Baldur's Gate 3 PC - DF Tech Review - Graphics Analysis + Optimised Settings

[@Doodleschmit]

I couldn't agree more that this game isn't technically groundbreaking in its visuals, but does manage to express personality and intent better than other games that do focus on the technical aspect of visuals. I'm so proud of Larian! Divinity broke my expectations for how well tabletop rulesets could play in a video game. This title is such a GREAT step forward for them.

[@Rocksteady72a]

I can't wait for them to port it to mobile again. Divinity was so nice to be able to cross-save between PC & my iPad. Definitely plan to replay BG3 if/when the port happens

[@CPSPD]

the level design is also really memorable for some reason. i could recognise the locations of 90% of the scenes shown in this video.

[@JB-xl2jc]

And the game and vibe I get while playing it is so good that even when something is a bit janky, it still makes me smile and have a good time. Perfect example, I said something that made Lae'zel roll her eyes. Animation on that? Nooooot perfect, I'll tell ya- it's almost impossible to fluidly animate eyes shifting rapidly and smoothly, with our current animation styles, while ALSO animating the rest of the character model and an entire scene and location behind in real time. But despite it not being perfect, it made me smile. Part of this is likely a honeymoon phase, but given I played a lot in EA and so far in full release, it feels suspiciously like the honeymoon phase is perpetual, and that's how I know BG3 is something special.

[@ne0nmancer]

Yep, many games focus on stunning graphics and the latest [insert stupid technical acronym] tech to mask a mediocre gameplay experience, with Larian it's the other way around.

[@Manupaya24]

I think it looks better than a lot of current gen titles.

[@aL3891_]

It doesn't push the very latest in rendering but for an rpg of this scale i think it looks amazing, especially characters, even minor ones look great

[@dolan_plz]

I think it deserves some tweaking that Alex pointed out, like RTAO, RTGI, RT shadows, so that we have overal even greater package than it is now 🙂

[@existentialselkath1264]

Good art assets can do a lot with less advanced tech. But you give good art assets more advanced tech and it's unbeatable. If they never add RT, it'll still be great, but if they did...

[@devonmarr9872]

It stays crisp and pops.

[@devonmarr9872]

​@@dolan_plz Reshade: DH_Uber Rt + SSR Immerse mxao Levels

[@silverwerewolf975]

Yeah but the performance is not too good for the visuals it has

[@hihihi1q23]

This review seems to be mostly based on Act 1 of the game, which is the most polished part of BG3 (it was the part that was in early access for years). I'd be interested to see a tech review of some of the later areas, specifically, the city of Baldur's Gate. That area definitely seems to put some strain on weaker CPUs.

[@murattyngo]

This guy is right. DF please test later areas.

[@LN.2233]

DF don't typically cover the entire game but they really need to start doing their analysis based on everything and not just the first few hours.

[@stevenwebbmusic]

true, but this game is massive. I guess we'd have to wait an extra week or so for the video lol@@LN.2233

[@Mene0]

@@LN.2233 problem is that it probably takes quite a while to test everything in multiple PC setups, capture footage, run the tools etc. They probably can't afford the time, so many games coming out. It would be good but sometimes games are really long

[@xtr.7662]

Steam deck more especifically struggles in these areas

[@Synkhan]

The early areas (Act 1) is not really the best representation of the games performance. From the later part of Act 2 and into Act 3, the sheer large amount of NPC's seems to affect performance quite a bit. I would like to see any recommendations based on those areas. Other than that, this game is a true masterpiece. I am loving every single moment in the game.

[@idrinktapwater6174]

Buy a 4090

[@kyle_284]

The OP is describing a CPU bound scenario, a 4090 ain't going to help Maybe an x3d chip though@@idrinktapwater6174

[@ppgod6989]

😂😂

[@pendeyo]

@@idrinktapwater6174 wouldnt change anything, cause its cpu related.

[@ag8912]

Buy a 13900K

[@hihihi1q23]

The game honestly looks fantastic. Artistic vision is way more important than just focusing on the technical side. This game looks better than something like Forspoken or Hogwarts Legacy that are pretty technically demanding, to the point where even cards with under 12GB vram are going to struggle at higher resolutions.

[@arjunj8776]

Game looks great but no way its better looking than Hogwarts Legacy

[@Picolettto]

Currently playing through Hogwarts Legacy, I am oftentimes surprised by just how pretty the game is. Time of day, clothing, building interiors, rooms - what a detailed, lovingly crafted world.

[@Extreme96PL]

@@arjunj8776 BG3 looks better imo on top of that in terms of looks/performance/specs required comparison BG3 is clear winner.

[@harrylane4]

@@arjunj8776gray and brown wizard simulator 2023???

