Project CARS Benchmarked: Graphics & CPU Performance

Project CARS (or Community Assisted Racing Simulator) is a racing simulation game that'south been on anybody's radar since its drool-inducing visuals started to make the rounds as far back as 2022.

Like Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport before it, Projection CARS intends to deliver a highly realistic driving simulation. Just to distinguish it from the pack, developer Slightly Mad Studios has made the game an open feel that allows players to choose from a multifariousness of motorsports paths and grants immediate access to all tracks and vehicles.

Project CARS has been funded by the community and developers without financial help of a publisher, which is the traditional road. During a lengthy airtight beta period, contributors could buy 'Tool Packs' that allowed them access to development in roles like content cosmos, QA, and marketing media depending on the pack.

Projection CARS was congenital on pinnacle of an improved version of the Madness engine, which was the basis for the Need for Speed: Shift titles. In short, the game looks amazing and is the most visually impressive racing simulator nosotros have e'er seen.

The game has some pretty hefty system spec requirements, too. For low graphics settings Project CARS calls for at least a quad-core processor running GeForce GTX 260 or Radeon HD 5770 graphics. However if you lot want to bask the superb graphics that Project CARS can serve up then the developer suggests an Intel Core i7 or AMD FX-8350 processor -- request for a Cadre i7 over a Core i5 is interesting -- while on the GPU front, the suggested spec is too vague to exist especially useful. Fret not, this is what this article is all virtually.

Despite a lengthy early access period, this racing sim hasn't launched without its issues. Actually, it's just 1 big upshot: the game runs horribly on any AMD GPU. Somehow no optimization has been defended to AMD Radeons when at least one in three PC gamers ain one.

Coincidentally, Project CARS is plastered with Nvidia logos in-game. Initial reaction from gamers was to lash out at Slightly Mad, challenge they were paid off by Nvidia to deliberately gimp the functioning of AMD hardware. Slightly Mad Studios boss Ian Bong fired back with this…

"We've provided AMD with xx keys for game testing as they piece of work on the driver side. Merely yous merely have to look at the lesser hardware in the consoles to see how optimized we are on AMD based fries".

"We're reaching out to AMD with all of our efforts. We've provided them 20 keys every bit I say. They were invited to piece of work with us for years, looking through company mails the last I can see they (AMD) talked to usa was October of last year". He continued: "Categorically, NVIDIA have not paid us a penny. They accept though been very forthcoming with support and co-marketing work at their instigation. Nosotros've had emails back and forth with them yesterday also. I reiterate that this is mainly a commuter issue only we'll obviously practice anything we tin can from our side".

So it seems AMD take been slacking off, something we have certainly noticed this year. After making a big fuss about their new Omega drivers, we haven't seen an official update since December.

Although we don't expect frequent driver updates from AMD, waiting almost vi months seems like a stretch. Last month'south Grand Theft Auto V optimized Beta commuter could have get official by now.

AMD has responded they are working on a fix for pCARS, only in the concurrently nosotros've gone ahead and tested current generation Radeons, which will show the performance gamers are experiencing out of the box today. Once AMD releases an improved commuter we will re-test not only current-gen GPUs but also cards of the previous few generations.

Today's test is too comprised by the full range of Nvidia GPUs and CPU tests conducted using the GeForce GTX Titan 10, so these results won't need to be updated later.

Testing Methodology

Using the latest AMD and Nvidia drivers, nosotros tested xix DirectX 11 graphics cards covering most toll ranges. Our test rig was outfitted with an Intel Core i7-5960X to remove CPU bottlenecks that could influence high-end GPU scores.

Using FRAPS we recorded the start threescore seconds of a solo race at Nürburgring in Sprint way with a Formula A car and 20 AI controlled opponents. The same conditions, track and cars we used each fourth dimension and the results are based on an average of three runs Nürburgring in Sprint mode with a Formula A car.

Project CARS was tested at iii resolutions: 1920x1080, 2560x1440 and 3840x2160. We selected the highest visual quality settings with FXAA enabled. Additionally, we tested using 'clear' and 'rainy' atmospheric condition atmospheric condition, the latter being by far the well-nigh demanding.