Hellblade 2 is out on PC and Xbox Series consoles. Say what you will about the game, it looks drop-dead gorgeous, courtesy of the Unreal Engine 5. We’ve already posted our optimization guides for high and low-end PCs that help you get a stable 60 FPS. In this one, we’ll look at the performance of various NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards in Hellblade 2 and conclude which side performs better.
Note: Removing the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen impacts the performance, and the following benchmarks were conducted along with it.
Test Bench
- CPU: Intel Core i9-13900K.
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero.
- Cooler: Lian Li Galahad 360.
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.
- Memory: 16GB x2 DDR5-6000 CL30.
- Power Supply: Corsair RM1000e.
To remove the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, add the following lines (without bullets) at the end of the “engine.ini” file located in C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Hellblade2\Saved\Config\WinGDK:
- [SystemSettings]
- r.NT.AllowAspectRatioHorizontalExtension=0
- r.NT.EnableConstrainAspectRatio=0
Hellblade 2 PC Benchmark: 1080p, 1440p & 4K
Hellblade 2 runs about as well on NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards. The GeForce RTX 4080 Super averages 93.6 FPS at 1080p, while the Radeon RX 7900 XTX nets 92.3 FPS. The RTX 4090 is 17% faster than the 4080 Super, averaging 110 FPS. Down the stack, the RTX 4070 produces 60 FPS, while the 4060 renders 37 FPS.
1440p isn’t much different. The RTX 4080 Super and the RX 7900 XTX are tied at ~70 FPS, as the 4090 maintains its supremacy with a lead of 16.5%. The RX 7900 XT finishes with 62 FPS, followed by the RTX 4070 with 41 FPS.
4K pulls all the cards down under 60 FPS. The RTX 4090 leads with an average of 45 FPS, and the 4080 finally manages to pull ahead of the RX 7900 XTX with 41 FPS (vs. 35 FPS). The RX 7900 XT holds the fourth spot with 31 FPS.
NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super vs AMD RX 7900 XTX Frametimes
The frametime charts of the GeForce RTX 4080 Super and the Radeon RX 7900 XTX are similar too. The former suffers from a few spikes now and then, but other than that, it’s a comparable experience.
That said, it’s worth noting that the 7900 XTX has a higher power consumption of 340-350W, while the 4080 Super mostly hovers around 300W.
Conclusion
Hellblade 2 is one of the rare games where AMD and NVIDIA GPUs deliver similar performance. Historically, Unreal Engine-based titles have performed better on GeForce hardware, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here.