[@cpt.tombstone]

I agree with you point on artistic vision, however, I don't think the game looks objectively better than Hogwarts Legacy, even when we disregard the technical differences. Hogwarts Legacy has incredibly well done color work, everything looks as it should. Baldur's Gate 3 has a lot of issues with colors looking weird, like fire, for example having a very unrealistic color, especially in HDR, while the game's native contrast is quite off as well, with the game looking very flat in a couple of places. If you try to get things to a proper black level with HDR calibration, then highlights become blown-out pretty quickly, with very obvious dynamic range issues, and oversaturated colors. This might not be a huge issue for people with traditional monitors, but on OLED, you just can't have good contrast without colors looking bad, and even in SDR, some colors are off. This is not something that is unique to this game though, many games have bad color science. Cyberpunk comes to mind, there is a mod that converts the game's LUT to be in line with the ACES standard and the game looks incomparably better, without any performance regression.

[@MrLathor]

The art direction and good performance makes up for any technical shortcomings. Most gamers want depth of gameplay and story, not some bleeding edge graphical technology.

[@Extreme96PL]

Yeah art direction is very important its reason why some old games still looks great like first Mass Effect and why i think ME1 looks worse in MELE.

[@LN.2233]

​@@Extreme96PLHow does it?

[@GraveUypo]

DF sad they can't stare at puddles looking at the reflection

[@aquaneon8012]

If that's true then why do people keep complaining about lack of current gen console games especially since Baldur's Gate 3 is not coming to previous gen consoles.

[@LionMob]

​@@Extreme96PLKingdom Hearts 1 and 2, PS2 games that still looks beautiful today, and for me (KH2) the game with the best gameplay ever.

[@Sting_ray]

I would love a Steam Deck focused setting video like this once FSR 2.0 is available.

[@MGsubbie]

I had the lead designer of this game come speak at my college years ago. I had no idea how big this studio would become. So proud of my fellow countrymen.

[@alexanderbreems2921]

Recently found out Larian is Belgian. CDPR has some friendly EU competition methinks.

[@EarthIsFlat456]

​@@alexanderbreems2921 CDPR's reputation has been severely damaged by Cyberpunk, it's going to take another Witcher to restore it.

[@sophieedel6324]

@@alexanderbreems2921 Belgium is also the first country to ban loot boxes. And Larian actually supported that, they used to make educational games. Compared to other developers, they have some basic integrity built into the studio.

[@FingerTriggr]

​@@alexanderbreems2921dont forget guerrilla games

[@itsaUSBline]

I want to mention ZA/UM as well, but it's really unfortunate what happened with them.

[@peterGchaves]

A surprisingly serious candidate for GOTY 2023 and one of the best RPG's ever made. Larian showing their masterclass work, they absolutely deserve all the praise.

[@anab0lic]

'one of the best RPG's ever made...' dude play some actual good RPG's, the overpraise of this game is off the charts right now. IT's an ok game, its far from this masterpiece that people are proclaiming.... doesn't come close to reaching the heights of BG2 . Video game standards are truly at an all time low.

[@ShaCaro]

@@anab0lic You disqualified your opinion by calling it an 'ok' game. You not liking it doesn't take away from how good of a game it is.

[@RobertleeEtn]

​@@anab0lic tf are you even on about lmao literally amazing game

[@fearan9406]

I was about to say you nicked steven seagulls pic buts its actually you ahha

[@DatAsianGuy]

have you actually played it? @@anab0lic

[@gh0sthouse]

The city is where the real performance problems start to arise. Seems extremely cpu bound there.

[@straighttoproduction]

Great analysis as always Alex! Digital Foundry is lucky to have you produce videos for them.

[@chase5436]

Feel like the "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" can be used for this game. It doesn't push graphical limits, but its visuals lend well to telling the story beautifully. The environments are varied and detailed, and they've done an amazing job translating Feirun into a visual medium. I have been playing more topdown with a keyboard though. Seems like using a controller allows for a more first person view that would put the focus on quality of the visuals much more. I'd also be a bit more interested in testing of the later areas of the game that have much more stuff happening on the screen.

[@agromchung]

You can zoom in and out on a controller - I play with gamepad and I'm playing top-down most of the time. The 3rd person mode doesn't quite zoom in far enough to feel like a 3rd-person OTS view and also the walk/run cycles don't really connect with the environment properly so it feels a little off.

[@cor.tenebrarum]

Design eats every other rpg apart of FROMsoftware rpgs.

[@ionseven]

Under-the-hood systems/interactivity makes me feel like we're back in the Golden Age of Gaming in gen 7 and prior when top tier passion projects were the norm vs the low content, rinse repeat, stale, formulaic, microtransactions riddled garbage we get now. Game is incredible.

[@CatOfCulture]

Optimized settings start at 13:40

[@joseijosei]

Great video! I just wish you guys waited to test the performance in some Act 3 zones that are extremely CPU intensive. I can imagine the performance with a Ryzen 3600 would drop to the 30s. Things truly get pretty heavy after Act 2.

