Last week marked a significant milestone for gaming enthusiasts with the release of EA’s latest installment in the beloved franchise, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, now available on PC. Utilizing the advanced Frostbite Engine, this game invites players to explore a richly detailed world while pushing the boundaries of graphical fidelity.
Performance Benchmarks
To assess the game’s performance, we employed a robust testing setup featuring an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor, complemented by 32GB of DDR5 RAM clocked at 6000MHz. Our graphics card lineup included AMD’s Radeon RX580, RX Vega 64, RX 6900XT, RX 7900XTX, alongside NVIDIA’s GTX980Ti, RTX 2080Ti, RTX 3080, and RTX 4090. The benchmarks were conducted on a Windows 10 64-bit system, utilizing the GeForce 566.03 and Radeon Adrenalin Edition 24.10.1 drivers, with the second CCD on our CPU disabled for optimal performance.
BioWare has equipped Dragon Age: The Veilguard with an extensive array of graphics settings, allowing players to fine-tune various aspects such as Textures, Lighting, Level of Detail, and Terrain. The game also embraces cutting-edge technologies like Ray Tracing, DLSS 3, AMD FSR 3.0, and Intel XeSS, providing players with a comprehensive toolkit to enhance their visual experience. Notably, the interface offers real-time visual feedback, making adjustments intuitive and engaging.
While Dragon Age: The Veilguard lacks a built-in benchmark feature, we turned our attention to the initial area encountered in the game, recognized for its demanding graphical requirements. This choice serves as a reliable indicator of overall game performance.
One of the standout features of this title is its ability to leverage more than eight CPU cores, a rarity in contemporary gaming. Our tests revealed that while average framerates remained consistent with and without Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT), the minimum framerates showed marked improvement with SMT enabled. For a seamless gaming experience, a minimum of six CPU cores is recommended; lower configurations may experience frame pacing issues, particularly at Ultra Settings and 1080p resolution.
At 1080p with Ultra Settings and without Ray Tracing, the game demonstrates impressive performance across a variety of GPUs. Even the NVIDIA RTX 2080Ti consistently achieved framerates exceeding 70FPS. However, for 1440p at Ultra Settings without Ray Tracing, a GPU akin to the NVIDIA RTX 3080 is necessary, though the RTX 2080Ti can still deliver a satisfactory experience when paired with a G-Sync monitor.
When venturing into Native 4K at Ultra Settings without Ray Tracing, the AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX and NVIDIA RTX 4090 maintain framerates above 60FPS. Interestingly, lowering the settings yields a noticeable performance boost, although our tests indicated that High and Ultra settings performed similarly on our system.
Visually, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is nothing short of stunning. Character models are intricately detailed, with hair rendering that stands out as one of the best in recent gaming history. The environments are equally impressive, showcasing high-quality textures and interactive elements that enhance immersion. Players will appreciate the absence of stuttering issues, with smooth mouse movement and stability throughout extensive gameplay sessions.
In summary, Dragon Age: The Veilguard emerges as one of the most optimized PC games of 2024. It caters to both older systems and high-end configurations, capitalizing on Ray Tracing capabilities while delivering a visually captivating experience without stability concerns. This title serves as a testament to the prowess of the Frostbite Engine, reflecting the dedication of its developers in crafting a polished and engaging product.