Performance Analysis: Assassin's Creed Unity

Eurogamer: "Assassin's Creed Unity falls short of the performance standard set by last year's Black Flag, featuring considerably more variable frame-rates under load on both consoles. Given the immense graphical upgrade on offer, this isn't so surprising, but what comes as a bit of a shock is that the Xbox One version frequently out-performs the PS4 game in more detail-rich areas, such as locations littered with NPCs in the packed Parisian streets."

[imt558]

Let's see :

-Game is technical mess on all platforms, weak optimization on consoles ( especially on PS4 )
-Slightly better performance on Xbone
-900p and lot's of pop-up
-micro transactions in game
-chests need app to unlock, but mobile app isn't free
-that parity PR : We decided to lock them at the same specs to avoid all the debates"

I won't buy this game!

Anyway, waiting for Face-Off and how graphics on all platforms hold on.

[u got owned]

How is this game performing better on Xbox One is beyond me.

[yarbie1000]

Ubisoft said from the beginning it was CPU bound - and Xbox's CPU is clocked faster.

One thing is for sure - good thing they didn't try to make it 1080P on PS4

[MorePowerOfGreen]

Starting to seem like the PS4 version is the worst version. Perhaps a partnership with MSFT and MSFT software innovations. First sites are reporting the PS4 version being worse visually but now on performance. If Eurogamer is saying this, you know they're hiding more in the PS4's defence.

The XB1 version Performs better because put simply, XB1 does some things better.

Just got into it with *Lukas_Japonicus* in the "Assassin's Creed Unity PS4 vs Xbox One Video Comparison: Xbox One Has Sharper Image Qualitity" article when he was damage controlling the article over the same topic.

Can't wait to see remote CPU processing with Azure built into DX12 SDK in 2015, so much of the One's hardware is used elsewhere.

Watched HAlo 5 gameplay last night and my mouth was wide open and stayed that way against my will(The detail and lighting was CGI like in beta)

[Ju]

This has nothing to do with 1080p...seriously...if they run into a 20fps bottleneck - and yet the visually more demanding cutscenes run much faster, there is a problem which sure isn't gpu related.

I believe them, that the XO code if CPU bound has an edge - probably AI? - but if already scaled down to 900p they could have utilized compute much more on the PS4, especially when they saved bandwidth with the lower res.

20fps is unacceptable. Not getting this...no matter how pretty it looks.

[darthv72]

I'm holding out for a wii-u version. If ubi is making watchdogs for wii-u and they made black flag for wii-u then i'm really hoping they make unity for wii-u as well.

Or maybe they can make a zombie-u 2.

[--Onilink--]

pretty much what yarbie said, Assasins games have always been very CPU heavy(for some reason), which is why PC ports are particularly bad.

Hopefully they will patch some of the performance woes, but overall, as long as its the same foundation on the anvil engine being so CPU intensive, we might see more of these issues in the future

[JonnyBigBoss]

CPU.

[q8kik]

For all the people that are saying it because of the cpu the xb1 is performing better .....There's also GPGPU.

And @yarbie1000

"Ubisoft said this and that"

Lol man.... you actually believe what ubi says ?
They've been feeding us lies since this gen started.

[GarrusVakarian]

@MPOG

"Just got into it with *Lukas_Japonicus* in the "Assassin's Creed Unity PS4 vs Xbox One Video Comparison: Xbox One Has Sharper Image Qualitity" article when he was damage controlling the article over the same topic. "

First of all, it's nice to know I'm on your mind. Secondly, we sure did get into it in that article....and I seem to recall you saying this:

http://n4g.com/news/1619439...

"Lets see how fast Eurogamer comes to the PS4's rescue with lies or more PS4 favorable spin."

Yet this article does the EXACT OPPOSITE of what you said it would and shows the X1 as the best performing version when there are tons of NPCs around. Completely shattering your long-running BS conspiracy theory that DF are pro-Sony and have some sort of agenda against the X1.

You kinda shot yourself in the foot calling me out just now, didn't you? Silly goose. Don't you ever get bored of being proven wrong so much? You must be a sado-masochist.

"The XB1 version Performs better because put simply, XB1 does some things better."

Yep, just like the PS4 version performs better at other parts of the video because, put simply, PS4 does some things better. Cherry-picking praise is fun!

"Can't wait to see remote CPU processing with Azure built into DX12 SDK in 2015, so much of the One's hardware is used elsewhere. "

Lmfao. Do you even know what any of that will actually do for the X1 outside of what what you've been told in tech demos and slideshows from MisterX? Or are they just words that sound nice together in a sentence to you? Here are two words that I think sound nice together: Self-reassurance.