[@Gkhn32]

I know this is a huge game so I understand Alex not being in the most demanding scenes for this review but I really wished to see ACT 3 City Area performance analysis. It is a stutter fest. The scope is uncomparable to previous Acts. Tons of npcs, lots of events going simultaneously etc. My system with rtx3080 and ryzen 5800x with 32 gb ram is begging for help.

[@LlamaNL]

I had the same issue when I using vulkan, only getting 30 fps with a 5950x and a 3090. DX11 fixed most of it, I can comfortably cruise through the lower city with about 45 fps. Only other change I made is I went from DLAA to Quality DLSS

[@Kmaitland89]

I'm not having any stutters but, I also have the best gaming PC you can buy. So, I'm probably just powering through it.

[@MrH-GB]

The act 3 city runs about 50fps lower than acts 1 & 2 for me, it's really heavy.

[@sophieedel6324]

Act 3 runs just fine if you don't force Vulkan and use normal DirectX. Steam Deck's implementation of Vulkan and Proton has been a mess for me on many games and it creates bugs where there aren't any on a full PC. I returned my Steam Deck.

[@jiaan100]

Yeah he shoulda had somebody send him a save

[@crimsonclad8019]

W/CRPGs are my favorite genre, and I haven't felt this way about an entry in 20+ years. I can barely believe it exists sometimes.

[@igorthelight]

Check out Divinity: Original Sin 1/2 from the same developers ;-)

[@crimsonclad8019]

@@igorthelight Oh, I own and love both. It's just that BG3 feels like a generational leap over their previous outings in terms of scope and ambition.

[@themightyruler1319]

@@crimsonclad8019 Yea it is, I wonder how big of a leap DOS3 will be.

[@TilSkywalker]

It is really great to see that so much work has been put into making th characters look great!

[@KarlRock]

4:36 DX11 vs Vulkan- I was wondering this! So most people should use DX11.

[@icaroamorim3123]

@@nowayjosedaniel can you elaborate on what is wrong about the discussion DX1Q vs Vulkan in this particular game.

[@HassanMohamoud-lg2xw]

@@nowayjosedaniel lol sure kid

[@Rufiowascool]

@@nowayjosedanielthis KZbinr? It’s fucking digital foundry here brah…not Dave from next door.

[@jasons4453]

@@nowayjosedaniel .... what? This is Digital Foundry lol. Literally THE authority in in-depth technical analysis of videogames and gaming hardware.

[@kosmosyche]

@@XZ-III Well, FFVII wasn't perfect on release, that's for sure. I remember having issues with textures loading in some areas and at least some stuttering. Don't know whether they fixed them or not now, but that's how I remember playing FFVII on PC release. I guess, it depends on what one considers a good or a bad port. I thought it was passable to ok.

[@odie5268]

The problem with implementing RT in this game is that the shadows are an integral part of combat and strategically setting up things. It could be that it's been meticulously placed for set piece battles. It would upend that a bit from a design perspective, but then again they could probably replicate it, would be a completely new aspect to design for though and it would make that something they would need to do TWICE once for RT and once without. That's just too much work, BG3 is already an extremely complex amount of work. Until we get RT as a default standard on even the low and mid-low end these types of games that rely on shadows as part of the set-pieces of a CRPG battle will be hard pressed to see it happen. That said, even if the technicality of the engine isn't up to the top echelon of standards, it is more than competent and combined with the art direction allows the game's presentation achieve more than the sum of its parts.

[@EpicControlzDev]

It could also be that they're working smarter not harder. Many modern games use dynamic systems to determine light levels in a scene, so no one has to manually go through each level placing light levels for each shadow... I believe this tech has been available since Thief: The Dark Project released back in 1998.

[@photonboy999]

RT and Stealth: I saw a video that demonstrated how the shadows were MASSIVELY different between Ray-Traced shadows and pre-baked lighting that had more traditional (fake) light sources. They talked about how a STEALTH game, for example, needs to use one OR the other but not both. In the video they showed the ASSASSIN standing in a corner covered by SHADOW that had been intentionally manipulated to look darker. When they turned on ray-tracing there were reflections that illuminated the area enough that the assassin was obviously going to be seen.

[@odie5268]

@@EpicControlzDev without RT there's a ton of work to do that and hacks that need to be put in place. With RT.. it just works like you expect.

[@RealFlicke]

@@odie5268 Sadly that's not the case. Dying Light 2 is one example where ray tracing has some huge technical problems like adding pitch black spots all over the place when it's day light. It might make things easier but it's still hard to make look good.

[@odie5268]

@@RealFlicke Also depends on the engine and the amount of bounces allowed.

[@james-andrew-adams]

The performance in the first act is pretty good. When you go into the second act (and area), the performance starts to really dip @ 21:9 1440p at max with DLSS quality. Third act my FPS count goes from ~90-100 FPS to ~45-60. Way more entities and density later on. I hope there will be some performance optimizations, but I won't hold my breath.

