Tom Clancy’s The Division is one of the most anticipated releases of 2016. As we’ve already showcased, there are some differences between the E3 2013 build that wowed everyone and the final version. So it’s time now to see how this game performs on the PC platform.
As always, we used an Intel i7 4930K (turbo boosted at 4.0Ghz) with 8GB RAM, NVIDIA’s GTX690, Windows 8.1 64-bit and the latest WHQL version of the GeForce drivers. NVIDIA has already included an SLI profile for this title that comes with amazing SLI scaling, therefore you won’t have to mess around with the NVIDIA Inspector Tool in order to enable it (or find better SLI compatibility bits).
Tom Clancy’s The Division is a game that really stresses the GPU, as this was the first game (excluding games in which SLI was not working at all) in which our GTX690 was unable to maintain constant 60fps at 1080p and with Ultra settings. In order to keep a minimum framerate of 50fps, we had to use the following settings (a mix of Ultra and High settings). With these settings, the game was running between 50fps and 75fps.
We also ran our GTX690 in Single-GPU mode. A single GTX680 was unable to keep a minimum framerate of 50fps or 60fps even at High settings. Thankfully, the game did run with a minimum of 50fps at Medium settings. This shows how scalable the Snowdrop engine actually is.
But what does this game need in order to be fully enjoyed? Well, time to test our brand new NVIDIA 980Ti. Do note that we’ll be using EVGA’s 980Ti FTW GPU; a GPU that is overclocked by default. AMD fans, bear with us as we’ve not forgotten you. By the end of this Summer, we expect to have a dual-Fiji GPU.
Tom Clancy’s The Division can really stress NVIDIA’s high-end GPU as Massive Entertainment and NVIDIA have included some demanding graphical effects (like NVIDIA’s HBAO+ and NVIDIA’s PCSS and HFTS shadowing techniques). At 1080p and with the default Ultra settings, we were averaging around 80fps. When we increased the quality of Reflections to High and enabled HBAO+, our minimum framerate dropped at 62fps. When we enabled NVIDIA’s HFTS tech, our minimum framerate dropped at 45fps. In short, NVIDIA’s new shadowing system is only for owners of high-end SLI systems. Unless of course you can leave with a sub-50fps gameplay.
In order to find out whether the game scales well on older CPUs, we’ve simulated a dual-core and a quad-core CPU. In order to avoid any possible GPU limitation, we kept our settings at Ultra (as some settings affect the CPU) and lowered our resolution at 720p. To our surprise, our simulated dual-core CPU (with Hyper Threading enabled) was able to push a constant 60fps experience. Our simulated dual-core system never dropped below 60fps, proving that Tom Clancy’s The Division stresses more the GPU than the CPU. The difference between our simulated dual-core and quad-core systems was 10fps, while the difference between our simulated quad-core and hexa-core systems was 10-15fps.
It’s pretty obvious from the above that Tom Clancy’s The Division is scalable on multiple GPUs and CPUs, and requires a high-end GPU in order to be fully enjoyed at Ultra settings. However, and as we’ve already showcased, the differences between Ultra and Low are not that great. Yes, you will notice those blocky shadows and the lack of reflections and ambient occlusion. However both the game’s lighting system and assets/models will remain the same. As a result of that, the game can look good at Low settings, great at High settings, but not that wow-ish at Ultra settings (at least for what the game requires).
But make no mistake. While the game does not look as impressive as its E3 2013 demo, it is easily one of the best open-world games we’ve ever seen. The game currently suffers from some initial texture streaming issues (it takes a while to load the textures the first time you run the game) and some latency issues while shooting car glasses. Our guess is that this is due to the game’s servers, so here is hoping that Massive will further optimize them.
Tom Clancy’s The Division looks amazing. Massive Entertainment has come really close to the real New York city. The game characters are highly detailed, and the lip-syncing is as good as the one found in the Assassin’s Creed games. The environmental effects are fantastic. The game’s foggy snowing environments are a beauty to behold thanks to the Volumetric lighting, and the destruction system – while not as advanced as the one showcased back in 2013 – is among the best we’ve seen in an open-world title. The game features dynamic weather, a full day-night cycle, dynamic material shaders (that were not used at their full potential sadly) and amazing reflections. Not only that, but the game is full of nice little touches and easter eggs.
In conclusion, Tom Clancy’s The Division is a GPU-bound title. Since the game can really stress NVIDIA’s high-end GPU when specific NVIDIA features are enabled, we suggest avoiding them if you don’t own a powerful GPU. Thankfully, the game scales incredibly well on older GPUs. Moreover, while the Snowdrop engine scales exceptionally well on multiple CPU cores, the game can run with constant 60fps even on a modern-day dual-core CPU (that supports Hyper Threading). Snowdrop is definitely among the best engines we’ve seen, so kudos to Massive Entertainment for achieving something like that.
Massive Entertainment has also included a lot of graphical options to tweak, the ability to remove Chromatic Aberration, there are no mouse acceleration/smoothing issues, the game plays fantastic with mouse+keyboard, there are proper keyboard on-screen indicators, and apart from some minor latency issues we did not encounter any server issues.
