Cities: Skylines 2 desires to construct on the good success of its predecessor. Nonetheless, it stumbles over its nice ambitions by way of efficiency.
Think about shopping for a sinfully costly high-end pocket book for a number of thousand Euros, beginning the eagerly awaited Cities: Skylines 2 – and being greeted by single-digit FPS values in the principle menu.
What appears like a foul dream is, as issues stand, the bitter actuality that we’ve got to attest to Colossal Order’s construct hope.
On this article, we’ll go into extra element in regards to the sport’s main efficiency points.
The difficulties with the know-how, nonetheless, don’t come as a shock. In spite of everything, the builders themselves warned of efficiency issues even earlier than the discharge on October 24.
Why that is praiseworthy on the one hand, however then again will also be seen very critically, you may learn within the article Cities: Skylines 2 units the utterly incorrect sign.
Issues from the start
We made our first forays into Cities: Skylines 2 with the lately closely uprated system necessities, i.e. a Geforce RTX 3080, a Core i5 12600K and 16 GB of RAM.
After the efficiency left greater than a lot to be desired regardless of numerous patches, we switched to the aforementioned pocket book with even quicker {hardware} (Core i9 13900H, Geforce RTX 4090, 32 GB RAM), after all with a related energy provide for max efficiency.
Among the quickest desktop {hardware} you may at present purchase was additionally represented amongst our many take a look at techniques, i.e. the common Geforce RTX 4090 in addition to a Core i9 13900K.
As well as, the builders have since given us entry to a beta construct even exterior of the common and finalized patches for the evaluation model, which ought to additional enhance efficiency. However even with that, we initially solely see a meager 9 FPS in the principle menu regardless of high-end {hardware}.
If the issues had been solely within the menu, it wouldn’t be so unhealthy. Particularly for the reason that optically negligible depth-of-field mode possibility lowers the efficiency on a number of techniques, and deactivating it may well present some reduction. However it doesn’t get any higher within the sport itself.
Hope dies final
We’re very merciful and decrease the decision from WQHD to Full HD – truly an unthinkable factor with the 4K graphics card Geforce RTX 4090. After that, we begin a brand new sport with excessive particulars and the choice Efficiency most well-liked
on the Body refresh charge
setting. Clean map, 25 FPS. Oh expensive.
Okay, then very low particulars, and lo and behold: We now attain 100 FPS in any case – however with muddy, now not actually respectable visuals. And what occurs after we now load a savegame with 100,000 inhabitants? The FPS drops to about 40 frames per second.
With a RTX-4090 pocket book.
In Full HD.
With very low particulars.
However there may be additionally excellent news, no less than midway. As a result of the sport can truly be performed fairly moderately even with very low FPS values beneath 20 frames per second. In spite of everything, pace will not be what issues in a city-building simulation.
If we change to excessive particulars, Cities: Skylines 2 seems to be worlds higher and conveys the massive metropolis aptitude very properly, and that at numerous zoom ranges and in all conceivable angles. However then we’ve got to dwell with solely about 10 to fifteen FPS on the similar time.
One sport, many testers, and the identical issues
We additionally encountered such critical efficiency issues on all different techniques of the full of over ten testers. Thus, the sport doesn’t solely have difficulties with the cellular RTX 4090, but additionally with the desktop variant of the RTX 4090, which is even quicker.
Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t get higher after we use {hardware} very near the minimal system necessities – however not as a lot worse as one would possibly suppose.
With a Geforce GTX 970, a Core i5 6500 and eight GB of RAM, we get round 15 to 25 frames per second in Full HD with very low particulars within the huge metropolis:
When an RTX 4090 is nearly twice as quick as a nine-year-old graphics card, then it rapidly turns into clear: The sport doesn’t know what to do with present {hardware}. By the best way, it’s typically the GPU that limits the efficiency and never the CPU.
The loading instances are a bit slower on the quick PC, and the gradual {hardware} typically causes robust stutters when zooming. Nonetheless, it’s and stays exceptional how comparatively tiny the efficiency improve is with the high-end laptop.
Can the builders nonetheless salvage this?
One factor is already sure: The builders of Cities: Skylines 2 are doing the whole lot they will to nonetheless save the efficiency. We’ve got not often skilled in a take a look at section that patches have come so often and that issues and potential options in addition to the work on them have been communicated so overtly.
It’s way more troublesome to reply the query of whether or not all this can be sufficient in the long run. In fact, that is much more true for the console variations that had been additionally introduced and lately postponed to spring 2024 – virtually definitely exactly due to the difficulties described right here.
Our evaluation is: Sure efficiency enhancements are nonetheless potential. Nonetheless, the constructing sport will in all probability stay a particularly troublesome case sooner or later, no less than if the visible high quality and the admittedly very excessive simulation degree are to not endure (too) a lot.
A number of issues come collectively right here, particularly the pairing of the builders’ nice ambitions and the restrictions of the Unity engine. It’s arduous to not get the impression that Colossal Order has overreached themselves with the know-how of their sport total.
It’s a disgrace
Essentially the most annoying factor is that behind the foremost efficiency points is a powerful sport. And your cities, as seen within the video above, can actually be a sight to behold – whether or not you’re zooming in near the motion or getting an summary from far above.
Whether or not you’re keen to place up with the greater than mediocre efficiency for that is one thing you’ll should determine for your self in the long run.
That can assist you out, we’ll make the above-mentioned savegame with a metropolis of 100,000 inhabitants obtainable for obtain on the time of launch, together with directions. We’re additionally engaged on a tuning information for higher efficiency and are conserving a watchful eye on additional developments via patches.
Let’s hope that, opposite to expectations, vital efficiency enhancements are nonetheless potential. The sport will surely deserve it.
