Skull and Bones PC Performance Review
Skull and Bones has finally launched
Skull and Bones is finally here!
Following the success of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag in 2013, Ubisoft decided to invest in a dedicated piracy game. The aim was simple, take the pirate action of Assassin’s Creed 4 and use it to create a popular pirate spin-off game. This game is Skull and Bones, and to say that the game has released later than expected is an understatement. Now, over a decade after Black Flag, Skull and Bones has arrived.
Skull and Bones is now available though both Ubisoft Connect and the Epic Games Store. At £49.99, the game is less expensive than many new AAA game releases. Players can enjoy sea shanties, naval combat, and the joy building and upgrading your own ships. The game is an online-only adventure, and lacks a traditional campaign or story mode. What we have here is free reign to loot and plunder in this co-op pirate open-world RPG.
Today, we will be testing the PC version of Skull and Bones. We will be looking at the game’s PC visuals, its feature set, and how to optimise the game for lower-end PC hardware. Now without further ado, lets get started
Review Contents
- Preset Scaling
- Upscaling – DLSS vs FSR 2 vs TAA
- Optimisation Tips
- 1080p Performance
- 1440p Performance
- 4K Performance
- Conclusion
GPU Drivers
When testing Skull and Bones on PC, we utilised the newest Nvidia and AMD GPU drivers that were available to us at the time of the game’s launch. These drivers were Radeon’s AMD Software Adrenalin Edition 24.1.1 driver, and Nvidia’s GeForce 551.52 HotFix drivers for Windows 10/11.
Test Setup – OC3D’s New Test Rig
Last year, OC3D will be conducting new game testing and GPU reviews on a new test system. Thanks to Corsair, Intel, and ASUS, we have created a new testing system that will allow us to properly test new graphics cards and the newest PC releases. This system features Intel’s i9-13900K processor and a ROG Strix Z790-F Gaming motherboard, with all other components coming from Corsair.
Our new test system is powered, cooled, and operated using Corsair components. The OS we will be using is Windows 11, and the case we will be using is Corsair’s airflow-optimised iCUE 5000T. We will be diving deeper into the hardware selection for this new gaming system with a future article, and you can expect to see this system in all of our future GPU and game reviews.
System Specs
Below are the full specifications of our new GPU/Games testing system, as well as links to all of the components that we used.
OC3D GPU/Games Test System Specifications (Affiliate Links below)
CPU – Intel i9-13900K
Cooling – Corsair iCUE H150i Elite CAPELLIX XT
Motherboard – ASUS ROG Strix Z790-F Gaming WiFi
Memory – Corsair Vengeance 2x16GB (32GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory
Storage – Corsair MP600 PRO NH 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD
Case – Corsair iCUE 5000T RGB
Power Supply – Corsair HX1500i
OS – Windows 11
Nvidia GPUs Tested
When testing new games, we like to utilise a large number of graphics cards to see how well titles run on both old and new PC hardware configurations. To do this, we utilise a large selection of both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards, including newly release graphics cards from Nvidia’s RTX 40 series to older GeForce graphics cards like Nvidia’s RTX 2060.
- Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming
- Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 WindForce
- Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Eagle
- Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Eagle
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Founders Edition
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 6GB
AMD GPUs Tested
On the Radeon side of the GPU spectrum we are currently able to test the following selection of GPUs. This includes both RX 7000 and RX 6000 series GPUs.
- Radeon RX 7900 XT
- Radeon RX 6800 XT
- Radeon RX 6800
- Radeon RX 6700 XT
- ASUS ROG Radeon RX 6600 XT Strix
- PowerColor RX 6600 Fighter
