Assassin's Creed Valhalla Benchmark Test & Performance Analysis

[W1zzard]

Assassin's Creed Valhalla has the most impressive graphics we've seen in a long time. The vast open world of Northern Europe has never looked better. We review the game's performance on 18 graphics cards, including the full Ampere lineup, at three resolutions, up to 4K.

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[ZeppMan217]

Astonishing difference in visual fidelity between Valhalla and Legion despite performance being practically the same, RTX notwithstanding.

 

[dirtyferret]

@W1zzard , DSOgaming mentioned stutter issues during the benchmark. Just curious if you experience any while gaming?

Speaking of stuttering issues, even our eight-core CPU had stutters during the first run of the benchmark. However, the benchmark ran smoothly during our second and third runs. What this basically means is that while playing the game, you may experience stutters even on high-end CPUs. Below you can find a screenshot showcasing these awful stutters. Again, this happens only in the first run of the benchmark.

 

[EarthDog]

Loves these reviews..

But where are the NV super cards?

 

[dicktracy]

it's barely 4k capable. #WaitForHopper

 

[ZoneDymo]

This looks like a 2010 game....like what the hell, why does it look no better then freaking skyrim?

 

[dirtyferret]

This looks like a 2010 game....like what the hell, why does it look no better then freaking skyrim?

did you read w1zzards conclusion?

Assassin's Creed Valhalla has the most impressive graphics I've seen in a long time. This is what I expect from next-gen. While Watch Dogs: Legion disappointed me big time and still had enormous hardware requirements, Valhalla looks much better and is more optimized. The vast landscapes of Northern Europe are rendered so beautifully and in a near-perfect color palette that goes very well with the Assassin's Creed art style.

Geometry and textures for both characters, the terrain, and all objects in the world is outstanding, there are no obvious low-poly models that distract from the experience. Actually, I'm very impressed by the work of the level designers. Everything is modeled with love to detail, and you can see this in all of the 100+ screenshots in this article. Valhalla does not support raytracing, but the lighting and shadow effects are close enough to what raytracing promises. I've stopped several times to appreciate the great-looking dynamic shadows and realistic lighting, thinking to myself that this looks like RTX without the performance hit. Sure, most of these effects are pre-created by artists, but does it really matter if it improves the gaming experience significantly?

 

[W1zzard]

DSOgaming mentioned stutter issues during the benchmark. Just curious if you experience any while gaming?

Oh right, yeah, the benchmark stutters A LOT. Much less stutter if you do two runs back-to-back.

I haven't noticed any significant stuttering in-game

 

[Lightofhonor]

Would like to see a 5500XT 8GB added to this test. That I can think of, it's the only card that is available in different memory sizes that keep everything else mostly the same.

Easy way to showcase 4GB not being enough without it being diluted with performance discrepancies.

 

[Akkedie]

Assassin's Creed Valhalla has the most impressive graphics I've seen in a long time. This is what I expect from next-gen. While Watch Dogs: Legion disappointed me big time and still had enormous hardware requirements, Valhalla looks much better and is more optimized. The vast landscapes of Northern Europe are rendered so beautifully and in a near-perfect color palette that goes very well with the Assassin's Creed art style.

I hope this is satire and not such a fundamental ignorance of rendering tech for the site owner. Or are we doing "the best graphics are whatever my favourite art style is" thing?
Valhalla can't even properly blend in SSR for water ffs, to say nothing of the much lower texture quality compared to legion, the lower LODs, the worse animations, the lower quality & complexity shadows etc There's literally nothing this game does better than Legion from a tech POV.

 

[the54thvoid]

Not sure the screenshots do it justice? Doesn't look any different (or better) than Odyssey (which I loved).

 

[W1zzard]

I hope this is satire and not such a fundamental ignorance of rendering tech for the site owner.

Sorry, but that is indeed my opinion. I'm impressed. Not sure what "site owner" has to do with this and why we need insults

 

[rtwjunkie]

@W1zzard , DSOgaming mentioned stutter issues during the benchmark. Just curious if you experience any while gaming?

Speaking of stuttering issues, even our eight-core CPU had stutters during the first run of the benchmark. However, the benchmark ran smoothly during our second and third runs. What this basically means is that while playing the game, you may experience stutters even on high-end CPUs. Below you can find a screenshot showcasing these awful stutters. Again, this happens only in the first run of the benchmark.

