Last week, 2K Games unveiled its latest title, Mafia: The Old Country, leveraging the advanced capabilities of Unreal Engine 5. As the gaming community eagerly dives into this new experience, a detailed performance analysis on PC has been conducted to gauge how well it runs on various hardware configurations.
Performance Benchmarks
The benchmarking process utilized a robust setup featuring an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor, alongside 32GB of DDR5 RAM clocked at 6000MHz. Graphics performance was evaluated using a range of GPUs, including AMD’s Radeon RX 6900XT, RX 7900XTX, RX 9070XT, and NVIDIA’s RTX 2080Ti, RTX 3080, RTX 4090, and RTX 5080. The tests were conducted on Windows 10 64-bit, employing the GeForce 580.88 and Radeon Adrenalin Edition 25.8.1 drivers.
Hangar 13 has introduced various graphics settings tailored for PC gamers, allowing adjustments to Textures, Shadows, Reflections, and more. Notably, the game supports cutting-edge technologies such as NVIDIA DLSS 4, Intel XeSS 2.0, and AMD FSR 4.0 from the outset. However, Global Illumination is limited to just two settings: High and Epic, a decision made by developers to maintain the game’s visual integrity.
Interestingly, Mafia: The Old Country lacks a built-in benchmark tool, prompting the use of Don Torrisi’s villa for testing—an area recognized for its demanding graphical requirements. At 1080p with Epic Settings, only the NVIDIA RTX 4090 surpassed the 60FPS mark. The game appears to favor AMD’s GPUs, with the RX 7900XTX and RX 9070XT matching the performance of the NVIDIA RTX 5080, while the RX 6900XT outperformed the RTX 3080.
When testing at Native 1440p and 4K on Epic Settings, no GPU managed to deliver a consistent 60FPS experience. The RTX 4090 achieved a minimum of 42FPS and an average of 51FPS, suggesting that even the anticipated RTX 5090 may struggle to maintain 60FPS at Native 4K.
This performance trend is not unexpected, as Lumen, a form of Ray Tracing, inherently demands significant resources. The game’s Global Illumination settings indicate that Hardware Lumen is active on Epic and Software Lumen on High, meaning Lumen is consistently enabled regardless of the selected preset.
By adjusting the settings to High, performance improved by 28-48% at 4K on the NVIDIA RTX 4090, with minimum framerates rising to 46FPS. This adjustment allowed for the use of TSR Quality, achieving a stable 60FPS experience. However, switching to Medium or Low settings yielded minimal performance gains, primarily because Global Illumination remained set to High. Consequently, players seeking better performance have limited options: adjusting settings for TSR/XeSS/DLSS/FSR or enabling Frame Generation.
While previous reports highlighted visual issues with DLSS 4, testing revealed that AMD FSR 4.0 performed admirably, matching the quality of TSR without the drawbacks. At 4K on High Settings, the RX 9070XT consistently delivered framerates exceeding 60FPS using AMD FSR 4.0 Balanced, all without Frame Generation.
Graphically, Mafia: The Old Country impresses, though minor pop-in issues were noted. The environments benefit from Lumen’s capabilities, providing a visually cohesive experience, while character models, though satisfactory, could see enhancements. A noteworthy feature is the dynamic shadows cast by most light sources, a detail often overlooked in other titles.
Despite the demanding nature of the game on Epic Settings, it performs comparably to other Unreal Engine 5 titles on High Settings. For optimal 4K gaming, an upscaler remains essential. While the game’s performance on Medium and Low settings feels somewhat redundant, due to the persistent presence of Lumen, there is still potential for optimization. Overall, the launch of Mafia: The Old Country does not present a disaster scenario; rather, it occupies a middle ground, offering a visually stunning experience that necessitates a powerful PC.
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