Cities: Skylines 2 has a big problem that you can’t solve even with the most expensive and fastest hardware

Cities: Skylines 2 needs to construct on the good success of its predecessor. Nonetheless, it stumbles over its nice ambitions by way of efficiency.

Think about shopping for a sinfully costly high-end pocket book for a number of thousand Euros, beginning the eagerly awaited Cities: Skylines 2 – and being greeted by single-digit FPS values in the primary menu.

What feels like a nasty dream is, as issues stand, the bitter actuality that we’ve to attest to Colossal Order’s construct hope.

On this article, we are going to go into extra element in regards to the recreation’s main efficiency points.

The difficulties with the expertise, nevertheless, don’t come as a shock. In spite of everything, the builders themselves warned of efficiency issues even earlier than the discharge on October 24.

Why that is praiseworthy on the one hand, however then again may also be seen very critically, you may learn within the article Cities: Skylines 2 units the fully unsuitable sign.

Issues from the start

We made our first forays into Cities: Skylines 2 with the not too long ago closely uprated system necessities, i.e. a Geforce RTX 3080, a Core i5 12600K and 16 GB of RAM.

After the efficiency left greater than a lot to be desired regardless of varied patches, we switched to the aforementioned pocket book with even quicker {hardware} (Core i9 13900H, Geforce RTX 4090, 32 GB RAM), after all with a linked energy provide for max efficiency.

A number of the quickest desktop {hardware} you may at present purchase was additionally represented amongst our many take a look at methods, i.e. the common Geforce RTX 4090 in addition to a Core i9 13900K.

As well as, the builders have since given us entry to a beta construct even exterior of the common and finalized patches for the evaluation model, which ought to additional enhance efficiency. However even with that, we initially solely see a meager 9 FPS in the primary menu regardless of high-end {hardware}.

If the issues had been solely within the menu, it wouldn’t be so unhealthy. Particularly for the reason that optically negligible depth-of-field mode possibility lowers the efficiency on a number of methods, and deactivating it could possibly present some aid. Nevertheless it doesn’t get any higher within the recreation itself.

Hope dies final

We’re very merciful and decrease the decision from WQHD to Full HD – truly an unthinkable factor with the 4K graphics card Geforce RTX 4090. After that, we begin a brand new recreation with excessive particulars and the choice Efficiency most well-liked on the Body refresh fee setting. Clean map, 25 FPS. Oh pricey.

Okay, then very low particulars, and lo and behold: We now attain 100 FPS in spite of everything – however with muddy, not actually respectable visuals. And what occurs once we now load a savegame with 100,000 inhabitants? The FPS drops to about 40 frames per second.

With a RTX-4090 pocket book.

In Full HD.

With very low particulars.

However there’s additionally excellent news, not less than midway. As a result of the sport can truly be performed fairly fairly even with very low FPS values beneath 20 frames per second. In spite of everything, velocity will not be what issues in a city-building simulation.

If we change to excessive particulars, Cities: Skylines 2 seems worlds higher and conveys the massive metropolis aptitude very nicely, and that at varied zoom ranges and in all possible angles. However then we’ve to reside with solely about 10 to fifteen FPS on the identical time.

One recreation, many testers, and the identical issues

We additionally encountered such critical efficiency issues on all different methods of the whole of over ten testers. Thus, the sport doesn’t solely have difficulties with the cellular RTX 4090, but in addition with the desktop variant of the RTX 4090, which is even quicker.

Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t get higher once we use {hardware} very near the minimal system necessities – however not as a lot worse as one may suppose.

With a Geforce GTX 970, a Core i5 6500 and eight GB of RAM, we get round 15 to 25 frames per second in Full HD with very low particulars within the massive metropolis:

When an RTX 4090 is nearly twice as quick as a nine-year-old graphics card, then it rapidly turns into clear: The sport doesn’t know what to do with present {hardware}. By the best way, it’s typically the GPU that limits the efficiency and never the CPU.

The loading occasions are a bit slower on the quick PC, and the gradual {hardware} typically causes sturdy stutters when zooming. Nonetheless, it’s and stays exceptional how comparatively tiny the efficiency improve is with the high-end laptop.

Can the builders nonetheless salvage this?

One factor is already sure: The builders of Cities: Skylines 2 are doing all the pieces they’ll to nonetheless save the efficiency. We’ve got not often skilled in a take a look at section that patches have come so incessantly and that issues and doable options in addition to the work on them have been communicated so overtly.

It’s far more tough to reply the query of whether or not all this might be sufficient in the long run. After all, that is much more true for the console variations that had been additionally introduced and not too long ago postponed to spring 2024 – nearly actually exactly due to the difficulties described right here.

Our evaluation is: Sure efficiency enhancements are nonetheless doable. Nonetheless, the constructing recreation will in all probability stay an especially tough case sooner or later, not less than if the visible high quality and the admittedly very excessive simulation stage are to not undergo (too) a lot.

A number of issues come collectively right here, particularly the pairing of the builders’ nice ambitions and the constraints of the Unity engine. It’s onerous to not get the impression that Colossal Order has overreached themselves with the expertise of their recreation total.

It’s a disgrace

Probably the most annoying factor is that behind the most important efficiency points is a powerful recreation. And your cities, as seen within the video above, can actually be a sight to behold – whether or not you’re zooming in near the motion or getting an summary from far above.

Whether or not you’re prepared to place up with the greater than mediocre efficiency for that is one thing you’ll must determine for your self in the long run.

That can assist you out, we are going to make the above-mentioned savegame with a metropolis of 100,000 inhabitants out there for obtain on the time of launch, together with directions. We’re additionally engaged on a tuning information for higher efficiency and are conserving a watchful eye on additional developments by way of patches.

Let’s hope that, opposite to expectations, important efficiency enhancements are nonetheless doable. The sport will surely deserve it.