Fable The Lost Chapters (2005) - retro test GPU

BASIC GAME INFORMATION

   

Release date: 26 August 2005
Genre: RPG / 3D / 3rd Person
developer: Lionhead Studios and Big Blue Box Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios 

Imagine a world where every action you take will not go without consequences and will definitely affect your future destiny. The key word in Fable, unlike a traditional RPG, is “can”. Do you want to insult a passerby and start a fight with him? You're welcome. Beat him half to death and watch with satisfaction as he crawls on the ground, begging for forgiveness? We have nothing against it. Kick a chicken that gets under your foot, slap someone's child on the head, ruin the air in a crowded place, or run through the village naked while the villagers laugh in unison? For God's sake. Light flirtation with the first girl you come across and a walk with her to the nearest hayloft? You're welcome. 

A world where with every step you will subtly change, gradually turning into a valiant warrior fighting evil... or into a decrepit magician with dark thoughts. This whole world is just a series of tests, thanks to which everyone around will be able to see your true nature. Be a hero. Be a traitor. Be yourself.

THE GRAFICAL PART

This subsection of our review highlights the main graphical aspects of this game. Particular attention is paid to the version of the graphics engine used, the version of the API used, graphic settings and the quality of development of the main visual aspects.

Supported OS and graphics API

Fable The Lost Chapters is supported by major operating systems Windows, which includes Windows 2000/XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Other operating systems are not currently supported by developers and will not be supported. 

 

The priority and main graphics API for Fable The Lost Chapters is DirectX 9. 

Game engine

The Fable The Lost Chapters game engine is a proprietary product of Lionhead Studios. There is practically no information on the network about the structure and development of this engine. Rather, the engine is a further development of the product line for games based on Lionhead Studios' own intellectual property.

We were unable to find detailed information other than our own visual observations. 

Advanced Game Settings

Fable The Lost Chapters has a modest arsenal of graphic settings, although at that time this was quite enough. As you can see in the screenshot below, we have access to a not very rich arsenal of them:

 

Below we have provided screenshots of the game at various graphics settings, where our readers can see the difference between the minimum, medium and maximum graphics quality settings. 

Various quality modes

Even with such a modest set of game settings, the difference in graphics quality is quite striking.

Comparison of FullHD and 4K

In 4K, Fable The Lost Chapters looks pretty good, again, if you have the appropriate hardware.

Comparison of anti-aliasing modes

The lack of anti-aliasing in the game is quite difficult to notice, but activating it makes the picture more ideal...

General visual design and game physics

Fable at one time was a very significant project that took the RPG genre to a new level and produced a pretty nice game picture at that time. Regarding the graphical component, the question may be somewhat controversial for some, because even at that time the game seemed unattractive to some people, but in our opinion, even now, Fable The Lost Chapters looks very decent.

If we judge the system requirements of that time, then the game could be enjoyed without anti-aliasing at maximum graphics settings, even on the average gaming solution of that time, although the locally used resolution at that time corresponded to 1024x768 pixels. But in essence, Fable was a fairly optimized and high-quality product.

 

Next, we will move directly to gaming tests and determine what impact this game has on modern computer hardware. 

TEST PART

Test GPU

All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality using MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. The average and minimum FPS were taken as performance indicators. Below is a video of the test segment:   

Our video cards were tested at separate screen resolutions of 1920x1080, 2560x1600 and 3840x2160 at maximum graphics quality settings allowed by Fable The Lost Chapters. SLI and AMD CrossFireX are sufficiently supported by the game, showing excellent scalability. Regarding such a difference between the minimum and average FPS - we tried to choose such an angle of the character relative to the teleport, at which the frame rate would be minimal. If you just wander around the locations, the minimum FPS will be slightly less than average.

Testing at resolution 1920x1080

     

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 

  

With these settings An acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 6850 or GeForce GTX 650 Ti level.

Testing at 2560x1600 resolution

 

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560x1600

 

With these settings An acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 6850 or GeForce GTX 650 Ti level.

Testing at resolution 3840x2160

 

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840x2560

 

With these settings An acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the Radeon R7 260X or GeForce GTX 660 level. The optimal solutions will be  Radeon R9 270 or GeForce GTX 660.

Testing of video memory consumed by the game was carried out by the program MSI Afterburner. The indicator was based on results on top video cards from AMD and NVIDIA with separate screen sizes 1920x1080 and 2560x1600 with different anti-aliasing settings.

Testing at maximum memory quality settings GPU

 

The recommended amount of video memory usage for a resolution of 1920x1080 will be 512 MB of video memory, for a resolution of 2560x1600 - 768 MB of video memory and for a resolution of 3840x2160 about 1024 MB of video memory. 

Micro-Stuttering Test

Introducing our testing of FPS output latency on a Micro-Stuttering monitor. The indicator was based on the results on multi-chip configurations of video cards from AMD and NVIDIA at a resolution of 1920x1080 with maximum image quality settings.

Testing at maximum Micro-Stuttering quality settings GPU 

 

Micro-Stuttering latency indicators for video cards are within normal limits.

CPU test

   

We tested processor dependence on 15 models of basic configurations that are relevant today. The test was carried out in those places where the video card value for the game is minimal and its load was less than 99%, this time at a resolution of 1920x1080 with maximum graphics quality settings.

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 

 

At the moment, the CPU performance in the game is quite sufficient.

Loading of processor coresat maximum quality settings 1920x1080 Intel% 

 

Loading of processor cores at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 AMD% 

 

On different platforms we have different multi-threading mode. On the Intel platform, the game can support up to 2 computing threads, and on AMD up to 4 (though loading them unevenly).

RAM test

The test was carried out on the basic configuration of Core i 7 3970X@4.9 GHz with 16GB DDR3 2400 MGz pre-installed memory. The entire used operational memory was taken as an indicator. The RAM test on the entire system was carried out on various test benches without launching third-party applications (browsers, etc.).

Testing the game's RAM consumption at various quality settings 

 

As we can see, with various quality settings, the amount of RAM consumed in Fable The Lost Chapters is at the level of 200 megabytes.  

Testing system RAM consumption  

 

On a 4GB system, Fable The Lost Chapters consumes about 1.7GB of RAM. In the presence of a system with 8 gigabytes, the RAM consumption of all RAM was 2 gigabytes. With a 16 GB system, the total memory consumption was almost 2.4 gigabytes.