Might and Magic Heroes VII - PC performance graphics benchmarks of Graphics Cards

BASIC GAME INFORMATION

 

Year of construction: 2015
Genre: Strategy (Turn-based) / 3D
developer: Limbic Entertainment
Publisher: Ubisoft

Might and Magic Heroes VII is the triumphant return of the acclaimed turn-based strategy series. Embark on an unforgettable fantasy journey with a stunning storyline and turn-based RPG system!

The plot of Heroes VII tells the story of a bloody war that led to the change of the ruling dynasty of the Holy Empire. After the death of the empress, the country burns in flames of discord: numerous opponents are fighting for the throne. During this time, Duke Ivan calls six trusted advisors. This advice is intended to help him choose the right path to end the war of succession.

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

Might and Magic Heroes VII is supported by major Windows operating systems, which include Windows 7 and Windows 8/10. Other operating systems are not currently supported by developers and will not receive support. 

 

The priority and main graphics API for Might and Magic Heroes VII is DirectX 11. 

Game engine

Might and Magic Heroes VII is based on the Unreal Engine 3 game engine. UE3 was designed with personal computers using modern rendering systems (DirectX 9/11 and OpenGL 2/3) and current generation consoles in mind. Due to the widespread use of multiprocessor systems, the engine uses two parallel main threads - the main thread (responsible primarily for gameplay) and the rendering thread.

 

In addition to the two main threads, secondary threads can be called, which perform one-time tasks. There is now support for multi-threaded dynamic data loading (streaming), for example, loading a “location” directly while moving around it in order to save resources. The updated graphics engine supports most modern technologies, including HDR, per-pixel lighting, dynamic shadows, shader model 4, geometry shaders.

The graphics pipeline itself was transferred to the control of shaders. The Karma physical subsystem was abandoned in favor of another one called PhysX from NVIDIA. Later, NVIDIA released a set of additional libraries for the game, allowing you to use all the capabilities of the physical system (such as the “liquid” or fabric effect). The FaceFX mechanism is responsible for the animation of the characters' faces.

Updated EAX version to 5th. Added SpeedTree support for tree generation. The emphasis was placed on additive geometry, but support for subtractive geometry was not abandoned. The disadvantage of subtractive geometry is primarily the much longer lighting calculation. A new UnrealEd editor has been introduced, rewritten using wxWidgets. 

Advanced Game Settings

Might and Magic Heroes VII has a small set of graphics settings. There are no basic modes.

  

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

As we can see, the picture quality is most noticeable when moving from low to medium settings, since the difference is most noticeable on low textures.

Screenshots in 4K

Might and Magic Heroes VII certainly looks more attractive in 4K.

General visual design and game physics

The graphics in Might and Magic Heroes VII, to be honest, were not very impressive, and since the beta and alpha they have remained virtually unchanged. At the same time, the game turned out to be very, very demanding of modern hardware.

  

 

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

TEST PART

GPU test

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 Blood Bowl 2. AMD CrossFireX and SLI are not currently supported by the game. 

Testing at resolution 1920x1080

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 

 

With these settings, video cards of the Radeon HD 7850 or GeForce GTX 750 Ti level showed acceptable FPS. The optimal solutions would be Radeon R7 370 or GeForce GTX 660.

Testing at 2560x1600 resolution

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560x1600

 

With these settings, video cards of the Radeon HD 7950 or GeForce GTX 950 level showed an acceptable FPS. The optimal solutions would be the Radeon HD 7970 or GeForce GTX 680.

Testing at resolution 3840x2160

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840x2160

 

With these settings, the acceptable FPS rate was shown by video cards of the GeForce GTX 980 level. The optimal solutions will be the GeForce GTX 980 Ti.

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 GPU quality settings

 

The recommended amount of video memory usage for a resolution of 1920x1200 will be 1280 MB of video memory, for a resolution of 2560x1600 - 2048 MB of video memory, and for a resolution of 3840x2160 about 3076 MB of video memory. 

CPU test

We tested processor dependence on 16 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 the given graphics quality settings without anti-aliasing.  

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 

 

CPU performance in the game is sufficient, but not optimal, and leaves much to be desired in heavier modes.

Loading of processor coresat maximum quality settings 1920x1080 Intel% 

 

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

 

Might and Magic Heroes VII uses all 4 processor threads.

RAM test

The test was carried out on the basic configuration of Core i 7 5960X@4.6 GHz with 16GB DDR4 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 Might and Magic Heroes VII is within 5000 megabytes.

Testing system RAM consumption  

 

On a 6GB system, Might and Magic Heroes VII consumes about 6GB of RAM. In the presence of a system with 8 gigabytes, the RAM consumption of all RAM was 6.4 gigabytes. With a 16 GB system, the total memory consumption was almost 7.3 gigabytes. And with 32 gigabytes of RAM, the system consumes 8.5 gigabyte of RAM.  

IRONSPONSORS

GAME SPONSORS