool and ‘warm’ but not what we’d consider ‘next-gen’. Obviously, GRID: Autosport was never meant to be a showcase of what PCs are capable of as it’s a game that was also released only on old-gen consoles. As promised, Codemasters has included a High-Resolution Texture Pack for the PC version of the game that is completely free to everyone. Thanks to the higher resolution textures and the destruction you can cause to all other cars, GRID: Autosport manages to please the eyes of PC gamers.
Codemasters has also provided a wide range of graphical options to tweak. PC gamers can adjust the quality of Night Lighting, Shadows, Particles, Crowd, Cloth, Ambient Occlusion, Ground Cover, Vehicle Details, Track/Trees/ Objects, as well as Vehicle Reflections, Water, Textures, Shader and Anisotropic Filtering. In addition, PC gamers can enable/disable Smoke Shadows, Global Illumination, Advanced Lighting, Skidmarks, Soft Ambient Occlusion and Fog.
All in all, GRID: Autosport performs amazingly well on the PC. Codemasters’ claims of offering a great PC version are not exagerrated (provided you keep in mind that this is a game that always targetted old-gen systems). Oh, and despite the fact that our Logitech MOMO Racing wheel worked fine with this latest racing title, Codemasters has included keyboard on-screen indicators for all those wishing to play with a keyboard. It’s absurd to play a racing game – at least these days – with a keyboard, so kudos to Codies for offering such a thing.
Enjoy!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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lol what a pesant
seriously hating on keyboards for racing games?
Its people like you who force devs to go the console route to make games for shitty controllers. Grow up and play games on a keyboard the way its mean to be played.
#PCMasterRace
Stop sounding like a poor c*nt. PC gamers have had racing wheels and gamepads for a long time. Racing games are meant to be played with a racing wheel for the best experience. Hilarious how you call yourself part of the #PCMasterRace when you’re just a poor fag with nothing but a keyboard. Go back to playing Solitaire on your PC from 1990.
http://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/298sej/this_is_a_level_beyond_peasant_you_may_call_it/
He’s another of XtremeDerp’s accounts. He’s a pathetic $0N¥ pauper loser at real life that spams the entire internet with BS and copying others with a twist.
Disqus comments are crammed full of mentally ill children who literally hate pieces of plastic and anyone who likes playing video games on them.
God gamers have both a great PC and consoles, and find ignorant mustards screaming their lies and hatred disgraceful.
PS4 is more powerful than most PCs and will run the next Elder Scrolls game far better. Sorry if you hate the fact that consoles are a viable financial market. 8.2+ million PS4s and counting. Nothing you say will stop it, you are helpless. Keep lying and hating while everyone else ignores you.
Disqus comments are crammed full of mentally ill children who literally hate pieces of plastic and anyone who likes playing video games on them.
God gamers have both a great PC and consoles, and find ignorant mustards screaming their lies and hatred disgraceful.
PS4 is more powerful than most PCs and will run the next Elder Scrolls game far better. Sorry if you hate the fact that consoles are a viable financial market. 8.2+ million PS4s and counting. Nothing you say will stop it, you are helpless. Keep lying and hating while everyone else ignores you.
shut up derp,and stop copy pasting your comments all over the place fool
cool Game BTW, and finally they give us second cam. from far behind 😀
car models are ugly, cockpit view is awful, gameplay is good,tracks are good. eh
Awesome game.
lol i think this is one of th ebest optimized games for low end pcs. my laptop with an i5 intel hd 4000 can play it on medium high between 35-50 fps and managesto still look very devent
What resolution is your laptop?
1600×900 and i can probably run it a lot better if i go down to 720, but thats just nasty
Am I the only one that noticed the cockpit view looks exactly the same as the cockpit view mod some guy made for Grid 2?
I wonder how the sales of this game turned out. I’m not sure it was smart of them to release their game during a Steam Summer Sale. That soaks up a lot of gamer’s disposable income.
While i am on track I have stable 60fps on max settings(70fps without vsync enabled).While i am driving on grass fps drops at 50fps.Still good enough i think.
My rig:
Cpu: i5-3470,
Ram: 8GB
Gpu:Gigabyte Gtx 660 ti 2gb
Yeah and in the first 6 months that it took both PS4 and XB1 to sell seven and a half million consoles combined Steam grew by ten million new gamers so I don’t see why you are chest thumping about PS4 with it’s decidedly low end 7850 and tablet/netbook Jaguar architecture.
Of course there is going to be lots of PC’s that are weaker than PS4 as there is millions of PC’s, lets remember that it’s only just launched and there is another 8 years to go with the same hardware. That and the small fact that most consoles in use are indeed far worse than even the average PC…
There really was no need for your chest thumping console shit in an article like this as we all know what consoles are and are not yet game on PC….
The fact that Steam has 10.million more accounts it’s irrelevant, I can easily create like 10 account if I want to. I know people with lots of accounts they bought for different games.
Actually it does matter because Steam only counts active accounts so you would have to have signed into Steam and played a game within 4 weeks of them taking the count or you wouldn’t be included.
Also I tend to believe Steam over anecdotal evidence because I trust them more, even if you were telling the truth that doesn’t disprove Steam.
I for example know of no one who makes and uses many different Steam accounts as they want all their friends lists and achievements all in the one place, it’s bad enough as it is having UPlay and Origin.
“It’s absurd to play a racing game – at least these days – with a keyboard, so kudos to Codies for offering such a thing.”
that depends on the game being a simulation or arcade.i have actually found it harder to play with racing wheels on arcade racing games.