Total War: Warhammer II (DX11)

Last in our 2018 game suite is Total War: Warhammer II, built on the same engine of Total War: Warhammer. While there is a more recent Total War title, Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia, that game was built on the 32-bit version of the engine. The first TW: Warhammer was a DX11 game was to some extent developed with DX12 in mind, with preview builds showcasing DX12 performance. In Warhammer II, the matter, however, appears to have been dropped, with DX12 mode still marked as beta, but also featuring performance regression for both vendors.

It's unfortunate because Creative Assembly themselves have acknowledged the CPU-bound nature of their games, and with re-use of game engines as spin-offs, DX12 optimization would have continued to provide benefits, especially if the future of graphics in RTS-type games will lean towards low-level APIs.

There are now three benchmarks with varying graphics and processor loads; we've opted for the Battle benchmark, which appears to be the most graphics-bound.

Total War: Warhammer II - 3840x2160 - Ultra QualityTotal War: Warhammer II - 2560x1440 - Ultra QualityTotal War: Warhammer II - 1920x1080- Ultra Quality

Again, the RTX 2070 slots into familiar position: faster than the GTX 1070 by 30 to 40%, yet only around 10% or so ahead of the GTX 1080. Even if it were to catch up to the GTX 1080 Ti, the RTX 2080 would need to make ground as well.

At 1080p, the cards quickly run into the CPU bottleneck, which is to be expected with top-tier video cards and the CPU intensive nature of RTS'es. Even still, the Founders Edition specs, which don't materially change the RTX 2070's positioning, is helpful for the RTX 2080 in pipping the GTX 1080 Ti.

F1 2018 Compute & Synthetics
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  • thestryker - Tuesday, October 16, 2018 - link

    I feel much the same as you, and honestly I'd bet most people who buy the upper-mid range feel the same way. I also have a GTX 970 and as I told a couple of my friends while laughing at the new RTX pricing "this makes it so much easier to wait for 2020 to see if Intel can compete". I stick by that statement and barring a pricing revolution or my 970 dying here's to 2020.
  • Lazlo Panaflex - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link

    @thestryker, same here. I got a 970 a couple years ago, and won't be upgrading any time soon. I'm sure it'll run Doom Eternal just fine...thanks Vulcan ;-)
  • Targon - Tuesday, October 16, 2018 - link

    New consoles have been hitting $600 at release, and then come down after a year or two. So, $600 for a new card is still in that range of being the price of an entire console. When I see $700+, that is when I really question how much faster the card is to justify the higher price.
  • cfenton - Tuesday, October 16, 2018 - link

    The most expensive console launch recently was the Xbox One X at $500. The PS4 and PS4 Pro were $400 at launch.
  • eva02langley - Tuesday, October 16, 2018 - link

    The thing is that MS, Sony or Nintendo can sell their consoles at a lost because they are going to get it back on software... a GPU doesn`t work this way.

    @cfenton, 599$? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOHqG1nc_tw
  • wr3zzz - Wednesday, October 17, 2018 - link

    Count me the same as well. With AAA developers no long pushing technology beyond console envelops, instead of a new GPU every other gen I am likely going with just one GPU (980) for this entire current console cycle.
  • colonelclaw - Thursday, October 18, 2018 - link

    Completely agree. For the cost of the most expensive games console you should at least get the most powerful gfx card. Have Nvidia forgotten that you basically need to spend the same amount again to get a working computer? $500 for a 'mid-range' card is utter lunacy.
  • adlep - Tuesday, October 16, 2018 - link

    Used, 2nd hand market price breakdown for both 1070ti and 1080 are going to be a major headache for Nvidia. I bought my MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X for the "buy it now price" of $320.00 and 1070ti cards go for less than $300.00 on the 2nd hand market such us ebay, facebook marketplace, and FS/FT sections of AT Forum.
  • The_Assimilator - Tuesday, October 16, 2018 - link

    1080 Ti as well - the fastest cards from the previous gen usually get the largest % discount.
  • brunis.dk - Tuesday, October 16, 2018 - link

    i get dizzy from turning my head to read the labels. i loved that you made the AMD bar in the compute benches red, helps me identify red team. maybe make a repeating bg with barely discernible logo's. Just saw i dont get dizzy, help an old man out :) If you need help with the web dev, let me know.

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