Our reader ‘Khodam Hoelo’ has shared with us a video, showing Watch_Dogs running on AMD’s 8-core processor, FX-8350, that was accompanied with an Nvidia GTX780 GPU. As we can clearly see, there are major slowdowns even when this 8-core CPU is clocked at 4.4Ghz. Good news is that the game scales on 8-core CPUs. The bad news is that the game did not stress that particular CPU (as well as the GPU) while the framerate was taking a dive at 40s, suggesting that both Nvidia and Ubisoft will have to release patches and new drivers in order to further polish it.

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I’m gonna be honest. I was “testing” the game out because I was a bit skeptical that I was going to get decent performance with my 650 Ti. To my surprise, at 1600X900 (PS4’s resolution) I get 30-40fps on HIGH settings and at 1920X1200, I get 30-40 fps with MEDIUM settings. If I tweak it a bit, I can get a solid 30fps with medium-high settings. at 1080p. So I think it’s well optimized to be running so good on my 650 Ti.
I’m using an i7 2600. I guess that’s also a big reason why the game is running so well.
thank you for the reply. yup that is the reason.
i checked some pics, the game looked the same on low, seriously minimal diffirencies, so much for graphics.
The CPU seems to be the bottleneck for this game. What CPU do you have?
I have an i7 2600.
Yesterday the guy streamed the game with the same CPU,16 GB of RAM and 570(idk if it was ti) on high settings at 1080p.He had no problems running the game.There was no FPS counter on the screen but it looked pretty fluid even at high speeds.
I really don’t know what is going on.Some people don’t have any issues but some even with High End rigs are struggling to run the game even on lower settings.
It sounds like Ubisoft is planning a considerable day-one patch, too, so it’s hard to say what we’ll see Tuesday
It’s a CPU bound game and your CPU is more than good enough for your 650Ti.
Yeah but the PS4’s GPU is supposed to be quite faster than mine. You think my i7 counteracts this?
ps4 gpu is around 7870 or gtx660 , but thing is as you said , you CPU as ps4 cpu is too weak they must transfer some of work to GPU…
7870 I dont think so…at most a 550. PS4 could even run at 30FPS in 1080p.
it is around 7870 as i said, not exactly same. but thing is it has to do some CPU jobs too , so some games like watch dogs can’t do 1080p. console are garbage btw… witcher 3 will be real PC game.
Witcher 3? I have played witcher 2 for about 100hours so far and wanting a completist campaing now.
But we can be sure that we will need a BLAST PC to run it in 60FPS at 1080p at least.
7850, no more than that.
Your i7 helps a lot yes, PS4 GPU is bottlenecked.
They removed everything that can load PS4 GPU (as PC Elitist said, it’s around GTX 660), so you shouldn’t be surprised. SLI Titans will remain cold. 🙁
God… i was expecting something better. The game looks so flat. At this point this is going to be the alien of the year. You know what i mean.
And i was having a similar issue with battlefield 4. That lag issue. Not lag, just fps drops. Big ones. I just unparked my cpu cores and that fixed the issue. But idk if you can unpark cores on amd . My 2 cents.
But day 1 patch is a must on ubi pc games. They always fuck up something
Honestly tho, NOTHING can compare to Battlefield 4 at this point. OP in vid was not using the latest beta driver for the game so this is not exactly accurate example of performance.
I think Ubisoft was actually complaining about early reviews being invalid because they didn’t have the day one patch
Hey Jinx are from UBI?
I agree, DRIVERS for GPUs are not even out yet for this game. Why should I trust all the reviewers? This is lame, the pirated leak copy is also hampered by Bitcoin mining.
Also this may not RUN well because it is possible this is another issue with AMD like for TERA that doesn’t run well on AMD system CPU. Just an example.
TERA runs at 60fps on my FX 6300 max settings.
At Preset 5-6 in Velika? Let me know. My 3930k 4.8Ghz 6 cores/12 threads runs 45FPS in Velika after reaper patch and outside cities is 70-81 FPS capped. Remove the SmoothFrame in the .ini files, I shoot up 140FPS+
Yes on Preset 6 by the way. c:
I’ll try it but it’s no secret AMD FX CPUs are weak in single thread performance against the Intel’s. It’s not a weak CPU, it’s just that benchmarks make it look that way because they’re not multi-threaded.
BTW, I don’t expect to get anywhere near your FPS on my FX 6300@4.2Ghz, it’s an £80 CPU, yours is over £400. :p
Just tested in Velika, 40-60fps, not many people around though.
I was attacked on this site for claiming this would be yet another poorly optimized Ubisoft PC port. I was right, as usual.