[@xtr.7662]

Maybe you have a cpu bottleneck thats a pretty big drop mibe went from ~80fps to around ~60fps

[@james-andrew-adams]

@@xtr.7662 I don't think that's the case - I have a 5900X paired with a RTX 4080.

[@xtr.7662]

@@james-andrew-adams this game is severely cpu limited in later areas and your playing with a 4080 at 1440p with dlss which puts more of a strain on the cpu trying to get higher framerates but thats the game problem not ours hopefully they reduce that somewhat in future patches

[@Antares-dw9iv]

@@james-andrew-adams The 5900x is definitely the bottleneck. The game has insane CPU requirements in the third act and 45-60 FPS in the city with a 5900x sounds about right to me, the 4080 is likely sitting around barely doing anything.

[@james-andrew-adams]

@@Antares-dw9iv That's interesting. Odd to hear that such a modern, high-end CPU could be struggling in this game.

[@disabledcable685]

Can confirm that only crashes I've had were in the underdark when using vulkan, swapped to dx11 and no issues halfway thru ch2, great video Alex thanks for showing this game some love!

[@Vinterloft]

Smart access memory being on can also crash in Grymforge the same way. Something is weird about those areas, I think they've exceeded the game engine's map size limit somehow and are working with chunks, and when the camera is near the edge of the map it crashes. And then they only tested it with DX11.

[@LeateqOfficial]

Act 1 and Act 2 are very good optimized But act 3 drops frames to around 35 on my pc Rtx 3070 Ryzen 5900 32 gb memory Ssd 1440p no matter what settings

[@jet613]

Yikes as I'm worried for when I get there now haha. I'm running a 3090 though ( won't save me).

[@arthurcuesta6041]

I love Larian so much. Thank you guys for the countless hours of fun.

[@Hree]

First 3 minutes is a good clip to send to friends on WHY its a turn based game and not action/hackNslash. Great stuff.

[@OneTwoMark]

10:34 this is why I’m disappointed Starfield will only have FSR and not DLSS. Gonna have to put up with subpar visuals.

[@dirkboi6844]

Really would have loved to see performance differences in multiplayer and in the big city with tons of NPCs

[@ManuelMerzinger]

What I love the most so far is the sheer detail in scale. This game looks amazing in the isometric strategic view from above, and exploring it on the ground with your character, nothing looks out of place, too big, too small or just cartoony. Best example is the shot at 3:31, all the items are the right size compared to all other items, environments and details. This makes not only cutscenes pop with much more life, when roaming the lands you get the full experience. With a controller or on the Deck I mostly use the behind the camera view, but with a Keyboard the isometric view is far more convenient, but neither feel out of place, or plain better.

[@cpt.tombstone]

Good video Alex, I would note a few things though... DLSS2FSR mod works with the game, meaning users can inject FSR 2 in place of DLSS very easily. Second thing is that you mentioned using Streamline, and while that would add Frame Generation to the game, XeSS still does not have a Streamline plugin from intel, so it would not allow XeSS to be present in-game, and streamline would actually block the DLSS2FSR mod from working. Also, updating the DLSS version to 3.1.20 or later and forcing preset F vastly improves the image Quality of every DLSS option, when the camera is in motion. DLSS tweaks allows overriding the resolution scaling for DLSS as well, I'm playing with DLSS set to 0.82X scale for example, which is basically on par with DLAA, while it is 5-10% faster than native TAA, while also looking better.

[@skpro_jects]

Can you explain how to use this newer DLSS option please?

[@TarnishedGaming85]

Unfortunately, the DLSS2FSR mod was removed from nexus mods.

[@kemiz4]

@@TarnishedGaming85 Both Discord and Github are still up. It's a simple dll drop in, no need for installers.

[@aouyiu]

@@TarnishedGaming85 Anyone have any idea why? Was it malware or something?

[@TarnishedGaming85]

@@aouyiu Nah. The author themselves removed it because people were in the comments complaining about too much ghosting with it.

[@somnolence5339]

Texture Ultra setting is not only cheap, but a must as for whatever reason character tattoos and scars become low rez without it

[@zen_lemming]

I've stayed up until 4 am the past 4 days playing BG3. This game is so damn good.

[@eSKAone-]

Wouldn't be surprised when they patch in a moment where a character looking like Alex dances in the clouds

[@Maartwo]

I have never seen an RPG have such good lighting and texture work. I'm always blown away every time I play this.

[@timmyp6297]

Witcher 3 RT blows everything out of the water. It looks like a modern version of those 90s silicon graphics renders, which we never got in real time.

[@xtr.7662]

​@@timmyp6297stop lying witcher 3 next gen is barely better than the vanilla version and runs much worse

[@xtr.7662]

Yeah me too diablo 4 already looked good and this looks significantly better

[@smittyvanjagermanjenson182]

@timmyp6297 pretty sure OP is talking about CRPGs. .Witcher 3 is an Action RPG. They don't compare really.

