Real-World Gaming Tests
The synthetic tests above are helpful for measuring general
3D aptitude, but it’s hard to beat full retail video games for
judging gaming performance. Far Cry 5 and Rise of the
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in benchmarks that illustrate how a system handles real-
world gameplay at various settings. We run them at 1080p
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settings (Normal and Ultra for Far Cry 5 under DirectX 11,
Medium and Very High for Rise of the Tomb Raider under
DirectX 12).
First, a word of caution to prospective buyers here: When I
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with the results. The frame rates were oddly low, and I
suspected that the games were using the integrated graphics
rather than the RX 5600M. After I tinkered with settings, it
became clear that was the case. I checked within the game
settings (Far Cry 5 in particular visibly displays which
graphics adapter you’re using) as well as the included AMD
Radeon software to try to correct this. I think the key was
the latter, as the Radeon software allows you to choose
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while one is called Power Saving, for example) and which
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and select the “global graphics” settings within the Graphics
tab, you can make sure you’re in gaming mode and that the
Radeon RX 5600M is the default GPU.
After I tinkered, my frame rates were much more in line
with expectations. I’m familiar enough with what frame
rates to expect from various GPUs that this stood out to me
as an issue to look into, but I worry that less savvy and
younger users won’t realize they’re seeing lower
performance than they should be. These types of settings
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someone to buy and use this laptop without realizing they’re
hamstrung by the settings.
When I first ran
these tests, it
was clear that
something
was wrong
with the
results. The
frame rates
were oddly low.