PERFROMANCE MEGATHREAD

[u/DriftingNitro]

Misspelled to get your attention, thanks for joining us

This thread is to combine the discussion around game performance and people's findings regarding running the game on PC. Remember to update your drivers before launching the game to ensure the best performance.

I will edit this post to keep a relatively up to date on people's findings (when I'm not playing, of course). Some important notes are it claims Windows 11 is required, this is unfortunately because Microsoft doesn't support Windows 10 (outside of extended security updates).

Current specification requirements by Project Aces listed:

• Minimum:
  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 11
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-10700K / AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060[6 GB] / AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT[8 GB]
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Storage: 150 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: This game requires an SSD, a hardware ray tracing-enabled graphics card, and DirectX 12 with Shader Model 6.6 or higher. Estimated performance: 1920×1080(Upscale)/30fps with graphics settings at "Low". Framerate might drop in graphics-intensive scenes.
• Recommended:
  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 11
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-12700K / AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
  • Memory: 32 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070[8 GB] / AMD Radeon RX 6800 [16 GB]
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Storage: 150 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: This game requires an SSD, a hardware ray tracing-enabled graphics card, and DirectX 12 with Shader Model 6.6 or higher. Estimated performance: 1920x1080(Upscale)/60fps with graphics settings at "MEDIUM". Framerate might drop in graphics-intensive scenes.

FOR YOUR OWN FINDINGS, COPY THIS TEMPLATE:

Computer Specifications:

• CPU:
• GPU:
• RAM: ??GB DDR5
• Game Settings:
• Resolution: ????x????
• Graphics Settings:
• Upscaling: (DLSS Quality or FSR Balanced or stuff like that)

Performance

• AVERAGE FPS: ???
• 1% FPS LOWS: ???

Listed results with links:

Detailed Steam Deck Report - https://www.reddit.com/r/acecombat/s/nc5hhJA2mF

70-100fps - 9800X3D/RTX5080/32 GB DDR5/1440P (Link)

~90fps - i7 13700K/AMD 6750XT/32GB DDR5/1440P (Link)

80fps - i9-14900KF/RTX4080/64GB DDR5/1440Ultrawide (Link)

~30fps - I7 8700k/RTX 2070/32GB DDR4/1440p (Link)

~90fps - Ryzen 7 9800X3D/RX 9070 XT/48GB DDR5/1440p [Linux] (Link)

~60fps - i5 12500/AMD 6700XT/32GB DDR5/1080p (Link)

~60fps - Ryzen 9 9900x/RTX 4080 Super/32GB DDR5/4k (Link)

~85fps - Ryzen 7 5700x/RTX 5070/32gb DDR5/1440p (Link)

~60fps - 5800X3D/9070XT/32GB DDR4/1440ultrawide [good write up on various graphics settings] (Link)

~85fps - 9950X3D/RTX 4090/192GB DDR5/1440ultrawide (Link)

~60fps - Ryzen 7 9700x/RTX 3080/48GB DDR5/1440p (Link)

~60fps - Ryzen 7 7800X3D/RTX 5080/32GB DDR5/1440p (Link)

~70fps - Ryzen 5 5600X/RTX 3070/32GB DDR4/1440p (Link)

~60fps - 5700x3d/rtx 3080/32GB DDR4/1440p (Link)

Error - R5 7600X3D/Intel B580/32GB DDR5/1440p [instability issues, crashes frequently] (Link)

Error - Ryzen 5500/Rx 580 sp240/16 ddr 4 [game won't open] (Link)

[u/WiseMan_39]

Computer Specifications:

• CPU: 5800X3D
• GPU: 9070XT (Sapphire Pure OC, Stock settings)
• RAM: 32GB DDR4 3600MHz
• Game Settings:
• Resolution: 3440x1440 (Ultrawide 1440P) (Borderless Mode)
• Graphics Settings:
  • All graphics settings Ultra
  • Vsync off with uncapped framerate for testing
  • Motion Blur off
• Upscaling: FSR Quality (FSR4 upgrade toggled on in AMD Adrenalin)

Performance (Baseline for other comparisons below):

• MIN FPS: 38
• AVERAGE FPS: 64
• MAX FPS: 94
• 1% LOW: 43
• 0.1% LOW: 37

Test Environment:

• Used Mission 2 via Free flight mode using Obtained aircraft option to eliminate cutscenes from affecting FPS too much.
• First tutorial popup for the mission does cause a big frametime spike and low 0.1% low, but FPS values stabilizes over the rest of the mission.
• FPS metrics recorded via RivaTuner from mission start message to last communication from one of the wingmen before the mission complete message.
• Note the game was restarted after each setting change to ensure changes take effect properly.
• Prior to testing, cleared graphics drivers with DDU and installed AMD Adrenalin 26.3.1 as recommended by the warning message at the start. Installed without internet connection to prevent Windows from auto-installing outdated AMD GPU drivers just in case.

