Gears Tactics PC Review: VRS, Performance, Engine Analysis + More

[Ana]

A PC real-time strategy game with triple-A production values and brand new DirectX 12 features? Gears Tactics delivers and Alex Battaglia has the full tech review. Oh, and a max 20 per cent performance increase from variable rate shading? We've got the full lowdown.

• cutscenes run in realtime and at whatever your hardware can handle
• high quality everything in-game
• based on the same UE4 build made for Gears 5
• uses planar reflections since the camera is always top down; screen space reflections typically break in these situations
• first DX12 game to use variable rate shading (Wolfenstein had it before)
• max settings with VRS off to on increases performance by 13%
• off to performance setting increases by 21%
• VRS is more aggressive here than in Wolfenstein
• surfaces in direct sunlight and has internal surface variation has a noticeable degraded quality, more in performance mode
• dynamic resolution scaling scales the WHOLE image, VRS scales PARTS of the image while maintaining native overall resolution
• UI elements are aliased with VRS, but not with DRS (but are blurrier)
• planar reflections are full resolution with VRS and are sharper, DRS has a soft, filtered look
• can combine DRS and VRS but you'll get the worst of both worlds (but better performance)
• Alex prefers DRS over VRS due to the screen not being as dynamic as a first person shooter or racing game
• could use a VRS setting below "on"
• "how many graphics settings you want?" "yes"
• better benchmark than Gears 5 (is such a thing even possible?), has a frame graph during the bench
• Alex's settings recommendations are similar to Gears 5
• DRS on, no insane settings (not called insane now), planar reflections off, glossy reflections off, SSR at high, shadows to high, AO to high
• planar reflections off boost perf by 17%
• glossy reflection off boost perf by 11%
• SSR from ultra to high boost perf by 3%
• Ultra shadows are 4096^2, high is 1/4 the size, 9% diff
• AO at high boost perf by 5%
• optimized settings boost perf by 70% in worst case situations
• 8GB vram or less, blanket high texture settings to avoid stutter
• Ultra to High textures saves 2GB+ of vram
• optimized settings at 1440p on midrange systems (RX580/GTX1060) nets AMD with a 7% lead, both dips below 60fps in cutscene
• 580 loses to 1060 in gameplay
• benchmark has AI, runs slightly different each time
• using DRS, 1060 would have higher res in gameplay
• Alex likes the game (he's a fan of RTS)