Watch_Dogs on nMP

[ifraaank]

Hi all you lucky Mac Pro users!

I've been considering to buy the nMP for a verrrry long time one, and I was just wondering, if anyone had tested Watch_Dogs on their nMP machine? Absolutely love the game, and I'm curious about how it runs.

If you've tested it, please post nMP specs and game-configurations!
Thanks!

 

[ifraaank]

No one? Sorry for the bump

 

[ActionableMango]

I don't have personal experience with it, but the nMP when running Windows is just a powerful PC with Crossfire video cards. There is plenty of power there, so really the only concern is Crossfire, which can have various issues when gaming.

So if you want to know how it will perform, I'd look for conversations about Watch Dog and Crossfire support specifically.

 

[matty1551]

I have an 09' cMP and run the game fine on a mix of high and ultra settings. If my machine can handle it, I'm sure your shiny new MP will handle it well with all settings maxed.

My Specs:
2.66 Xeon (Single CPU)
16GB RAM
GTX680 2GB

 

[tuxon86]

Watch dog is NVidia optimized (Gameworks). You may expect lower performance with the nMP than on a similar system with NVidia gpu.

 

[slughead]

Watch dog is NVidia optimized (Gameworks). You may expect lower performance with the nMP than on a similar system with NVidia gpu.

It's also having a lot of problems with crossfire at the moment.

Full disclosure: It's having a lot of problems period, just more with AMD

 

[N19h7m4r3]

It's also having a lot of problems with crossfire at the moment.

Full disclosure: It's having a lot of problems period, just more with AMD

Yup, seen people with dual Titan and GTX780ti's having severe issues with the game.

Although some report running Uplay in offline mode, and disabling the in game overlay increases performance.

 

[tuxon86]

Quality control budget is inversely proportional with the hype and advertising budget in these days and ages...

 

[sebseb]

The game is cpu intensive, but it require a really good graphics card as well. However I've heard that Watch Dogs does not support SLI or crossfire and since nMP uses dual FirePros, you might have to wait for an update or turn off crossfire and use one single FirePros, though I don't know how to do that!

Also remember that FirePros are workstation cards, meaning that they are meant to handle rendering, while gaming cards are better at running those rendered and final textures. But still the machine is really powerful and should handle games pretty well. If Matty's MP can handle the game, it's cause he has a GTX 680, which is a really good gaming card!

 

[kfscoll]

The game is cpu intensive, but it require a really good graphics card as well. However I've heard that Watch Dogs does not support SLI or crossfire and since nMP uses dual FirePros, you might have to wait for an update or turn off crossfire and use one single FirePros, though I don't know how to do that!

Also remember that FirePros are workstation cards, meaning that they are meant to handle rendering, while gaming cards are better at running those rendered and final textures. But still the machine is really powerful and should handle games pretty well. If Matty's MP can handle the game, it's cause he has a GTX 680, which is a really good gaming card!

Uh oh, not this again... Under Windows, and with games specifically, the D700s behave just like slightly underclocked HD 7970s / R9 280Xs. The difference between gaming cards and workstation cards is mainly in the drivers. I haven't tried Watch Dogs yet, but AMD just released new beta Catalyst drivers that support Crossfire with Watch Dogs. I've also read that many of the PC performance problems with Watch Dogs are due to relatively low amounts of video memory on certain graphics cards -- an issue you certainly won't run into with the D700s which have 6GB of VRAM a piece. There's supposed to be a patch coming to address the main performance issues, at which point I'd expect the nMP to run the game fantastically.

 

[irnchriz]

Don't think it matters what you run watchdogs on, that game is a 2 year old engine that needs another year of work to finish it. Gameplay barely makes it worth the hassle the bugs cause, that's if you don't get the 90% loading bug.

 

[matty1551]

OP, I went searching for Watch Dogs gameplay video on a nMP. Couldn't find any but did find this video of a guy claiming he's running BF4 on all Ultra settings. The video does not do it justice though.

Just saying, if you can do that, you should be able to run Watch Dogs at reasonable settings as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtVrma00ieI

 

[N19h7m4r3]

Uh oh, not this again... Under Windows, and with games specifically, the D700s behave just like slightly underclocked HD 7970s / R9 280Xs. The difference between gaming cards and workstation cards is mainly in the drivers. I haven't tried Watch Dogs yet, but AMD just released new beta Catalyst drivers that support Crossfire with Watch Dogs. I've also read that many of the PC performance problems with Watch Dogs are due to relatively low amounts of video memory on certain graphics cards -- an issue you certainly won't run into with the D700s which have 6GB of VRAM a piece. There's supposed to be a patch coming to address the main performance issues, at which point I'd expect the nMP to run the game fantastically.

Spot on, although seeing people with Titans seeing active FPS drops before 30 into juttersville is worrying to say the least.

I'll eventually get the game and cover it, and its performance for my nMP, but we'll first need new drivers, and Ubisoft to pull the finger out and fix that game.

