Earlier this month, EA released its latest NFS game, Need for Speed: Unbound, on PC. Powered by the Frostbite Engine, it’s time now 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 527.56 and the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 22.12.1 drivers.
Need for Speed: Unbound uses the Denuvo anti-tamper tech and Origin has been locking us out of the game for 24 hours after five hardware changes. Thus, we were unable to have any CPU benchmarks for this game. Nevertheless, those owning CPUs similar to or more powerful than the i9 9900K, won’t encounter any performance issues. Moreover, we did not experience any traversal or shader compilation stutters.
Criterion has added a respectable number of graphics settings to tweak. PC gamers can adjust the quality of Textures, Shadows, Ambient Occlusion, Effects and more. The game also supports both FSR 2 and DLSS 3 (you can find our DLSS 3 benchmarks and impressions here).
At 1080p/Max Settings, our top four GPUs were able to provide a smooth gaming experience. What’s interesting to note here is that the AMD Radeon RX 6900XT was faster than the RTX4090 on our PC system. As we’ve said multiple times, AMD’s DX12 drivers have a lower CPU overhead than NVIDIA’s DX12 drivers. And, since we were CPU-limited at 1080p with both the RX 6900XT and the RTX4090, AMD’s GPU was able to run the game faster.
Overall, Need for Speed: Unbound does not require a high-end GPU. At 1440p/Max Settings, our top four GPUs were able to provide a constant 60fps experience. And as for native 4K/Max Settings, the RTX3080, RTX4090 and RX 6900XT were able to offer a smooth gaming experience.
Graphics-wise, NFS: Unbound looks absolutely stunning. All of the cars are highly detailed, and the environments look amazing. In addition, the game features some truly spectacular Global Illumination effects. For those wondering, its cartoonish effects are not that distracting/annoying.
All in all, Need for Speed: Unbound looks and runs incredibly well on the PC. The game does not require a high-end PC, and can push some truly amazing visuals. Also, and contrary to a lot of recent releases, NFS: Unbound does not suffer from any traversal or shader compilation stutters. Criterion has delivered a really polished racing game, so kudos to the team for putting the Frostbite Engine into good use!
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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UPDATE THE CPU !
lol that car in the 1st screenshot, I had to do it
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c6a01a354cf806bb5e52bc47a623f1a541abf3a102736e29a629763938741ac1.jpg
6900XT wins at 1080p and almost 1440p on avg… looks like the CPU is not the problem with a 4090… Just saying.
1440p with the 4090: 88/103fps
2160p with the 4090: 87/105fps
But no, the cpu isn’t the problem.
Wdym, we all know that 1440p and 4k run exactly the same on a well balanced system, it is known.
That is no longer the case with newer gen GPU hardwares.
Why did you like your comment?
People like you don’t understand that Nvidia has a Overhead Problem and it has been exposed since Gears Of War 4 came out but nobody really has the nuts to talk about it much. Hardware Unboxed did but it did not get any traction.
A 6900 XT should not beat a 4090 at 1080P 😀 Or come as close at it does at 1440p.
This is the same thing in MW2. The 4080 and 4090 have the same Frames at low resolutions even on a 13900K yet a 7900 XTX destroys both cards by a ton. 😀
So there is a CPU bottleneck.
Obviously you are “just saying”. Because if some idiot buys RTX 4090 to game at FHD & WQHD resolutions, then they should consult nearby physicians & psychiatrists for early PTSD diagnosis.
This is the REAL NEWS:
“Multiple veteran Criterion devs exit studio following Need for Speed Unbound”
“THE DEPARTING GROUP HAVE ALL WORKED AT CRITERION FOR AT LEAST A DECADE”
“Five senior developers at EA‘s Criterion have left the studio following the launch of Need for Speed Unbound”
Nah, they always had the blue-haired people & more. I think these guys left because they got tired of making the same garbage games over and over again. Remember, Criterion is an older studio than most.
Well, excuse me, but screw you, Hot pursuit 2010 and most wanted were never “garbage” to begin with. You have a group of dedicated communities that bring the most out of these two games because of their very fun racing.
Dude, you had to go all the way back to 2010 and most wanted. Enough said man, you did this. Not me cousin
Go screw yourself, you don’t know what the hell you are talking about. Go get some common sense and professional help.
Which most wanted are you talking about? If it is 2012, then it is absolute trash. It was more BurnOut than NFS. End of the story.
Hope for a new studio – guess thats whats coming!