"Watched HAlo 5 gameplay last night and my mouth was wide open and stayed that way against my will(The detail and lighting was CGI like in beta)"

Then you must be easily impressed, because all I saw was 720p, low-res shadows, plain textures, and placeholder Spartan suits. My mouth was firmly shut the entire time.

[vishmarx]

Many previous reports were indicating that the PS4 CPU, depending on the task, was at least equal to (or better) than the XB1 CPU.
The PS4 CPU clock was never officially revealed either.

At most, in the "worst" case scenario, the clock difference is 10% which would never translate in a pure 10% difference in a real world scenario (aka outside of a benchmark).

How do you then explain up to a 25% difference in framerate (20 vs 25)?

At best for Ubi, it looks like sheer technical incompetence & that they would have spent less time to optimize the PS4 version. At worst, it's possible downright sabotaging of the PS4 version which will then be "magically" corrected in a patch that will show up "gasp" after the tech analysis is published and most medias report on "PS4 has the worst version!" (hint: it was also the case for both COD and AC4 last year).
Looks to me like, if it's option 2, their "shackle" on the PS4 worked a little too well (was probably meant to obtain either complete parity or slightly better on XB1 by 1 or 2 fps to be explained away by "CPU offset").

/teamtinfoihat

Disgusting.

[CernaML]

@Green

Dude... being a massive fanboy is one thing but also a total liar? ONE site made a false claim that the X1 version is sharper. Not site(s).

The X1 does things better? Like running into the single digits in the same game?

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

And I'm sure Halo 5 impressed you greatly...despite it running at 720p... but you are used to that arent ya? ;)

[aceitman]

@donthate why would u say ps4 gamers have no games to play , how would u like if someone says u only have halo ce to play until halo5 comes out because as far as its known there are no exclusive games coming ti x1 till fall 2015 ps4 has lbp then we have bloodbourne ,the order 1886 , planetside 2 , tomorrow's children, in the next couple months

[FarEastOrient]

You should see this on PC, it's buggy to hell too.

[BallsEye]

Because you know nothing about how these things work. PS4 has a bottleneck. It's not all about GPU power. Just bought a Titan GPU (A DAMN TITAN!!!)recently for my wife so she can play ESO and Itotally forgot she's still on intel i3 CPU. Since almost all MMOs are CPU bound she was getting 30 FPS at best. Upgraded CPU to i7 and BAM! Over 100 FPS and higher graphic settings possible. You guys just get fooled to easily by PR talk. You'll see article about GDDR5 ps4 RAM and everyone here will chant about how RAM is most important. Then GPU article pops up and every armchair dev is preaching how GDDr5 and GPU is all you need. Every little component counts and needs to be extremely well ballanced.

[MRMagoo123]

I knew the game would be horse poo after the going for parity BS started and cancelled my preorder, this just confirms I made the right decision thankfully.

Any site giving this turd of a game higher than a 7 should be closed down, they are obviously being paid for.

[bleedsoe9mm]

you finished it already impressively fast

[MRMagoo123]

@bleed

Finished it ? have all the reviewers finished it as well, If I had wanted to finish it or even start to play it I could have been playing a friends version 2 weeks back. Go troll elsewhere

[GarrusVakarian]

Holy shit! How the HELL did they think that shipping a game that runs in the low-mid 20's was acceptable?

Ubisoft have fallen to a new low. I'm speechless.

[Genuine-User]

I've played every single AC game, Unity will be the first (hopefully last) AC game that I won't buy.

[GundalfDeGrej]

They're going for the full silky smooth 24 fps cinematic experience of course!

[-Foxtrot]

Each gen a publisher or two end up going to shit

Activision/EA when making the jump to the PS2/Gamecube

Capcom/Square Enix when making the jump to the 360/PS3/Wii

Now Ubisoft with the PS4/Wii U/Xbox One

They end up getting too greedy and big headed.

I usually end up getting the collectors edition, you know the big one from the UPlay store which is over £100....but no way, not this time.

Cancelled.

Hopefully that big CE will go down in price.

[Malphite]

This game is a mess. Why the hell wouldn't they reduce the npc count to make it playable if they can't optimize it enough to make it run at a locked 30fps on consoles is beyond me.

Is it really more important to have hundreds of npcs than a playable framerate Ubisoft? Are you kidding me?

I'll wait for some PC benchmarks before finally deciding wether 'll buy this game or not but from what I've read the PC version suffers from the same issues as the consoles counterparts.

[bleedsoe9mm]

did you play gta v on ps3

[GarrusVakarian]

@bleedsoe9mm

....Yes? I'm sorry, how is that relevant?

Are you trying to say that the framerate of AC:U, a current-gen game, is acceptable, because a game made for 8-year-old hardware also dipped frames?

Because if you are, that would be some pretty far-fetched logic.

[TheWatercooler]

Looks like Xbone took the priority here. I won't be buying this either. First time I haven't bought and ac game.

