TiMi Studio Group has unveiled the Black Hawk Down campaign for Delta Force, making it available for free to all players. This release, powered by the cutting-edge Unreal Engine 5, invites PC gamers to delve into its performance metrics.
Benchmarking Insights
For our benchmarking endeavors, we utilized a robust setup featuring an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, complemented by 32GB of DDR5 RAM clocked at 6000MHz. Our graphics card arsenal included AMD’s Radeon RX 6900XT and RX 7900XTX, alongside NVIDIA’s RTX 2080Ti, RTX 3080, RTX 4090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090. The tests were conducted on a Windows 10 64-bit environment, utilizing GeForce driver version 572.47 and Radeon Adrenalin Edition 25.2.1.
Team Jade has thoughtfully incorporated various graphics settings for players to customize, allowing adjustments to Global Illumination, Shaders, Textures, Shadows, and more. Notably, the game supports NVIDIA DLSS 4, AMD FSR 3.1, and Intel XeSS 2, marking it as the first title to embrace the latest iteration of XeSS.
However, Delta Force: Black Hawk Down lacks a built-in benchmarking tool. To assess performance, we employed the first in-engine cutscene, which proved to be more demanding than the initial mission, serving as an effective stress test.
Achieving framerates exceeding 60FPS at 1080p on Extreme Settings necessitates a minimum of six CPU cores. While this may seem manageable, the game grapples with significant stuttering issues. Even the fully unlocked 7950X3D struggled to maintain smooth gameplay, and the game’s inability to scale beyond eight CPU cores exacerbates the problem.
At 1080p with Extreme Settings, a high-end GPU is essential for consistent framerates above 60FPS. The NVIDIA RTX 3080 and AMD Radeon RX 6900XT managed to average over 65FPS, though they frequently dipped into the mid-50s. Furthermore, the RTX 4090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090 experienced CPU bottlenecking, highlighting the limitations of the game’s CPU utilization. Fortunately, Frame Generation support offers a potential remedy for these CPU-bound scenarios.
As we transitioned to 1440p with Extreme Settings, the AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX emerged as the minimum requirement for maintaining over 60FPS. Interestingly, the NVIDIA RTX 3080 outperformed the AMD Radeon RX 6900XT, while the NVIDIA RTX 5080 showcased a 20-35% performance advantage over the RX 7900XTX.
The Native 4K experience at Extreme Settings revealed that only the NVIDIA RTX 5090 could consistently sustain 60FPS. Both the RTX 4090 and RTX 5080 managed to exceed 60FPS on average but faced drops to 45FPS and 36FPS, respectively. Notably, the AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX demonstrated better minimum framerates compared to the RTX 5080.
Our benchmarks focused on Extreme Settings, but Delta Force: Black Hawk Down also features Ultimate Settings that push even the RTX 5090 to its limits. At Native 4K with Ultimate Settings, we recorded a minimum of 33FPS and an average of 36FPS. Lowering the settings to Ultra or High can yield performance gains, though at Medium and Low settings, we encountered CPU-bound scenarios.
Despite its visual appeal, Delta Force: Black Hawk Down currently presents a myriad of challenges. The game launches a separate program for the campaign while Delta Force continues to run in the background, leading to inefficient CPU core usage. Players may also experience frustrating stuttering and texture streaming issues, where low-quality textures take time to load their high-resolution counterparts.
Graphically, the game impresses with its stunning lighting, showcasing the capabilities of Lumen. However, the existing issues hinder the overall experience. While there is undeniable potential, players will require a high-end PC system with DLSS Frame Generation to fully enjoy the game, which is a disappointing reality.
It’s important to note that this campaign is not an offline or single-player experience; it is designed as a Co-Op Online Campaign. Although solo play is an option, the game does not adjust its difficulty accordingly, and the absence of checkpoints means players must restart missions upon death. This design choice raises questions about Team Jade’s intentions, leaving players feeling somewhat misled. The current state of the game suggests a need for significant refinement, as it struggles to leverage modern CPUs effectively and suffers from persistent stuttering issues. The co-op and online requirements further complicate the experience, overshadowing the impressive graphics and potential that Delta Force: Black Hawk Down possesses.