Game is PC lead as stated and the game started development 4.5 years ago. That is before any X1 PS4 shows the light. You have seen X360 and PS3 footage of Watch Dogs, the game looks terrible on it I’m sure this is not Ubisoft had in mind to push that game on those 2 old consoles. With the amount of simulations in the game is PC minded at first due it requires amount of processing power for the amount of objects, winds, physic and AI then X1 and PS4 came in with 8 cores X86 CPU just like a PC architecture. So they started to port from PC to those as well easily.
Lets see what i posted below, a 6 year old cpu around the power of ps4 cpu and a mere gtx660 achieving ps4’s quality settings.
So how exactly its a bad port? If anything the game runs bad on all systems, its no better on ps4 than it is on pc or xbone.
Infact either they screwed up your “glorious” ps4 version, or ps4 and xbone are not far from each other, there is no logical explanation that other games are 1080p, 720p diffirence and this is so close.
The diffirence is that we can do 1080p on old pcs, You CANT on a next gen trashbox.
Agree! Also I expected something better.
another crappy optimized port.what the hell?
>_<
all those dramas were the indication that this game will bring severe performance and quality issues
I have the GTX780SC and have yet to get the updated drivers from NVIDIA…..Perhaps the optimization will come with them?
Look for the 337.81 drivers
I have mine set to include beta… still not showing. I even did a manual search on the Nvidia site. Where did you get these drivers?
They were mentioned here on DSOG, do a “search” for 337.81
I’d share the link but then this post would get moderated >.<
You still don’t see it because they are not “officially” released in US! Hoping they would be before Tuesday…
http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/download_nvidia_geforce_337_81_beta_driver.html
I will stick with amd gpus,but im switching out my phenom IIX4 960t to i7 4770k.I had phenom for almost two years its an ok cpu,but i need to get with the times even in bf4 i get lag spikes when explosions are near by,newer games are using more cores now and i think its creating a bottleneck is my guess i could be way off.(oh i also have to switch out my mobo if i get a i7)
You should max out every game with a high end i5 just fine.
True,but i will pay the extra $50 for an i7 that way i should be good for a few years.When i do which out my cpu/mobo i’ll have extra parts to build a second rig i will sell to pay for my parts.
Ah, ok. If the difference is only $50 then that’s a no-brainer 🙂
Yes, NVIDIA driver should come before the 27th. It could be the ultra texture quality that’s doing that according to the comment.
There is already an Nvidia beta driver for Watch Dogs, it’s 337.81, but he’s only using 337.50
If I were to quickly sum up every game with regards to performance it’d be “I can max this game out. They should’ve done a better job with options.” Or its “I can’t max this game out. Its optimized like crap!” Gamers just need to relax and play the damn game. Don’t be such graphics whores
Yeah, I think some games that get labeled as “poorly optimized” are getting bashed unfairly. Often “ultra” and even “high” settings are there more as something for people to use in the future coming back to the game, or for people with extremely high-end systems. If the game looks impressive on a mid-range card, despite “only” running at medium/high settings, I don’t think it makes sense to complain that it’s poorly optimized. It’s just designed to scale up really high.
The video clearly shows that the game isn’t utilizing the hardware to the fullest, yet it’s still getting random frame rate dips. It’s not a matter of needing better hardware, it’s a matter of the game not using the existing hardware.
Just like unoptimized Borderlands 2 : another “TWIMTBP” game.
lol wot?
Unoptimized Borderlands 2? Can you elaborate?
On average, Borderlands 2 uses only forty-to-fifty percent of a high-end GPU. (GK104/GK110/Hawaii) There are stability issues as a result in PhysX heavy environments like in the city of Opportunity. Unacceptable.
Ultra and High are literally pure BS settings now lol.
I am a graphics whore and I still liked your comment! 🙂
IMO if it’s launched on a PC it should behave like a proper PC game. I agree with you, we should “just play the game” nonetheless complain about a proper presentation. 😉
You have people who have the knowledge and about CPU/GPU usage and those who don’t and just throw cash at the problem.
one will complain that the game runs at 1080p 60fps all the time and how they wasted good money buying a GTX 780 because the game doesn’t “look” that great…
the other complains about how their carefully picked CPU/GPU combo isn’t being used at their full potential, even in the most demanding scenes, for a game that doesn’t look that great.
The game needs 4GB of Vram for ultra textures + AA in order to run smooth.
Does it? In 1080p and with what AA?
We’ll see…uptil now I saw Wolfenstein use 2.9GB Vram and that is the highest I have ever seen a non-modded game use….I highly doubt this game will use more than 3GB…and if it does, that would be crazy!
If you go to the actual Youtube page of the video in the article, he says going from Ultra to High textures smoothed things out- and he’s running a 3GB card.
It doesn’t scale on 8-cores. In fact, it only uses two. http://i.imgur.com/Siiir05.png (CPU shown is an i5 4670k)
It might be using all the cores somewhat, but the issue could still be that it needs individual cores to be more powerful (which is where AMD lags behind Intel unfortunately).