I won't stand for this parity bull.

"Quite why PS4 isn't rendering at a higher resolution is certainly a bit of a puzzler"

Indeed. PS4 is capable of more. Why didn't ubisoft take advantage Of PS4's gpu compute units? Parity. Plain and simple

[ainTgoTTime2bleed]

Agreed, but what would you expect from these devs that are in bed with Micro, same thing will happen to the witcher 3 mark this post!...I said it before and I'll say it again, if you want to see the ps4 truly shine you need to wait for great studios like ND, etc...not from any 3rd party studios;)

[Ju]

It doesn't make sense...well...there is a relation between CPU bandwidth and GPU thru-put. The more bandwidth the CPU needs the more it takes away from the GPU. This could be a reason why that's the case. Higher resolution is primarily a bandwidth issue.

Simply put, Ubi's engine burdens the CPU too much and stalls the GPU - I'd like to see a GPU profiler. I'm taking a bet it'll be idling around most of the time. Why this is, is another question. I rather believe it is time if anything. Given more time, those bottlenecks could probably have been addressed by balancing the bandwidth more towards the GPU. Unfortunately, I doubt Ubi will spend much time post launch to optimize/patch this thing..

[Svinya]

Oh no! You won't buy it! The horror!

Get real, who cares about what you do or don't do?

[Findingcrybabies]

Anybody who is open to buying any Ubisoft game is an idiot. You literally have to have ZERO standards to buy anything with their name on the box. After AC3 I said never again. I got to laugh and laugh and laugh at all the watchdogs RAGE. It felt good finally being on the outside looking in. Just like it feels good right now. I'll never buy any game ever again that says "Ubisoft" on the box. They are a terrible and half assed dev.

[starchild]

Why? The game runs fine on my PC and is easily one of the best looking games I've ever seen on any platform. I knew I wasn't going to get 60fps once I saw what it was doing, but it runs fine and I just cap it at 30fps. The game itself is awesome so far.

So, again, why should I avoid games that I enjoy just because fanboys are raging and making yet another mountain out of a molehill?

[Findingcrybabies]

@ starchild fanboy? I used to love AC games...I bought all of them until AC3. The quality of their games on top of the yearly release cycle is what turned me on them. Look at all their recent games..especially if you play online. Are they good and complete games? Or are they rage inducing for people and time after time they are broken and need 53 patches to fix and they just stop cuz the next game is about to come out. No standards as a dev or a company. They are terrible. Just type in "game breaking watchdogs glitch" a glitch that actually erased all your stuff and locked you there like u were level 1...you had to completely restart the game. WTF? If I say a company is bad its because they're bad not because I am a fanboy or anyting else.

As a PC gamer you think graphics parody is ok? If you want to spend your money with them then knock yourself out. What I said is true though. I hope you enjoy your game though.

[Rimgal]

"chests need app to unlock, but app isn't free"

WTF. Is that true? Tell me that's a joke

[MasterCornholio]

Nope it isn't.

What stinks was the companion app for black flag was free. Then they go and do this with Unity.......

[GarrusVakarian]

Like I said, they've reached a new low.

And to think, they used to be one of my favourite devs...

[Rimgal]

Then this is from me to Ubisoft.

http://i.imgur.com/N4QtBsG....

[Malphite]

WTF indeed. Just don't screw up Far Cry 4 Ubisoft!

[TFJWM]

The app is free but you can't really use it since UPlay wont connect to consoles atm...

[matrixman92]

the app is free dude. Literally nothing that unlocks in game stuff is behind the pay wall

[Svinya]

Imt558 -

If you're not buying the game, then why do you care about the face off?? Oh right, to stealth troll the xbox versions like usual.. Gotcha.

[Blaze929]

so lemme get this right...because it performs better on Xbox One - people think this was some intentional, MS + Ubisoft business conspiracy to purposely make the PS4 version crap?

Yeah, that makes sense.

[reaperofsouls]

Boths system are running sub 30fps and both are dropping bellow 25fps, this ubisoft isn't exceptable for a $60 game.

Shadow of mordor > Assasin's greed

[Vegamyster]

What a mess, should have been delayed and refined.

[Deividas]

AMD card owners like myself have it the worst. I have MSI R9 280X in Crossfire and I get about 28fps on average on medium-high settings. And runs better on 1080p over 900p and below. I dont know what the hell they are doing over there at Ubisoft.

[richierich]

I hope Ubisoft gets this game fixed by Friday for once having a game released later in the UK might be a good thing

[Rick_Ross_Boss]

I hate this generation. It is by far the worst I can think off, nothing but problems.

[Xavior_Reigns]

Can't really blame publishers for taking advantage of consumers, we're the ones who gave them the go ahead. Now its our turn to give them the bird in response, sadly too many have accepted these piss poor methods.

