Top 10 Most Graphically Demanding PC Games

These games will push your GPU to its limits

Remember the first time you got a game that you couldn’t play on Ultra High settings? That’s a sad day for anyone, but in the world of computer hardware, there is always room for improvement. These games require the best of the best, and will leave your PC crying for its mommy if you don’t have the necessary hardware. If you are looking for the most graphically demanding PC games to put your new GPU to the test, the games on this list will ensure maximum eye-poppage.

Testing Methodology:

“We tested each game at maximum settings on a 1920×1080 display. Our modest mid-range test rig consisted of an i7-2700K CPU overclocked to 4.5GHz, a GTX 680 video card overclocked to 1140MHz, and 8GB of G.Skill DDR3 RAM. We first started out disabling motion blur, which is a frame rate crutch, and cranked up all of the other settings as high as they would go. Another setting that was crucial to disable was V-Sync, so that our frame rate was not capped with our 60Hz refresh rate. We played each game for 15 minutes, and recorded its average frame rate using FRAPS. Each frame rate listed below is that of our playthrough and may not be exactly repeatable because the frame rate averages were captured with real-world dynamic testing, which may vary from playthrough to playthrough, even on a rig with the exact same hardware. Still, our tests should provide an accurate measure of relative performance between titles. The rankings are listed from least taxing to most based on average frame rate count.” Testing by Maximum PC

#10- Call of Duty: Ghosts

IW Engine

Call of Duty: Ghosts is still running on the same engine as COD 4, which is now over 6 years old. While the game still looks good, it clearly doesn’t have the same oomph as a newer engine would provide. Frame rate for this game came out to 67.9 FPS. Hopefully the next game will be running on an updated engine to push the graphics capability into modern day military shooter quality.

#9- Battlefield 4

Frostbite 3

Battlefield 4’s spot at #9 is somewhat conditional. Since the newer Nvidia 331.82 driver came out, it caused an impressive 18% performance improvement over the older driver. According to Maximum PC,

“If we had used the older Nvidia driver we would have seen our frame rates at around 47 FPS and BF4 would have been ranked at number six, but instead we experienced a solid 59 FPS, knocking it down to number nine overall.”

Frame rate variations during testing saw a low of 45 FPS and a high of 80 FPS.

#8- Crysis

CryEngine 2

Crysis has long been known for being one of the most graphically demanding PC games. The original Crysis is 6 years old, and still has a spot on this list. Crytek wanted to make a future-proof game and it looks like they have succeeded, as this game is still difficult to run on many modern GPUs. Average frame rate for Crysis came out to 58.2 FPS.

#7- Hitman Absolution

Glacier 2

Hitman is a unique and popular first person shooter that offers some beautiful landscapes – if you even have time to pay attention while stalking your prey. Frame rate for this game came to 53.8 FPS.

“Hitman is quite CPU heavy, so our relatively low frame rate could have been due to getting bottlenecked by our 2700K CPU not being able to muster physics calculations fast enough to keep up with our overclocked GTX 680 GPU.”

#6- Grand Theft Auto IV

Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE)

GTA IV was released in 2008, so its ability to make this list is impressive (albeit somewhat skewed). “The engine behind the game’s demanding performance uses an amalgamation of three different engines, including Rockstar’s RAGE engine, Euphoria engine, and Bullet Physics Library.” Poor PC optimization for this smorgasbord of engines could have contributed to the low frames per second. Average frame rate: 53.21 FPS. And P.S. Rockstar, we’re still waiting for GTA V!

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