I really wish AMD would release some new non-APU processors. I have a Phenom II x6 1090T and I’m looking to upgrade in the next year. But the 8350 is getting old and I want to get the next socket, chipset, and CPU line.
It’s not really a issue if the game uses multi-threading well. An 8350 is only about 5fps behind an i7 in BF4, which is £100 more. AMD FX are more than good enough for their money it’s just that people will pay more for the best even if an AMD FX lags behind by an irrelevant fps for the money.
My issue is more that I have an older vanilla AM3 board, not AM3+. Since I need to replace the motherboard to upgrade my CPU, I’d like it to be a bigger upgrade. And I’d be annoyed to get an AM3+ board and 8350 only to have AMD announce a new socket for their next CPU line >.<
nah, pretty sure they will do a new CPU revision after Steamroller before an new CPU socket so AM3+ has time yet.
Hopefully I can squeeze a little more time out of this Phenom II. Tbh it’s fine in most games, and that Nvidia driver seems to have helped a bit.
… (duplicate post)
He’s only running the 337.50 drivers according to his YouTube post. While that does add the shader cache stuff (which gave me a huge boost in Saints Row 3), it’s not the newest.
337.81 Beta is the driver optimized for Watch Dogs and Wolfenstein, he should really retry this with that driver instead. It was covered right here on DSOG
Link, since apparently even links to DSOG are moderated >.<
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/nvidia-geforce-337-81-beta-driver-released-ideal-driver-for-wolfenstein-the-new-order-watch_dogs/
Yup, peeps seem to forget things after a day lol
Question for you guys who have tried it already…does it run better or worse than ACIV on your machines?
some of the guys i know have tested it, some say it runs better than ACIV some say it runs worst even on low settings. all on high end systems
Runs worse than AC4 for me.
If the dude in the video is not using the latest beta Nvidia drivers (337.81) then he’s going to get shit performance. This was a bad post.
Here is the link to the driver
http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/download_nvidia_geforce_337_81_beta_driver.html
Also, there is a hidden setting within the game that is natively set to (Console) and when folks changed it to (PC) and maxed the game, the visual quality was getting close to the original gameplay vid Ubi put out long ago. There is surely going to be a Day 1 Patch not to mention, I feelz it in ma bones XD
We also need the WHQL Watch Dogs ready game driver also try turning shader cache OFF it helped my friend with GTX TITAN!
Anyway this game use the all 8 cores and on i7 use the HT(work as 8 core even better) pretty good but still need more usage from our monster CPU’s.
I think we should wait for official release of the game . 14.9GB size of the game is a bit strange , since GTA 4 takes more space than that . May be there is day one patch for this game that also configures hidden settings from ‘console’ to ‘PC’ .
it’s 21GB+ umair. it’s rared to 13.9GB and it’s english only, each language file is 1GB
Hmmm , thanks for info . I thought it was uncompressed .
i was wrong i guess. i asked few peoples and they said the installed data is 13.9GB too
For the cpu issues try setting priority to high in task manager. Also check in computer -> properties-> advanced system setting -> advanced -> performance settings and then check to make sure your processor is prioritizing programs not background applications. It helped me with metro last light and it helped a bit here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzchdaorOY0
gtx 660 very high settings 40 fps.
When the game comes out with the proper drivers and patches, everything will improve.
So yeah runs better than consoles.
Yeap, apologies for the late approval. All comments with links are entering pending mode (regardless of their source. It’s really useful for stopping trolls and spams from robots and such)
sure it totally stops ps4/lol extreme derp from stopping by and calling us mentalyl ill butthurt and delusional and calling us xbots in disquise.
Facepalm.
Are those hitches from the encoding or do they actually happen in-game? If so that’s pretty bad :/
Also, lol he has a wife. $20 she dies within the first 20 minutes. Game writers suck.
It’s his sister
His sister is so dead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFdjPSGgjbs
6 year old cpu and a mere gtx 660, run the game better than the consoles, remove aa and set to 900p TA DA console optimization achieved.
Or get 760 and watchdogs for free.
its a combination of youtubes auto stabilization for some reason and whomever is holding the camera. Terrible video.
And the story continues ubisoft dont know how to optimaze their game on pc hope one day we can see some ubisoft games runs properly without any problems
You can’t make assumption on something which is tested on a single system, you need to test on multi system with Intel/AMD/AMD GPU/Nvidia before making an assumption saying BAD Optimization.
It’s possible that the reviewer copy is leaked one and hampered and NO PATCH day 1. + NO DRIVER SUPPORT yet! Possible the reviewer system is not configured properly!
looks like the pirate version had more frame rate issues, there are new cracks for this game that they boost the frame rate up to 15fps
Probably because some versions of it had a trojan bitcoin miner, sucking up people’s cpu lol
no, the one with skidrow site is infected, the other source is trojan free but still it had the same frame problem but somehow it got better with new cracks. one day to go to try it myself