Game:

Evolve (2015)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 9:52

317 views

2

Recently, 2K opened the doors for Evolve's Big Alpha build basically to test their servers, and only those who signed up early on would get the chance to try it. Fortunately, it seems they never met their target sample size, so they gave away extra keys to those who registered and those who own an XCOM game.

I got 8 extra keys that I posted in the Steam forums and I don't know which ones still actually work, but feel free to try them:

Y3ZIK-6JR56-H6V53
Y3ZIT-LPM79-7J9QB
Y3ZJF-CXG9Z-FH6FD
Y3ZK7-BYZ5Z-Y43VG
7M9NQ-V7L4T-VGPIL
7M9VP-57INZ-WT27N
7M9VX-KTKX8-KNVCK
7M9XE-XD50L-HYXPP

Additionally, go to the Evolve Steam forum in case they don't work because people there are handing them out like Ebola. Okay, bad joke. The testing phase has been extended and is now scheduled to end on Tuesday, 12 PM Pacific time.

Right, back on topic. The game being an alpha means that a lot of polish is still underway, and a little over 3 months from official release is some ways to go. The game uses the same graphics engine as Ryse, which is the 4th gen CryEngine. The Big Alpha's minimum requirements are also similar to Ryse's final build, so that gives me hope that Turtle Rock can still optimize Evolve. Based on the minimum and recommended requirements to play this game, it's a more GPU-bound title. As it is now, the game runs quite horribly for competitive multiplayer. I get about 25 fps average on Medium settings, with tessellation and SMAA 1TX enabled, in 768p. To be fair, however, I gimped the CPU to 95% performance (Turbo Boost automatically disables unless it's running at 100%) and limited the GPU to peak at 85 °C. When all restraints are off, the game gains up to 8 fps, depending on the map. In my experience, I got the best performance on the Distillery map (maybe because it's smaller).

What's unacceptable is that the game's textures are a resource hog, even on Medium. It demands as much as 2140 MB from the VRAM, which is nearly 5% more of what is available. As a result, you get slight framerate hiccups during gameplay. That's just absurd. I know that 2014 is the year when 2 GB of VRAM just wouldn't cut it, but come one. I refuse to acknowledge that it isn't even enough to accommodate Medium textures. I really hope they fix this in the final build. The game also freezes and crashes a lot in its current state. Some people (like me) experience it more than others. Oh, and there's no SLI support yet.

Having tried both Ryse and Evolve, I can say the 4th gen CryEngine needs a beefier GPU to run well. Crysis 3's CryEngine 3 ran nicely with the 750M, and that's even with both CPU and GPU held back. Nevertheless, I'm curious just how much it will improve when it's finally on sale. I'm sure Nvidia will release a more compatible driver for the game when that time comes, so we also have that.

Maximum Operating Temperatures (1 hour of gaming):
CPU - 86 to 88 °C
GPU - 83 °C

EDIT: If you decided to go play the alpha, you can report your findings here, which would help polish the game better across a good range of PC setups:
http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?778776-Report-Big-Alpha-Bugs-HERE

## Model Configuration ##
Lenovo IdeaPad Y410p-20216
Windows 8, 64-bit
1366 x 768 Native Resolution
Intel Core i7-4700MQ "Haswell" @ 2.4 GHz (3.4 GHz turbo)
GeForce GT 750M GDDR5 2 GB VRAM, SLI ready
8 GB DDR3 Samsung RAM @ 1600 MHz (single channel)
1 TB Seagate HDD @ 5400 RPM
JBL Dolby-certified Home Theater v4

Notes:
OS Version - Windows 8.1 Single Language
Nvidia Driver - 344.48 WHQL
GPU - Dedicated, Single
CPU Tweaks - 95% Performance Level
GPU Tweaks - 85 °C temperature limit; -175 MHz memory clock speed
Recording Utility - Nvidia Shadowplay
Input Device - DualShock 3 gamepad

Other Statistics