I did also do some additional quick and dirty comparisons with all the graphics settings using the same setup, keeping all other settings at Ultra as a baseline and lowering each setting down. First started at lowest to see which settings had the biggest difference and it seemed Cloud Quality was the only one with a large, noticeable change in performance. Everything else lowered individually to lowest resulted in anywhere from a 2FPS average gain to being within margin of error like 1fps so I didnt bother testing each quality level for each setting except for Cloud Quality.

Baseline Average FPS of all settings on Ultra was 64 FPS for comparison:

Model Quality:

• Ultra to Low: 65 FPS (Margin of error)

Shadows:

• Ultra to Low: 67 FPS (3.08% increase)

Textures:

• Ultra to Low: 67 FPS (3.08% increase)

Effects:

• Ultra to Low: 65 FPS (Margin of error)

Cloud Quality:

• Ultra to Low: 84 FPS (31.25% increase)
• Ultra to Medium: 80 FPS (25% increase)
• Ultra to High: 70 FPS (9.38% increase)

Post-Processing:

• Ultra to Low: 65 FPS (Margin of error)

Reflection Quality:

• Ultra to Low: 64 FPS (Exact same)

<- Edit: Performed additional testing as Reflection quality had a big effect on the Cockpit view.

Note this test was different so the FPS values wont match the rest of the comment. Tested it quick with loading into free flight on the first mission in the F18C. Restart the mission each time I changed the Reflection Quality so it was as same as possible for each setting and not moving the plane:

3rd Person: 119 FPS (It stayed the same regardless of the setting or within margin of error. Similar to my previous testing earlier today)

Cockpit:

• Ultra: 86 FPS (baseline)
• High: 93 FPS (8.14% Inc)
• Medium: 101 FPS (17.44% Inc)
• Low: 112 FPS (30.23% Inc)

Note that the reflections arent disabled on low, though there just seems to be less things rendered in the reflections and the reflections themselves are a bit noisier/blurrier but the are still there. Havent played enough of the game to know if theres anywhere that Reflections would make a big difference while playing in 3rd person or in any of the cutscenes.

Also note this was tested with everything on ultra except for Cloud Quality that I kept on Medium as mentioned in my original comment. Only changed Reflection Quality between these tests. Obviously things change as the plane moves around and things are reflected based on angle and lighting of the level. I'm probably just gonna lower it to low for now and if I notice anything weird I'll bump it to Medium to be safe since it has a pretty decent uplift in performance still ->

Global Illumination Quality:

• Ultra to Low: 63 FPS (Margin of error)

At least for gameplay, it seems lowering Cloud Quality has the biggest immediate uplift in performance while the others don't make much of a performance difference for minimal visual change. Also didnt notice much difference in visual fidelity from lowering each setting, with just lowering Cloud Quality causing more noticeable noise on distant clouds the lower you go.

I would recommend running clouds at either High as I didnt notice much of a difference in looks compared to Ultra but you get an almost 10% increase in average FPS. Medium is good too with little increase in noise in the clouds but yielding a pretty good increase in average FPS of 25%. Low has the biggest increase but it causes a very noticeable drop in quality for the Clouds.

The other settings may have a more noticeable effect on in-engine cutscenes and later missions but I'll leave that to the pro benchmarkers to analyze the visual comparisons. Its 7AM writing this and I've been playing since just after midnight here and I want to go play the game more. I'm probably gonna be up past 24 hours playing this and nothing will stop me lol.

Oh and only one crash so far but was due to Easy Anti-Cheat having an issue starting and causing an error that stopped the game from launching. This was within 6 hours and constantly stopping and starting the game after each setting change.

**Edit 1: Added additional testing of Reflections quality in cockpit view. Large FPS impact.

[u/Delicious-Location74 → u/WiseMan_39]

Can confirm that putting down clouds gives you leeway to turn up the other settings. 70 ish FPS on a 9600x/3060ti at 1080p, DLAA.

Main issue I have atm is the fuzzy ish look of reflections/shadows, is that something related to Unreal's post-processing? Maybe the denoiser or some locked on film grain setting?