[@sickbrain]

I'm playing a different game or you must be didn't play any other current RPGs. BG3 visuals are fine, but nothing to write home about. Even this review calls visuals and tech "last gen" because it is.

[@fightnight14]

I just upgraded my rig from 4th gen i5 and 1660super to 13th gen i7 and RX 6750XT. I'll be eating good for the rest of the year playing BG3 and Starfield. What a year!

[@barnuner]

This game looks so beautiful especially the characters when they get sweaty and the lighting hits right in a lava area in a dialogue scene it looks Real.

[@mclovintrill5783]

Thank u alex for doing the settings recommendation! Will use! Thanks!

[@aprilmeowmeow]

this game has insane memory leaks for me on PC (both Vulcan and dx11). It starts out performing well, but ends up needing a restart after an hour or so.

[@teffhk]

Cant wait for it to come to other platforms and the DF videos come with it!

[@anteshell]

2:36 That is not analog, though. That is random number generator with pretty animation. The number changes, but the animation is always the same. Nothing analog there. To be able to call that analog, at minimum it should have been a real dice simulation with physics.

[@MediaBrad]

That would be cool to be able to fling the dice with the mouse or controller so you are active in the roll.

[@anteshell]

@@MediaBrad tbh, I was disappointed they missed the opportunity, but I understand why they did so. There is that one gameplay setting that toggles the dice to be biased to prevent you from having loosing streak. That would be impossible to implement with real physics simulation.

[@devlin1991]

The player models and especially the hair models, when in-game, are incredible.

[@KesslerCOIL]

Fog Quality seems to affect things like smoke, which there are several(at least 5, + a major area) areas in the game where going between High and Low has given me as much as a 20% performance gain. For testing, I recommend checking out a burning villa in the north of Act 1, it has a very heavy hit to performance there.

[@kaptenteo]

While it makes no sense that a setting like "fog" would affect smoke effects, it should definitely be tested if Alex finds the time.

[@randir14]

They posted a blog on release day that said they're working to implement FSR 2

[@acnash27]

Would be nice to see you analyze the performance once you get to the actual city of Baldur’s Gate in act 3. I found performance to be significantly different than act 1/2.

[@matthewjuarbe5826]

i dont think he has 40hrs to get that far

[@-aleeke-2526]

​@@matthewjuarbe5826well he seams to enjoy the game so maybe ther will be a follow upp video?

[@matthewjuarbe5826]

maybe i just started playing d just finish the prologue and even for me this game i GOTY contender it's so polished and i know people are saying wait to Act 3 when youre in the cities and NPCs are everywhere it hammers PCs. well yeah it supposed to hammer CPUs look at assassin's creed unity it still gives modern CPUs a run for its money due to the sheer amount of NPCs in certain sections. @@-aleeke-2526 but that doesnt mean its not well optimize

[@acnash27]

@@matthewjuarbe5826 Just have someone give him a save.

[@matthewjuarbe5826]

@@acnash27 it is not the same

[@steveybiggunzgaming8118]

Running this on the rog ally with an xg mobile, 6850xt, I’m able to max the settings and get a pretty good experience in 4K. Very happy with it.

[@lord.frosty]

Alex just raised my expectations for this game and I know expect a dancing in the clouds scene. Great review as always!

[@KesslerCOIL]

Animation Quality is most noticeable in cutscenes and conversations, my friend and I stream the game to each other on discord while we play together and we saw very noticeable differences. Low Animation Quality tends to have much stiffer animations and less emotive facial expressions.

[@eSKAone-]

A milestone. And no one can take it away 💟

[@socaldayve]

Larian: Let's have a big song and dance number in the clouds for a finale. Nobody will guess that's coming! Alex: There's only one scenario I can imagine where one would alter these settings...

[@77Arcturus]

Thank you for the excellent tech review. I especially appreciate how you pointed out the quality ui differences when using keyboard/mouse or a controller. Incredible dedication indeed which all game companies should strive for especially the ones who have been around for decades who seem to always go only for a console ui even for the pc versions which effects gameplay flow. Cheers and happy researching ☕

[@boris---]

YES DUDE.... I have some problem in my head.. I will not play game without Alex review and graphics analysis... I was refreshing DF yt like 5x times per day waiting for this...

[@CompleteAnimation]

The fact that this game is already almost finished being ported to PS5 and will hopefully even come out on Xbox Series S gives me hope that the PC version will get tweaks over the coming months to run that much better, especially on lower-end hardware.

[@kraenk12]

We’ll see about Series S.

[@xtr.7662]

They wont the game is already finished running on series s split screen is what they are having problems

[@adriankoch964]

@@xtr.7662 They'll get over those issues for sure. With a bit of time they'll find shortcuts they can take, especially now that the xbox optimization team is helping them. Still a loss for Microsoft that basically gave Sony a "self-own" xbox exclusion until 2024 there.

[@deschain1910]

​@@xtr.7662 But to do that, what they need to do is crank up the overall optimization. That's why splitscreen would be hard to run on Series S and not Series X.