Tom Clancy’s The Division is not as impressive as its E3 2013 demo. We know that, Massive knows that, Ubisoft knows that, everyone knows that. Let’s accept this fact and move along. In its current state, Tom Clancy’s The Division is a really impressive – visually – open-world game that pushes some of the best visuals we’ve ever seen, and a game that can look great even at High settings.
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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What a surprise! Sneaky bastards! 😀
Now people won’t keep b!tching anymore (lol, yeah right).
Nice review as always John!
There are legends that in an alternate universe Ubisoft didn’t downgrade the game. Disgruntled people started spewing memes about “Slideshowdision”.
I guess in that alternate universe people don’t have visual settings. Oh wait, in this game we don’t have it either. The difference between min and max is laughable.
There is a huge difference between the two you definitely need to get your eyes tested.
at last you upgraded but the 980ti might be outdated because of the new pascal GPUs that are coming and also its good that you are getting probably the 295X or maybe the fury dual card…anyway its good you are making you benchmarks more varied
Dark zone is to small for proper MMO element. There would be people everywhere and you would never get any loot because people will have killed and looted everything. Dark zone isn’t all about pvp it’s where you get all the best gear from… Without buying it.
Massive Entertainment have some good PC background! I remember World in Conflict was very impressive game.
Very noice. Looks like Crysis 2 from 2011.
sick burn =P
You need your eyes testing then.
Great review. But I happen to think the best looking MMO as of right now is Black Desert Online
“Division is not as impressive as its E3 2013 demo. We know that, Massive knows that, Ubisoft knows that, everyone knows that. Let’s accept this fact and move along.”
Ummm how about NO? the amount BS lies and downgrades from ubisoft with each E3 isn’t enough for you? you like hearing lies or something? is that a fetish?
Since when were E3 builds considered final? Everyone and their grandpa knows by now that the final builds have to be scaled down for consoles whereas the E3 builds all run on PCs.
That is false advertising! and Ubisoft does it 99.9% of the times, not saying others dont do it, but ubi doing it the most.
Uh dude, that’s why they put those “build not final” and “pre-alpha footage” disclaimers in all those E3 videos. If they didn’t, consumers would sue them for misrepresenting the product. They know well beforehand they have to strip away features to accommodate consoles.
I wasn’t aware there was such disclaimer in the E3 reveal. Moreover, they actually claimed several times that it won’t be downgraded.
Well I think I might’ve seen a few early reveals carrying that caption. It was the same for Unity. And I recall Massive claiming that the PC would not be downgraded to match the consoles, which in fact is quite true when you take a look at the console versions.
They say that to make you think it will be even “better” in the final build to make people pre-order ASAP, which you probably did
But I don’t “think” it will be better because I already “know” it won’t because of consoles. If it ends up actually being better than the E3 version, then that’s a bonus for me. Also I didn’t pre-order the game but I did participate in both betas previously.
and they make the E3 builds wowy so you will preorder and what not. imagine showing the final graphics at E3. haha
Touching.
The friend part or the b*tching? Either one is worth a chuckle.
You guys really, really need to update that GPU. The 690 just isn’t relevant anymore.
Can you read?
” Well, time to test our brand new NVIDIA 980Ti. Do note that we’ll be using EVGA’s 980Ti FTW GPU”
..
I was reading that on PC, if the GPU has less than 2GB VRAM the game is locked at low textures. 0.o
What a mess.
Yeap, the game does limit the Texture quality. Low for 2GB of VRAM and up to Medium for 3GB of VRAM
That’s bad, I know why they did this but I don’t like locks in any way.
Do you happen to know if it is “ini tweakable”?
B!tching about DSOG having an old GPU, not about the game, which I couldn’t care less if they do so.
Well maybe you should’ve clarified it beforehand then. Kinda disappointing to hear you prefer some sort of b!tching as opposed to no b!tching at all.
I’m very selective about b!tching tastes.
I thought b!tching by definition was tasteless to begin with, but sure, whatever… I suppose there are worse things one can be than a self-professed internet connoisseur of saltiness.
The tastes comes not by the act of b!tching itself, it varies accordingly of the subject of b!tching, so the salt taste can have some variety.
Salt of a different variety is still salty, but okay.
Oh but there’s a variety of them that changes the taste of b!tching.
There’s crystal salt, rock salt , kosher, pickling salt, smoked salt, and on and on.
As long as there is people with different mindsets, different b!tchings will come in all variations of salt. 😀
Game looks absolutely stunning maxed out at 1440p and 4k there is so much detail in the environment.
Yeah it looks great but the gameplay is horribly unbalanced, where enemies can kill you in a few shots while it takes whole clips of ammo to kill them.
I’ve just reached level 20 playing solo and haven’t encountered that issue. Only the marksmen with head shots do a lot of damage and bosses of course. Maybe you are further in than me and it gets worse.
Looks ok but certainly not in the same league. Not exactly a lot of rendering going on there.
Yes but this game is truly an open world MMO, players running about all the time, loads of NPCs, no loading screens.
Ok I’ll have to check it out sounds good.