Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition PC Performance Review

Conclusion  

Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition is built for future hardware, with graphical settings that exceed the already demanding console version while allowing PC gamers to aim for higher resolutions and refresh rates than today’s consoles can ever provide. 

Settings like “Luminance” and VXAO in the game’s options menu points towards a future where HDR displays and more powerful GPU hardware is common, though thankfully the game can scale down to offer a great gameplay experience on today’s systems.  

On PC gamers can aim for 60FPS, something which is unavailable to consoles in all but the least demanding scenes on systems like the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, which even then requires games to unlock the game’s framerate manually. On PC with the right settings, this is possible across most of the game, provided that your CPU is up to snuff. Looking at our CPU tests, we can see that the game is played optimally on CPUs with an SMT enabled quad-core or higher-end models, particularly in demanding scenes. 

When comparing AMD and Nvidia AMD’s hardware is having a much tougher time, especially in certain demanding test cases, though in a lot of areas performance is closer. When push comes to show AMD’s GPUs can fall behind, as can be seen with our R9 380 and RX 480, though this could change with game patches and new GPU driver releases. 

Looking at the title’s GameWorks options individually, most of them have a minimal performance impact, with Nvidia VXAO having by far the largest impact. Sadly HairWorks hasn’t gotten a thorough a testing as we would like, but repeatable areas with boss monsters often require a long run between save areas and reproducible test cases, making dedicated testing challenging. We could do a repeated battle with Garula, but its the boss monsters the make the best use of HairWorks. 

Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition is an extremely demanding release, one which will likely challenge PC hardware for quite some time. This version is Final Fantasy XV’s definitive release, offering the ability to get the best visuals and performance, provided you have powerful enough hardware. 

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