[@xtr.7662]

@@deschain1910 they cant crank up optimization when the hardware has a severe bottleneck 6gb of ram less than series x and ps5

[@coliander4180]

The visuals may not necessarily be a technical showcase, but that absolutely does not matter when what is on display has been so lovingly crafted. The set pieces and environments are consistently gorgeous. Games don't need cutting edge visual tech in order to look good. But visuals aside, what really makes this game stand out to me is that it's an increasingly rare example of what a studio can produce when it's team actually *cares* about the project it's working on. This isn't an EA/Activision property that has been commissioned by Executives in a boardroom somewhere in order to appease shareholders. This is a game made by a studio who genuinely care about the product they're developing. Yes, there are still a few minor bugs/performance issues that need a little more work, but considering the utterly epic scope of the game and the relatively small (by today's standards) team that made it possible, BG3 really is an absolute triumph. This is game development as it used to be. When studios were driven by their enthusiasm rather than by their bank balances. It warms my heart to know that the ethos of studios such as Team17, Psygnosis, Bullfrog and the rest all live on through Larian. That itself justifies the purchase price ❤

[@tominatorxx]

You know, the last game I can remember that blew my mind in terms of dialogue options, role-playing and immersion was Fallout New Vegas. This is like that, but on steroids. Couple that to a combat system that I much prefer to modern Fallout's and yeah... this might become my favourite RPG of all time.

[@igorthelight]

Check out Divinity: Original Sin 1/2 from the same developers ;-)

[@tominatorxx]

@@igorthelight Already have. Played twice through both of them, and I'm playing the second one for a 3rd time in COOP with a friend. :)

[@JohanMursu]

The video I’ve been waiting for! 👍🏻 Liked

[@3ventic]

A friend of mine had awful stuttering on DX11. Switching to Vulkan did drop the average FPS, but the frametime graph became buttery smooth. I had some crashes with Vulkan myself at first, but I've had none since the 2nd hotfix.

[@SahilP2648]

Yup same here. The game crashed only once on Vulkan for me initially but never after that. And especially scrolling sideways and panning through the map is much much smoother on Vulkan than DX11. I seriously wonder why developers don't switch to Vulkan/OpenGL since that would enable native Linux play too, and probably easier portability to Mac with the new game porting toolkit.

[@cmdr.jabozerstorer3968]

@@SahilP2648 I've had no crashes with Vulkan either. Although I'm only in Act 1. I've had bugs but I think those bugs would be in DX11 too. Although when I first tried to load using Vulkan it didn't load and was very slow. Not had any issues since, so think it was just a first time launch in Vulkan issue.

[@travismorse5050]

Baldurs Gate is back baby!!!! Larian Studios for president!!!! Thanks to those hard working and talented developers over there. Thanks for bringing the heat with this bad boy!!!!

[@ZykopathOfficial]

Baldur's Gate 3 reminds us of when games used to be fun and complete!

[@LN.2233]

Are you a Larian employee? There are a bunch of fun and complete games that have come out on the past 3 decades.

[@smittyvanjagermanjenson182]

Yes, it does remind us, and that scares the Bigger Devs immensely.

[@yewtewbstew547]

@@LN.2233 Most of the fun and complete games did come out earlier in those "past 3 decades" though lol.

[@corey2232]

And when players didn't act like performance dips or bugs instantly meant "THIS GAME IS TRASH!" Sure, if a simple & straightforward game like Mortal Kombat constantly dips from 60 fps to 40 fps, has random crashes, or bugs in every cutscene - be pissed! But when a game is as ambtious, massive & packed with content as BG3, of course you'll run into some issues every now & then. Skyrim didn't sell 60+ million copies since release because it had zero bugs, perfectly locked performance & cutting edge visuals... it sold that well because it offered a ton of freedom in a large world that people could easily look past those technical shortcomings.

[@LN.2233]

@@yewtewbstew547 no, you'd be playing those games of that was true.

[@aclaylambisabirdman6324]

Passion, Commitment, plus time, equals game of this quality, a beautiful to watch :D

[@notsure9373]

Seems like the game makes up for what it lacks in cutting edge rendering techniques with amazing art direction. I'll take that any day over having e.g. Nanite/Lumen but having to render at 540p effective for 60 Hz on popular hardware.

[@randomdude8877]

I think they have done a really really good job with the cut scenes overall. The characters facial expressions and the way they move is top notch. Ever encountered Raphael? The way he talks and acts, it really feels like a scene with Al Pacino in it. hehe It's awesome

[@MemoriesLP]

It is just on Ultra for me.. and I have a 1060 6GB, i5 7th gen... everything on max setting Sure it can lower some frames, but nothing major and losing some frames here and there on Baldurs Gate 3 does not interrupt gameplay. But I'm gonna watch the video because I always learn something from you

[@Vsevolod3788]

Nice! That's what I wanted to hear. RX588+10400f.

