The 10 Most Graphically Demanding PC Games

Maximum PC: At Maximum PC we love pushing our PCs to their limits by testing high-end games at maximum settings. To reach these limits, you'll need to fire up the most über-demanding games. What are the most graphically-demanding games you ask? We’ve thrown together a list of the 10 gnarliest PC games that will give your precious gaming rig a kick-ass workout.

[Eternalb]

I wish my PC could handle these!

[ABizzel1]

Bad list.

Call of Duty: Ghost and GTA 4 shouldn't even be on this list. They're harder to run than some games, because they're terribly optimized for PCs.

Tomb Raider being #1 is a joke. That's Crysis 3 or Metro Last Light.

[ATiElite]

Worst list ever as SOON as I saw COD:Ghost!

FRIGGIN idiots are just so determined to put COD in every article. My TOASTER can run COD:G.

STALKER SOC, STALKER CS, STALKER COP, Arma 2, Arma 3, X3 Terran Conflict, Total War Rome 2 are way more demanding on a modern PC with all settings set to ultra than COD:G and Tomb Raider.

The God rays and real-time lighting in STALKER ALONE brought most GPU's to their knees and still today with GTX700 and R200x Gpu's STALKER on Ultra plus ALL post processing effects on is still a tough cookie for GPU's

Metro 2033 is still a BEAST when you run it on Ultra with 4xAA and DOF ON.

*Depth of Field which runs GPU's into the ground but looks so sexy that most benchmarks are done with it OFF!

Tomb Raider LMAO are you serious? I'm can run it at OVER 80 fps with everything ON including the TressFX

The Witcher 2 on Ultra with Uber Sampling On still to this DAY I can barely get 50fps so I do not understand how it's NOT number 1.

[Trunkz]

Surprised ArmA 3 series didn't make it in, it's the one PC game that always makes a push on your computer.

[jimjam3442]

lol i cant even get amnesia the dark decent to run.

[Bodge]

The top 10 most graphically impressive video games in existence.

Crysis 3 and Metro Last Light won't be conquered so easily.

[dcj0524]

Idk man. Sonic the hedgehog has some seriously detailed sprites.

[LAWSON72]

MY HD 7950 could not handle GTAIV with ENB mods even at low settings. Even without the ENB maxed out GTAIV would stutter like crazy

[Software_Lover]

Have you used any of the Ice Enhancer mods?

[LAWSON72]

Yep that is what I used

[urwifeminder]

Had the same issue with 7850 oc but using the config ini I sorted it a bit better since getting another 7850 oc its a hell of a lot better.

[ABizzel1]

@Lawson72

That's because GTA is a mess when it comes to optimizations, and you need a mod, just to make ENB work well, I forgot which one.

If I remember correctly IcEnhancer 2.1 fixed most of the issues, and I've seen people playing fairly well on 7850s on mid-high with a good number of mods around 30 - 40 fps, so you need to check the mod and your settings settings.

[Software_Lover]

I'm surprised that there are no RTS games on this list.

[Plagasx]

Where the F&*% is Minecraft??

[ExCest]

TressFX is definitely the reason that Tomb Raider only got 25 fps. That hair physics was designed for AMD cards.

[LAWSON72]

I only lost 10-15 fps w/ a gtx 760 which is about the same as the HD 7950 I had.

[ExCest]

Really? Maybe the newer Nvidia cards are better with support. But as far as I know, my 650 (yes, a 650) can support BL2 PhysX fairly well while TressFX in Tomb Raider just killed my FPS from 60 to sub 30.

[tee_bag242]

Metro Last light is definitely and demanding game, as is Crysis 3. More demanding that either of these is Skyrim with 2k Texture, Flora Overhaul, Bigger Tree, ENB etc etc.
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[MidnytRain]

Was the FoV changed? Everything looked really close-up.

[tee_bag242]

No standard FOV.

[mysteryraz11]

crysis is overrated so boring

[FreakdoutKid]

none of them are demanding. just unoptimized fcuks

[airshiraz]

well u must fix the graphics of farcry3 hitman absolution and battlefield 4 and after that these games will look much prettier and much heavier

[Kinger8938]

GTA was down to hideous optimisation, just an awful port imo and they never fixed it!

Still want to try last light

[Dynasty2021]

TOMB RAIDER!?

What a load of bull. This is blatantly a way of making console owners feel better about their hardware.

Tomb Raider was almost unanimously agreed to be NOT a demanding game.

TressFX was messed up by Nvidia at the start and halved your FPS if turned on. A few drivers later and it has almost no affect on your FPS.

This is such rubbish.

[starchild]

Yeah, it's not THAT demanding. It packs a lot of graphics tech and it is decently demanding, but it's fairly well optimized and it runs well even on average PCs.

[Volkama]

Tomb raider can be played with decent frame rates at 4k on a single 780ti or 290x, so no it can't be that demanding.

Hell I can play it at 1080p stereoscopic on an old 6950.

It does look quite good though.

[Xristo]

I maxed out TR on my old 580GTX 1.5gb. I'm confused with their benchmarks.

[Jdoki]

What's interesting is how many older games are on this list.

That makes me think that when there was a bigger disparity between last-gen console hardware and PC hardware, there was less incentive to optimise the PC code for all GPU / CPU's.

With the new gen of consoles being much more PC-like in their architectures I suspect we'll see a knock on effect that games optimised for PS4 / XB1 will result in better optimisation for PC versions... and therefore be able to push PC hardware even more, and those with lower end PC hardware should also see better performance.

[AndrewLB]

Tomb raider runs like crap because it's a poorly optimized console port. Metro Last Light is FAR more advanced graphically.

[NRGuitarist]

I always had issues trying to get STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl to run smoothly. No matter what I did, that thing constantly gave me grief in the frame-rate department and ultimately I traded it. Tried it some years later on a newer, better and faster rig and it was still a pain in the ass to run nicely. And I never thought the visuals were that incredible so it had me stumped xD meh.

[Jdoki]

I think it was incredibly ambitious and incredibly badly optimised.

No one could get that game running perfectly. :)

[UltraNova]

'The next few months look promising with a plethora of graphically demanding titles coming out which include Watch Dogs and Titanfall'

Titanfall seriously? I mean I like the game and I will be buying it for my PC but from what I've seen so far I cant call it graphically intensive..no way..

Oh and for the Titanfall defense party out there getting ready to blow their socks off that's ^^^ just my opinion.

[Matt666]

COD Ghosts LOL, it doesn't even look good t begin with so why would it struggle to run

[Einhert]

All these games run great on my 680 apart from Crysis 3, haven't tried it yet but a lot of the AA methods are really badly optimised.

I refuse to use SMAA or MSAA as it effectively halves my frame rate.

[mpctips]

I really like that Chris Zele mentioned the game engine for each title. Good stuff!

[Banok]

This list is just as much about poor optimisation than graphical fidelity.

[kingduqc]

Those games are optimized, alot of the eye candy effect require horse power to drive and games like crysis 3 that can scale from 1 core gt 8800 to a quad 780ti and a 4930k OC is a game greatly optimized.

Plus it is stunning. Lot's of those effects you see won't even be possible on ps4, they will have to fake em cause it is to demanding.

[Are_The_MaDNess]

weakass list. Try Skyrim with all 4k+ textures and RealVision ENB FULL then turn on all the other ENB Settings. its more demanding that anything in the market ATM, and it looks great for it aswell.