[KingTrash]

Nothing but bitching from people like you. That's what is defining this gen.

[Fizzler]

Yep.

[Rick_Ross_Boss]

And its little coporate kiss-asses like you who just stand for it.

[Kemosabe]

To hell with this game, just going to get dragon age.

[Findingcrybabies]

I'm excited for it too...preorder is in. I loved ME3's multiplayer so I can't wait to try DA: I's

[windblowsagain]

Dragon age so I've heard is the much better game.

[MasterCornholio]

I need to see a few more reviews but I have a really good idea on what I'm going to get.

1. Dragon Age
2. GTAV
3. Aliens Isolation.

Openworld fantasy RPG.
Openworld modern crime game
Survival horror that sticks true to the franchise.

[sungam3d]

I'm in my mid 20's, such as this fps, and I find this unacceptable for a next gen game.

20-30fps What a laugh.
So much for next gen...
GG uBeFail

[Manic2014]

Parity was a poor excuse for poor optimisation. A delay would of been a better idea to get a steady frame rate and best out of the consoles/PC.

[typittt69]

Bought it on ps4 assuming it would be performing better. Smh. Oh well as long as i dont see it side by side it wont matter anyway.

[DragoonsScaleLegends]

Hey at least the cut-scenes run better on PS4 lol:

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

It's funny how far developers are willing to release $hit at full price.

[Genuine-User]

Unity is an all round mess.
I suggest you guys read this: http://uk.ign.com/blogs/jda...

[mochachino]

Great article on the modern state of gaming and a quote therefrom:

"This is a $60 video game that paces out unlockables and upgrades at the exact speed that Ubisoft wanted, but then offers to sell you “time savers.”
...

Master Chief Collection’s matchmaking is broken, and multiplayer requires a huge day one patch. Titanfall is dead. The PS4’s 2.0 firmware update continues to cause major problems. The days of going to a midnight launch event and coming home to experience pure launch day gaming bliss seem to be over.

I completely understand the need to up revenue per user above $60 for big-budget AAA games. This is a tough business to be in. But it has to be done in a way that doesn’t compromise the integrity of your gameplay, and doesn’t test the patience of your players."

[G20WLY]

Thanks for the excerpt mocha. I would have skipped it, but it's actually well worth a read. There's a genuine quality control issue at the moment across all platforms.

If this continues it will have massive ramifications for the industry and our hobby. Even last gen I bought games about a year behind everyone else. I wasn't worried about MP and just wanted all bug patches ready from the start.

Skyrim was the most notable. I followed all the problems online and bought for PS3 1 year later. The patches were numerous and huge, but the game works fine now (aside from weird glitches, but nothing major).

Imagine the money lost across the industry if we all took mine as the standard approach... :O

[hello12]

Lot of games showed better frame rates on x box 1 before this, DF seems to be changing tune lately and actually reporting the facts. The game has worse frame rate on PS4. It can only be because of that lower clock and that extra GPU power isn't going to do much to change that.

This game tried to doing something different, but its failing miserably. Who doesn't want more NPC's realistically it adds to the realism, but unfortunately the CPU's in both console aren't strong enough to maintain 30fps

[CernaML]

"Lot of games showed better frame rates on x box 1 before this"

No. They didnt.

[GarrusVakarian]

"DF seems to be changing tune lately and actually reporting the facts"

Ohhh, so DF are reporting FACTS when the X1 version comes out on top, but they're "biased" and "Pro-Sony" (your own words) when their tech analysis articles favour PS4 games?

You Xbox fanboys are just unbelievable. You can't just pick and choose which are facts and which aren't, or when to side with DF based on whether or not they're showing your favoured platform in a positive light.

[the_dark_one]

indeed, well said, i guess the only way to please them is when someone says what they want to ear and when is not what they like they are being baised

[the_dark_one]

"Lot of games showed better frame rates on x box 1 before this" please list for us which ones, cause i dont know.
and yes that 150mhz extra on xbox one helps a bit but the ps4 code is a really bloody mess, cause theres no way that the game should run much worst on ps4 just cause it has 150mhz less then xbox one

@mochachino

exactly, and if that doesnt say how bad the game was optimized, nothing will. it should just being delayed and get some more polish in to it.

[mochachino]

It barely runs on PC as well.

[DragoonsScaleLegends]

Which one performs better during cut-scenes though lol:

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[tlougotg]

Tht poor optimization, tht partnership, tht moneyhat, Ubisoft is officially banned from my console lol

[jay2]

Got to have been money for this shorley, this joke of a game doesn't run well on ever platform, but an MP gamesuddenly perfmorming better on the weaker hw, and locking it to 900p etc doesn't make sense unless MS handed over $$$