Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 1

Performance Analysis

We've run some performance tests on Precipice, focusing mostly on the Windows version of the game. Anand played the game on his MacBook Pro and will chime in with additional input here (Ed: Check back later today for an update), but the short summary is that the game isn't all that demanding of computer hardware. That shouldn't come as too much of a shock, considering the whole game fits into a 208MB download. If you have even a moderate PC, you should be able to play Precipice. What about low-end hardware, though? We'll give the game a shot on an IGP solution as well, just for good measure.

All three test systems are running more or less the same processor: a quad-core Kentsfield running at 9x333MHz (3.0GHz). Memory type and amount varies somewhat (two systems have DDR2-667), but the more noteworthy aspect is that the X1950 XTX system runs much faster when the GPU doesn't limit performance. We're clearly not CPU limited on the X1950 XTX at higher resolutions, and we're not GPU limited on the 8800 GT and HD 3870 at lower or higher resolutions. So what's going on? As best as we can tell, there are driver limitations that are capping frame rates. Also note that SLI and CrossFire testing showed no improvement in performance. While all of that may be interesting on some level, it's important to pay attention to the fact that frame rates on the newer cards are all well over 60 FPS.

There are a few other interesting items related to performance. For one, the game appears to apply 4xAA regardless of detail setting. Given the relatively simple graphics complexity and the comic book styling, anti-aliased edges are a nice addition. However, anti-aliasing does have a performance requirement, and the impact is likely to be felt on lower end graphics hardware. The other point of discussion is that the only two detail settings are "Normal" and "High". Texture and lighting quality improve on High, and many of the edges get black borders, emphasizing the comic styling. On appropriate hardware, there's no reason to run at Normal detail, but High detail does require SM3.0 support and runs at about half the performance of Normal detail (assuming you're GPU limited). You can see the difference between the image quality settings in the above gallery.

We did some quick testing of Precipice on a few other systems, specifically looking at performance on some of the most common IGP solutions. Note that these tests are not at all equivalent hardware in many cases, as the CPU used varied quite a bit. However, we are generally GPU limited with these systems; the slowest system is an aging 945G laptop with a Core Duo T2050 (1.66GHz) and 1GB DDR2-533. The ATI X1200 has 2GB of RAM with a Turion X2 TL-64 (2.0GHz). We performed all testing at 1280x1024 (using an external display).

High detail isn't an option without SM3.0 hardware, so the X1200 and 945G are limited to Normal detail. Unfortunately, even that proves to be too much, with performance hovering just over 10 FPS and frequent drops into single digit frame rates. Lowering the resolution didn't improve performance much at all, with 800x600 only running about 20% faster than 1280x1024. Simply put the IGP solutions from two or three years back won't run Precipice at acceptable frame rates.

Moving to the upgraded GMA X3500 on the G35 chipset, performance improves slightly and we also gain the ability to run in High detail mode. Normal detail at 1024x768 is marginally playable, but you'll really want something better. The GeForce 8300 improves slightly on the G35, but the best IGP solution right now is obviously the AMD 780G. At standard clocks, the 780G manages just over 20 FPS at 1280x1024. That probably seems quite low, but the gameplay is such that anything above 20 FPS is tolerable, with 30 FPS being more than sufficient. Overclocking the GPU from 500 MHz to 750 MHz on the 780G improves frame rates by around 20%.

In summary, while the game isn't very demanding on built-for-gaming PCs, it appears that you'll want at least 780G level hardware if you would like to run at moderate (i.e. 1280x1024) resolutions and Normal detail. Discrete graphics cards of the GeForce 7600 or Radeon X1600 level or higher should have no trouble with Precipice at up to 1680x1050 (possibly higher depending on the card) on Normal detail. As a reference point, a Radeon Mobility X1700 laptop (roughly equal to an X1600 Pro) resulted in nearly 70 FPS at 1280x1024 on Normal (and 61 FPS at 1440x900), but High detail drops performance down to around 28 FPS.

Graphics memory bandwidth is definitely a factor in performance because of the use of anti-aliasing. It would have been beneficial to give users the option to turn off the AA, particularly on low-end IGP solutions. As an example, in non-bandwidth limited games, the G35 performs significantly better than the 945G (usually at least twice as fast). It is around 30% faster in Precipice, but we would have expected more. The same holds for the 780G and GF8300 relative to the 945G.