[@MemoriesLP]

@@Vsevolod3788 I also have an SSD but its a very simple one, not that good

[@Vsevolod3788]

@@MemoriesLP Me too. Standart SATA SSD Samsung Evo.

[@Chabizard]

Been waiting for this video!

[@logirex]

I had some crashes with Vulcan API so changed to DX11 and zero crashes with that. As for settings the game is turn based so crank everything to max basically unless you run on a toaster.

[@Mc76204]

Depends on the resolution, everything on max at 4k you need more than a toaster.

[@pokealong]

@@Mc76204 Hence "UNLESS you run on a toaster" and not "EVEN IF you run on a toaster".

[@DrGnRIDER112]

I noticed that the slow HDD mode helps with my Thunderbolt 4 eGPU performance, particularly with cutscene transitions where it would often pause or hitch when it was not enabled. Despite using a machine with an NVMe SSD.

[@DrGnRIDER112]

For reference I am using a razer blade stealth, with the razer core x equipped with an AMD Radeon RX 5700XT

[@epiccontrolzx2291]

Tip: DO NOT use DLAA in this game! Step 1 - Instead, go to Nvidia control panel, turn on DLDSR 1.78x. Step 2 -Launch the game with DX11 Step 3 -In the game settings, set the display to Fullscreen Step 4 -Change in-game resolution to the DLDSR resolution Step 5 -Turn on DLSS Quality Step 6 - Be amazed at the PRISTINE image quality on display! Step 7 - Realize the performance is actually somehow BETTER than DLAA and have your mind blown...

[@antoine9765]

Good advice thanks. If the custom 1.78 resolution doesn't appear, you might have to activate it via the screen aspect ratio.

[@Reds-Retros]

DLSS? No thanks. I'd rather take an fps hit in a turn based game about story and atmosphere than ruin my image quality with DLSS. I've been using 4k with DLAA and nvidia sharpening to counter the blur and restore texture quality and it looks great, almost as good as 8xMSAA but without the huge performance hit that it would have.

[@epiccontrolzx2291]

@@antoine9765 yeah, BG3 uses an "exact" aspect ratio system(rounded to whole numbers) so just gotta look through them to find the resolution

[@antoine9765]

@@Reds-Retros I would generally agree with you, but the mix proposed here actually look sharper and cleaner that just DLAA. Cost vs DLAA might be 3 fps.

[@Mene0]

Amazing how this game blew up, and very good too

[@UserInterface00]

One of the greatest surprises of the year and definitely a GOTY contender no one expected before this came out.

[@caioaugusto19]

Actually the ones who played divinity 2 or early access expected.

[@BossXAOC]

Everyone who played any game of larian or played the EA version absolutely expected to be it a goty contender. Thats far away from "no one". Also its the sequel to one of most famous rpg franchise ever made with one of the biggest Fantasy world linceses ( dnd) ever made.

[@astrojeet]

It is not even close to a surprise. Having played the early access, it was an easy potential GOTY contender. Even then it smashed my high expectations.

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

I've also heard that this is the first game ever made that didn't have micro transactions or DLC.

[@TheCocomunges]

False, lol. Ask anyone who played divinity original sim 2 and they’d be able to tell you they expected a masterpiece out of Larian studios

[@Lightmgl]

Have you done any testing in Act 3 in the last overworld area (trying not to spoil) as the performance in the game takes an absolute nosedive due to CPU limitations (presumably from NPC simulation). My rig which had no problem maintaining 100fps the whole game struggles to stay between 50-60 there with dips as low as 30. Meanwhile GPU is barely utilized. For an overall look at this game's performance Act 3 analysis is a MUST.

[@grahamt19781]

Bought the game yesterday and was blown away by how beautiful it is and how smooth it plays. Never played a D&D game before but I'm in love with it already. I love the turn based combat and it feels so immersive. Believe the hype on this one peeps.

[@OdinsDadd]

this is to me. Top 5 video games ever made. It keeps getting better and better and better

[@MaximumCarnage-]

You may not be aware but they moved the release date forward by a month to get away from Stanfield's release. So FSR would have been ready for the initial release date. I think it was a wise decision especially considering how well it's selling. Sounds like the PC release is fantastic compared to others and it's even more impressive when you consider the early release. This game came out of left field for me but word of mouth has got me interested.

[@TheNerd]

Baldurs Gate 3 isn't about groundbreaking tech It was made with A LOT of love and passion to become the / (one of the) best videogame ever made. Meanwhile the Tripple A industry with twice the budget struggles to deliver games that work AT ALL.

[@Carinthian_Oak]

A Game where you don't need optimized settings to be true. It runs so well and every Cutscene and even the Render Scene is on Ultra-wide too. A wonderful Gaming experience and my GOTY for sure.

[@meyore]

Damn I was hoping there’d be some mention of the super noisy shadows. Like if you talk to someone in the shade it’ll look like they have black freckles completely covering them where the shadow does. I couldn’t seem to get rid of it trying all the different combinations of AA and shadows.