OP, I went searching for Watch Dogs gameplay video on a nMP. Couldn't find any but did find this video of a guy claiming he's running BF4 on all Ultra settings. The video does not do it justice though.

Just saying, if you can do that, you should be able to run Watch Dogs at reasonable settings as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtVrma00ieI

Yeah aslong as the game has X-fire support and you're using the Radeon Catalyst drivers gaming on Windows is really good. The extra VRAM on the D700's really help.

 

[ifraaank]

Thank you for all the answers! I'm only asking since my current iMac runs it reasonably at high, and I was curious how it would run with crossfire, despite the problems. I'll wait a bit for some patches, and see how things come along.

I'll eventually get the game and cover it, and its performance for my nMP, but we'll first need new drivers, and Ubisoft to pull the finger out and fix that game.

Great, thanks!!

 

[BlakSmoke363]

Spot on, although seeing people with Titans seeing active FPS drops before 30 into juttersville is worrying to say the least.

I'll eventually get the game and cover it, and its performance for my nMP, but we'll first need new drivers, and Ubisoft to pull the finger out and fix that game.



Yeah aslong as the game has X-fire support and you're using the Radeon Catalyst drivers gaming on Windows is really good. The extra VRAM on the D700's really help.

I dont think this is true because I am an owner of the 2x MSI r9 280x 6gb GE and the game still doesnt run as well as I would like though it is playable. I came on this forum looking to see if anyone figured out how to get crossfire working, because that (if it scales properly) should easily give me over 60 fps cuz rite now I get high 30s to low 50s. Ultra preset v-sync off shadows medium 1 frame buffered
asus x79 deluxe mobo
i7 4820k
2x MSI r9 280x 6gb
16 gb ram

 

[N19h7m4r3]

I dont think this is true because I am an owner of the 2x MSI r9 280x 6gb GE and the game still doesnt run as well as I would like though it is playable. I came on this forum looking to see if anyone figured out how to get crossfire working, because that (if it scales properly) should easily give me over 60 fps cuz rite now I get high 30s to low 50s. Ultra preset v-sync off shadows medium 1 frame buffered
asus x79 deluxe mobo
i7 4820k
2x MSI r9 280x 6gb
16 gb ram

Drop it from Ultra, it's horribly broken at that setting. Which is why I said they need to patch it. It doesn't run well with Xfire or SLI at the moment.

Have a look at the AMD Radeon beta drivers, apparently they might have an Xfire fix for Watch Doges.

 

[BlakSmoke363]

Drop it from Ultra, it's horribly broken at that setting. Which is why I said they need to patch it. It doesn't run well with Xfire or SLI at the moment.

Have a look at the AMD Radeon beta drivers, apparently they might have an Xfire fix for Watch Doges.

thx fast response. Man I tried it all old drivers new drivers. But heres the thing I get exact same performance at ultra that i do on high only at medium does it stay over 60 and then it dips making it more noticeable. I even downloaded radeonpro and its supposed to help with crossfire profiles but it doesnt do anything from the few presets i tried.

----------

Drop it from Ultra, it's horribly broken at that setting. Which is why I said they need to patch it. It doesn't run well with Xfire or SLI at the moment.

Have a look at the AMD Radeon beta drivers, apparently they might have an Xfire fix for Watch Doges.

Took a look at drivers page found interesting notes...

Known Issues:
- Running Watch Dogs with a R9 280X CrossFire configuration may result in the application running in CrossFire software compositing mode
- Enabling Temporal SMAA in the AMD Catalyst Control center under a CrossFire configuration when playing Watch Dogs will result in Flickering
- AMD CrossFire configurations with Eyefinity enabled will see application stability with BattleField 4 or Thief when running Mantle
- Catalyst Install Manager text is covered by Express/Custom radio button text
- Express Uninstall does not remove C:\Program Files\(AMD or ATI) folder

WTF is software compositing mode?? Like I was developing the game or something?? I guarantee this is why crossfire isnt working.

 

[N19h7m4r3]

Took a look at drivers page found interesting notes...

Known Issues:
- Running Watch Dogs with a R9 280X CrossFire configuration may result in the application running in CrossFire software compositing mode
- Enabling Temporal SMAA in the AMD Catalyst Control center under a CrossFire configuration when playing Watch Dogs will result in Flickering
- AMD CrossFire configurations with Eyefinity enabled will see application stability with BattleField 4 or Thief when running Mantle
- Catalyst Install Manager text is covered by Express/Custom radio button text
- Express Uninstall does not remove C:\Program Files\(AMD or ATI) folder

WTF is software compositing mode?? Like I was developing the game or something?? I guarantee this is why crossfire isnt working.

Jeez, watch doges seems so broken! Hopefully Ubisoft, AMD, and NVIDIA get thing sorted. What a mess, and it still looks rubbish compared to the E3 gameplay footage