Since the review code for Gotham Knights had major performance issues, we’ve decided to test its launch/retail version. So, now that the game is out, it’s time to benchmark it and see how it performs on the PC platform.
For this PC Performance Analysis, we used an Intel i9 9900K with 16GB of DDR4 at 3800Mhz, AMD’s Radeon RX580, RX Vega 64, RX 6900XT, NVIDIA’s GTX980Ti, RTX 2080Ti, RTX 3080 and RTX 4090. We also used Windows 10 64-bit, the GeForce 522.25 and the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 22.10.1 drivers.
QLOC, the team that has handled the PC version, has added a respectable amount of graphics settings to tweak. PC gamers can adjust the quality of Textures, Shadows, Anti-Aliasing, Effects, Ambient Occlusion, View Distance and Environment Density. The game also supports NVIDIA DLSS 2, AMD FSR 2.0 and Intel XeSS (you can find our comparison screenshots here).
Gotham Knights does not feature any built-in benchmark tool. So, for our GPU benchmarks, we used the first area in which you fight numerous enemies. For our CPU benchmarks, we used the first driving sequence players encounter in the game.
In order to find out how the game scales on multiple CPU threads, we simulated a dual-core, a quad-core and a hexa-core CPU. And, unfortunately, the retail/launch version has the same optimization issues with the review build. While driving, the game constantly loads numerous objects, resulting in a really disappointing gaming experience. As we’ve said and before, these issues appear to be related to I/O, meaning that they will affect all owners (even those using the latest Intel high-end CPUs).
At 1080p/Max Settings (without Ray Tracing), the game requires powerful GPUs in order to be enjoyed. Our NVIDIA GTX980Ti and AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 were not able to offer a 60fps experience. On the other hand, our top four GPUs had no trouble running the game at both 1080p and 1440p.
For gaming at 4K/Max Settings/No RT, you will at least need an AMD Radeon RX 6900XT or an NVIDIA RTX4090. Our NVIDIA RTX3080 was unable to offer a constant 60fps experience at native 4K. Thankfully, you can use DLSS 2.0 or FSR 2.0 in order to improve performance on all GPUs.
Graphics-wise, Gotham Knights looks bland and somehow dated. The game lacks the art style of the previous Batman game, Batman: Arkham Knight. Not only that, but its city feels emptier than what we got in Arkham Knight. At least Gotham Knights has higher-quality textures, so that’s something. It also has a number of destructible objects, though again this is something that was better utilized in Arkham Knight. Oh, and let’s not forget the cool NVIDIA PhysX effects that Arkham Knight had.
All in all, Gotham Knights looks and runs worse than its predecessor, and that’s without using any mods. It’s ironic but this clearly shows the tech difficulties that its dev team encountered. And, to be honest, I don’t know whether Warner Bros Montreal and QLOC will be able to address the game’s I/O issues. Oh, and the current-gen consoles also have the exact same I/O issues, dropping sometimes to even 20fps. In short, stay away from this game until the developers address these optimization issues!
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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I don’t know about you, but my two friends who have a 4090 and a 3080 find DLSS doesn’t improve the performance in any way, all it does is lower the GPU usage, I get the same issue.
That’s because you are CPU-limited. This is a typical behavior in CPU-bound games when enabling DLSS 2. With DLSS 3 though you’d get a better performance as that would help alleviate the CPU bottlenecks.
I very much doubt that as I have an intel 12900k and I also have a 4090.
Neither of the 3 of us get a single fps more for running any of the dlss options, one has a 9900k and a 4090 and the other has a 5950 and a 3080ti.
You could throw 10 ghz and it and it would still stutter. The problem is the game engine. Unreal always stutters in open world games on what are essentially asset loading areas. Jedi Fallen Order stutters the same way and it’s not trying to be LARGE open world. In addition Denuvo kills CPU performance and because this game was second rate and trash, they probably used the worst one they could.
Research Direct Storage and that is the stuff built in to the new engines to allow large textures and worlds and not be a stutterfest.
The only way around this is basically cloned buildings with no real variety like say Spiderman. That game still has slowdowns, it’s just Insomniac is a tier, it’s a proprietary engine and Gotham Knight’s team is full of idiots. You don’t put an A team on these characters.
I get it’s a mess but more the fact that DLSS doesn’t seem to work at all for multiple people, the other different types of upsampling work but not dlss.
I am currently running it at 4k medium settings and it runs just about OK.
DLSS helps GPU load like John told you. It’s doesn’t help CPU load unless you need that CPU power to push what’s on screen. You don’t. The biggest help to performance this game would have is removing Denuvo. They won’t do it because it will cost sales due to bad word of mouth reviews. Denuvo still wouldn’t solve microstutter though. It would just prob add 10-15 fps to the lows.
I wonder if a 5800X3D, with it’s massive cache, would improve things
Bypassing the CPU middleman for asset streaming is the only thing that will help and decompression. The new API’s are gonna solve a lot of problems by making a lot of “optimization” not needed. People have stalled buying the newest CPU’s for a reason. There is no need to and won’t be for a long time unless you are a content creator. If you have a PS5 level SSD nvme it may end up being as important as a newer cpu for sony ports of games in the future. Of course triple a games will only leverage the lowest common denominator Xbox SSD speeds.