I have no stutters in the game but had many in the built in benchmark. I think the benchmark is not a good representation...kind of the same situation as HZD benchmark being way more intense than the game.

Not sure the screenshots do it justice? Doesn't look any different (or better) than Odyssey (which I loved).

Honestly the graphics are IMO the same as Odyssey (which is a compliment). This is indeed one of those games in which screen shots do not portray the game very well.

 

[Calmmo]

72p 60fps on my GT710

Joking aside, willing to bet volumetric clouds down to high will give a 20fps boost.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Sorry, but that is indeed my opinion. I'm impressed. Not sure what "site owner" has to do with this and why we need insults

This is becoming a thing here. More and more newcomers or light posters have started insulting just because of someone not having their point of view.

 

[bug]

Well, well, well, GPU running out of steam without going over 10GB VRAM. How can that be?

 

[SpartanM07]

I've had stuttering in benchmark and sub-60 fps until I moved volumetric clouds to high. Now I get 1 or 2 stutters and am always above 60fps. Using a 3900x and 3090 FE. Doing the same in AC: Odyssey also had a major increase in performance. I can't tell the difference among the volumetric cloud settings besides low.

 

[Anymal]

And it has additional optimizations by AMD. They should optimize it to at least allocate more than 10gb of ram.

 

[Sithaer]

I've had stuttering in benchmark and sub-60 fps until I moved volumetric clouds to high. Now I get 1 or 2 stutters and am always above 60fps. Using a 3900x and 3090 FE. Doing the same in AC: Odyssey also had a major increase in performance. I can't tell the difference among the volumetric cloud settings besides low.

Volumetric stuff strikes again.
That thing is just bad, same story in Borderlands 3 with volumetric fog.

Can't even see any difference between medium and the higher settings yet its a huge performance difference. '35% according to hardware unboxed'

Thats why I never use presets in games if possible, there are always 1-2 setting that destroys performance for almost no extra visuals.

 

[bug]

Thats why I never use presets in games if possible, there are always 1-2 setting that destroys performance for almost no extra visuals.

Yep, you use presets, you don't belong on TPU. You go, girl!

 

[Imouto]

The game looks fucking awful. The lightening is all over the place and the AO is a turd. Hair on most characters is terrible. Landscapes look from a 10 year old game and textures are godawful.

 

[rtwjunkie]

The game looks fucking awful. The lightening is all over the place and the AO is a turd. Hair on most characters is terrible. Landscapes look from a 10 year old game and textures are godawful.

If you so, . To each his own.

 

[BiggieShady]

Landscapes look from a 10 year old game and textures are godawful.

Nah, you are just spoiled by photogrammetry in games with much lower draw distance and less simulated actors ... death stranding had to use nothing but moss on rocks to be able to pull it off

 

[kardeon]

This looks like a 2010 game....like what the hell, why does it look no better then freaking skyrim?

Have you ever play the game ? It is the most impressive game i have even seen. A pure beauty at very hight settings. 1440p. The 3d engine has a huge potential.
Skyrim is a joke compared to Valhalla

 

[Testsubject01]

Assassin's Creed Valhalla has the most impressive graphics I've seen in a long time. This is what I expect from next-gen. While Watch Dogs: Legion disappointed me big time and still had enormous hardware requirements, Valhalla looks much better and is more optimized. The vast landscapes of Northern Europe are rendered so beautifully and in a near-perfect color palette that goes very well with the Assassin's Creed art style.

Geometry and textures for both characters, the terrain, and all objects in the world is outstanding, there are no obvious low-poly models that distract from the experience. Actually, I'm very impressed by the work of the level designers. Everything is modeled with love to detail, and you can see this in all of the 100+ screenshots in this article. Valhalla does not support raytracing, but the lighting and shadow effects are close enough to what raytracing promises. I've stopped several times to appreciate the great-looking dynamic shadows and realistic lighting, thinking to myself that this looks like RTX without the performance hit. Sure, most of these effects are pre-created by artists, but does it really matter if it improves the gaming experience significantly?

Not to take away from the review, but I would agree that this part also sounded a bit over the top to me as well.
It still runs on AnvilNext 2.0 (which had its debut in 2014 with AC: Unity). Sure it got modified over time, none the less, Valhalla does "only" look like a more polished version of Odysee.

Going through all screenshots you do notice odds and ends like this "asset saver" here and there (blowing the second coin model up by 500%, making it low poly / low res)

In general, it's not bad! But it's an evolution, not a revolution.