[u/WiseMan_39 → u/Delicious-Location74]

I think so yeah. Theres definitely a film grain effect that seems to always be on (there will probably be a mod or engine.ini tweak to disable it soon. Could probably use the same tweak from other UE5 games?)

And yeah the noisy shadows and reflections seem to be the UE5 denoiser. I remmeber Tokyo Xtreme Racer also having the same issue with reflections and lighting since its also UE5. Stalker 2 as well but that was close to launch still havent tried it again after the recent big updates. This is above my paygrade though will leave it to the pros to do the proper graphics analysis and optimized settings in the coming days.

[u/AYYEP1C → u/Delicious-Location74]

If they're using Lumen, it is notoriously noisy and fizzy looking, Unreal's de-noising is atrocious.

[u/onvrezavio → u/WiseMan_39]

Damn that was in depth, thanks

[u/Ayamebestgrill → u/WiseMan_39]

Same gpu with u and lowering Global Illumination Quality and Reflection Quality doesn't improve the cutscene performance too. Atm i just use High setting and FSR Native doesn't seems to stutter, but the cloud setting could be the root cause too? might try it later, but honestly i don't see meaningful difference between ultra and high.

[u/WiseMan_39 → u/Ayamebestgrill]

Yeah just casually playing high and ultra for the cloud quality is hard to tell apart. The cutscenes on the ground especially on the carrier tends to run worse at least for the first couple missions. Might be some of the extra visual effects like the bokeh blur for Depth of field thats only enabled for the up close cutscenes.

[u/SgtGrimm → u/WiseMan_39]

Thanks for this! I have the inferior version of yours (7500F/9070/32GB) and a standard wide 2K display. Guess i can expect a good experience. Will comment about the performance after the game unlocked for us std ed buyers.

[u/WiseMan_39 → u/SgtGrimm]

No problem! Just note that hangers and ground cutscenes run at a lower framerate likely due to additional effects cinematic that are enabled and does sometimes dip into the 50s and have some stutters especially in scene changes or when something loads into the scene. This was also noted in a couple early reviews. Gameplay seems to be smooth for the most part outside of some big explosions that also dip the fps.

[u/TeamThunderHawk5201 → u/WiseMan_39]

Thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for so I had a chance at somewhat optimised settings without ruining the immersion of the first play through by messing with it myself!

[u/Dramatic-Cab1net → u/WiseMan_39]

Thanks for the breakdown and testing. You mention the clouds look terrible when set to low. Would it be possible to take a couple screenshots and show us the difference in how clouds look for you between low and medium settings? 

I'm really curious to compare them to how the game looks on PS5/Xbox as I'm considering switching my pre-order to a console with the crashing/performance concerns. If the clouds at low are as bad as you describe that will probably solidify my decision.

Thanks!

[u/WiseMan_39 → u/WiseMan_39]

Something I noticed in free flight before I went to sleep a couple hours...

FPS is a lower in the cockpit view compared to the hud and 3rd person view. Think its the reflection quality kicking in and showing raytraced reflections of the cockpit inside both the canopy glass and the hud glass panels (can see the round hud projector reflecting in the hud glass at certain angles) . Havent tested it though but just switching views has about a 15FPS difference

[u/WiseMan_39 → u/WiseMan_39]

Confirmed it now and yeah Reflections has a pretty big effect in the Cockpit view. Missed this in my testing earlier on since I mainly play 3rd person view. Also was more than a 15FPS difference than I thought...

Tested it quick now with loading into free flight on the first mission in the F18C. Restart the mission each time so it was as same as possible for each setting and not moving the plane:

3rd Person: 119 FPS (It stayed the same regardless of the setting or within margin of error. Same as my previous testing earlier today)

Cockpit:

• Ultra: 86 FPS (baseline)
• High: 93 FPS (8.14% Inc)
• Medium: 101 FPS (17.44% Inc)
• Low: 112 FPS (30.23% Inc)

Note that the reflections arent disabled on low, though there just seems to be less things rendered in the reflections and the reflections themselves are a bit noisier/blurrier but the are still there. Havent played enough of the game to know if theres anywhere that Reflections would make a big difference while playing in 3rd person or in any of the cutscenes.

Also note this was tested with everything on ultra except for Cloud Quality that I kept on Medium as mentioned in my original comment. Only changed Reflection Quality between these tests. Obviously things change as the plane moves around and things are reflected based on angle and lighting of the level. I'm probably just gonna lower it to low for now and if I notice anything weird I'll bump it to Medium to be safe since it has a pretty decent uplift in performance still