Just because you are using a high-end CPU does not mean you can brute force the CPU issues of an unoptimized game. Gotham Knights has mainly I/O issues (when driving the batcycle). Due to these I/O issues, you’ll get drops to 45fps when exploring the city, even with an i9 12900K.
It’s a pre SSD asset streaming (Unreal 5) Unreal game with Denuvo on top, in a game they knew wouldn’t be that big anyways. You are completely CPU limited. Unreal 5 solves this on newer hardware with a fast SSD but no one is gonna target that hardware demographic when current gen consoles weren’t even available in stores for less than a grand and there is no installed base to sell to.
Add to that it’s their second rate team with second rate characters and third rate writers and project leads. They knew only fanboys and dummies would buy it anyways.
It’s installed on a Samsung 980 m.2 drive, I knew it was a sh*t show going in but me and my mate are huge comic book fans so we can overlook a lot of stuff to be able to play together.
>It’s a pre SSD asset streaming (Unreal 5) Unreal game with Denuvo on top
This game uses UE4 according to PC Gaming Wiki.
Not that it matters because this game seems to suck in many, many aspects lol
I’m saying that Unreal 4 doesn’t have the feature.
I just re-read your original comment and I get what you’re saying now. Carry on fren.
So it’s CPU bound.
No need to tell us to stay away from this game due to technical issues, even if it was running flawlessly the game is mediocre
Dare you to Say same thing about A Plague Tale : Requiem , NVIDIA screwed all their slaves
https://media1.giphy.com/media/xkPyw3UXrSGAp4UBTZ/giphy.gif
Why? What nvidia did with this one? Broken driver?
Because performances are adequate for this game.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/407cedbd903357774c6fd96412cded1c824af125824fdb12dacafdc0fb01ee9b.jpg
Feminist ?
Woke ?
Colored hair ?
BLM/ANTIFA ?
Pronouns in bio ?
Canadian ?
Please stop hiring these people, dont get your hopes up for space marine 2.
same thing happened to Tiny Tina Wonderlands. Bunch of SJW activists doing all the writing for the game. I fear the next Witcher saga is gonna be woke as well.
borderlands 3 was woke as well.
Why, incel?
because the devs said so virgin. “Please use the pronouns they/them when you refer to the robot character as the character is nonbinary”
also even gta is gonna be woke now. As for witcher, lol the studio came out and said they are going woke now to get money from esg scores. You dont matter anymore, trust funds do. if the likes of blackrock are woke, so are companies so blackrock invests some of their billions on them.
Incels gonna incel^
virgins gonna virgin.
WTF cares – enjoy the game for what it is. Inclusivity is good. It reflects reality, instead of inceldom.
We play games to escape from reality u bigot.
Incels at it again. You know, there’s more to life than videogames, right?
I was going to try this within the refund window despite all the negative reviews, but then I saw this video comparing it to Arkham Knight and man, it really does seem like a dumpster fire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7o9VHxXTwg
The comparison between a Tank and a motorcycle was useless…. but other than that … spot on on some gameplay mechanics
AMD = A Smarter Choice !!
https://media1.giphy.com/media/wZMPStMq0ErgQIeXtx/giphy-downsized-medium.gif
AMD fan here, but an i3-12100 for ~105 to 120 USD for a 6 core that destroys every single AMD chip in triple the budget range. I wanted an AMD card and CPU this time around, but value wise, NVIDIA and Intel still provide a better choice.
Zen4 Refresh , Zen4 3D & Zen4C RDNA3 are going to Crash Intel/Nvidia !!!
Maybe you forgot the upcoming gaming Monster Slayer = Ryzen 7 7800X3D !!
GPU I went for NVIDIA, 3070, for primarily RTX. 6800XT was faster in rasterization at a similar price point, however, so I’ll give AMD props for that. CPU I’m waiting to upgrade probably sometime early next year, but not willing to spend a lot as it’s primarily for gaming that I want the upgrade. Everything else works fine. New mobo + fastest single core perf is going to be the driver here, or at least a decent combination of value and single core perf. I hope AMD does well.
In GPU side AMD will “probably” Crash NVIDIA is they reasonably price their GPUs but CPU side mmm!! The Ryzen 7×00 are alittle underwhelming Products to be frank !! (AMD did it on purpose they are becoming greedy as intel in the decade between 2007-2017 ), i hope they’ll deliver better CPUs Next Year ! it’s a uniqsue opportuniy for AMD to regain Gamers trust especially with an incredible Combo like 7800X3D + Radeon 7900XT it will be a Hell of Gaming Rig !
knew this game would flop but didn’t expect it to run worser than arkham knight at launch.
Anyone done Performance review on a Healthy Brain after playing this thing? John?
There is an email in the game about Jason Todd and Tim Drake attending a monnkeypox parade in their costumes.
Now they can go back to blaming the Series S while getting 75 fps on a 4090
You can also scan street art and literally every piece of art I’ve seen involves either pride in some way, climate change or taking in refugees.
There’s literally no in-universe or lore reason for these art pieces, let alone make them a collectable, other than some developers wanting to push their political agenda by making you look at them and giving you a prompt.
It’s just completely unnecessary and honestly kind of vile. I stopped looking for them after the fifth or so because f*ck that. – I am not playing this. I copied this from a thread about the game.
Why the hell would you want to collect digital street art, incel? Are you that much of a loser?