And a new rally serie thanks aka old Dirt games like Colin Mcrae. No modern BS and nice goood arcade handling please!
That will fly. Dirt 4 was awesome with the handing but Dirt 5 was a damn joke. POS EA, that ruined the serie!
Imagine buying the best IPs in racing then shutting them down. All because no one wants to play your need for speed anymore. That is some weird business model. Buy the competition then shut them down. I’m telling you man, they don’t care about gaming as far as entertainment goes. I don’t even think they care about money as much as we thinks. Deep down inside all EA wants to do is be a Fifa company. They don’t care about anything else.
As for hope for a new studio, let’s hope they don’t turn into ioi Interactive, 4A Games or Striking Distance. Because everytime these devs go off on their own, they tend to replicate their oppressors. “Hurt People, Hurt People” I guess.
Yeah EA is absolutely the worst of the scums!
Guess those who leave had getting enough, so lets hope some good will come out of this atleast!
EA can chooke on that Fifa crap!
Sad to see studios are beying bough up by these bastards. Even Sony would be better, and that says it all!
Shut the f*k up on EA already, I don’t like EA, but jesus, this isn’t funny anymore. Go choke on your misguided anger.
What has happened to IOI?
“absolutely stunning” ???
If you think NFS is absolutely stunning, than what is Forza or GT? “Mind boggling” ? It’s nice at best. I mean its the same as Heat.
Color charts sucks
I get a laugh that this dude is fine dropping the money on a 4090 but can’t seem to afford to upgrade his CPU.
Even a current 13th gen Intel i5 CPU would demolish the 9900K.
Heck I bet when they release the i3 version it will probably do better.
If you are trying to benchmark games it is important to make sure you are not bottlenecked by your hardware if you want an accurate representation of the strengths of said hardware.
In this benchmark your CPU is definitely bottlenecking the 4090.
I have a 9900K OC’d to 5Ghz paired with a 4090. Cyberpunk maxed at 4K psycho RT settings DLSS balanced runs between 75 and 90-something FPS. Good enough for me to not drop an additional grand or so on replacing the whole platform that I only “just” got in mid 2020
This is not about being good enough. This is about a reviewer and benchmarker posting inaccurate results due to heavy bottlenecking from the CPU. To the point that the 4090 has pretty much the same frame rate from 1080p to 4k.
The point of the benchmarking is to give an idea of how something performs on the given platform. He’s showing how the games run on his particular bench, not seeking to max out what the 4090 is capable of. This is pertinent info because plenty, PLENTY of people don’t upgrade their entire platform every time a new GPU comes out. If you want to see how a new game performs with the absolute latest and greatest hardware neatly paired together, there are all kinds of other resources to see just that. But I believe what he does here is provide a look at performance on “real world” builds.
More like outdated builds.
You are just excusing it because of bias with your CPU.
His benchmarks are no indication of the actual performance of a 4090.
The 9900k is a 4 year old CPU which was pretty meh to begin with back when Intel was stagnate because of lack of competition.
If you are doing benchmarks with multiple 1000+ USD GPUs the least you could do is upgrade to a much better 300 dollar CPU and 180 dollar motherboard.
9900K is a museum hardware today. Even though when it was released, the next year Intel launched 10900K (I think Intel will never be able to make another CPU like 10900K again. Damn beast) which still gives all the latest and greatest CPUs from both Red & Blue teams a run for their money. But in the case of RTX 4090, even the 10900K is a joke to overcome the CPU bottleneck.
This is not about being good enough. This is about a reviewer and benchmarker posting inaccurate results due to heavy bottlenecking from the CPU. To the point that the 4090 has pretty much the same frame rate from 1080p to 4k.
Runs a solid 4k 60 (yes drs but only as low as 1800p) on a ps5 which is basically a 1080 ti meanwhile a 2080 ti meanders about in the mid 50’s. Wtf?
NFS died with Hot Pursuit 2010. Games afterwards are okay to meh (Most Wanted: BurnOut edition, Rivals). And those newer ones (2015, Payback, Heat & Unbound) are just garbage POS.
I honestly think Criterion did a better job on NFS than Ghost games, even though I did find some enjoyment on them, except 2015. but HP 2010 is far from a disaster.
I think I should have written “NFS died after Hot Pursuit 2010”
You’re the biggest moron I ever seen in the NFS community and i’m sure a lot of people would disagree with you and say “Who cares? I still found fun in it”. Get lost.
Your article helped me a lot, is there any more related content? Thanks!