[@docmars]

I was kind of shocked when I saw they were using DX11 in 2023, but the result is nearly perfect. Heck, Witcher 3 uses DX11 and after 8 years, it's still an eye-catcher, especially with the RT enhancements now.

[@adriankoch964]

Eh, I'd rather have "last" gen looking decent at 60fps with the option of adding a RTGI reshade than "OMG next gen" graphics at 30fps on anything but $2000+ systems. Especially when the camera is mostly zoomed out when actually playing. In that moment manages to look very similar to the prerendered background of BG1 and 2, which is a complete success to me.

[@JT-mt6ku]

The game won’t even boot with Vulcan enabled with the full release, I was using it during the early access with zero issues 🤷‍♂️

[@KingfishWatch]

I personally noticed what if you turn off DOF antialiasing option off (just select Quadrant) it will make hair flicker with DLSS\DLAA less visible Also, Gaussian blur option is less prone to quality loss with DLSS on that a bokeh "Circular" option

[@cmdr.jabozerstorer3968]

I might have to try this. I have DLSS on (I think, it might be DLAA) and I get a bit of hair flicker in cutscenes.

[@KingfishWatch]

@@cmdr.jabozerstorer3968 Gaussian blur does not illuminating issue but does make it less noticible Also Hotfix 3 did something to hair rendering and as a result there is even less noise with DLSS!

[@cmdr.jabozerstorer3968]

@@KingfishWatch I've turned off VSync and things seem a but smoother now and I'm more consistently getting over 60fps. I'm using DLAA currently.

[@nena_DP]

I think you can easily hit 60 fps on something like a 1660 if you tweak it a bit. That to me is a great PC version.

[@kamen.rider.decade]

Kinda wish there was some coverage of the split-screen mode, but I'm assuming there will be plenty of time to check that out once it lands on PS5.

[@barnabuzz2277]

I am surprised you left out an additional huge benefit from using DirectX mode: It supports HDR. When you use DirectX and turn on HDR in Windows there will be HDR settings ingame. And with some little tweeks it looks pretty good. Imo better than without. Worth checking out!

[@Deinorius]

Vulkan supports HDR as well. That was maybe an EA limit.

[@Lolingtoner]

I really wished you did some testing in the later acts like in the city in act 3, i've had 100+ fps in all areas but the cities and crowds can bring it down to 20 and introduce a lot of stutters

[@Schizm1]

I'm so glad it's isometric game and not TPP. Isometric camera IMO makes RPGs timeless and makes them look like "moving illustrations". Love it!

[@kraenk12]

You can still zoom in to third person view.

[@Softload3r]

05:08 this doesn't happen to me anymore, but when it did I just clicked on the top left "Baldurs gate 3" icon again and it showed up. I use a 13900k - but just tested it a few times again and it opens/loads the content, no loading or anything. I also run a 4090 with the 13900k and I used Vulkan but the game sooner or later will always crash, after around 40 minutes more or less. Now I'm sticking to DX11 and had no crashes at all. The crashes with Vulkan mostly happen when reloading a save. Tried to send the logs to Larian, but their Feedback Channel in Discord has reached the max amount of posts.

[@wecreus804]

I recommend you testing act 3 and the city performance. Its the worst in the whole game and is night and day compared to act 1

[@MxStella]

Thanks for this video. I'm gaming on an HDD, and all I knew about HDD vs SSD for gaming was from a video Linus did many years ago. Modern games struggle to load for me, and hearing you talk about how I shouldn't be gaming on an HDD has made me realize my next upgrade should be an SSD. I wish I had known this sooner

[@deanhatescoffee]

Having your Windows system on an SSD is a whole lifestyle change. Seriously, night and day difference. Get that upgrade soon! I recently saw a deal on Slickdeals for a 2TB SSD for under $70 - not sure how good it was, but just shows that they're not as ridiculously expensive as they used to be.

[@cmdr.jabozerstorer3968]

I updated my gaming HDD recently. I cloned my HDD to my SSD and all has been fine. My main C: drive was always an SSD though. It was just my Data drive that was an HDD. I had 1tb before but now have 4tb.

[@MxStella]

@@deanhatescoffee I already have my system on an SSD, just not my games. I agree, very big difference. Luckily, I've just ordered a 1TB SSD and will be installing it as soon as it arrives! :D

[@MxStella]

@@cmdr.jabozerstorer3968 I'm in almost the exact same situation, except I'm upgrading to a 1TB SSD instead of 4TB, and will keep my HDD for older or smaller games. The games I've noticed struggle on my HDD are loading times for big games, and texture loading for modern games (like BG3, BF2042, and Control).

[@drewcipher896]

The game looks a lot better than other current or 'next gen' titles with rt features. That is what comes from having a solid art direction. Also it performs better while looking better than something like CP2077 on lower end hardware, because the developers actually considered lower end hardware when developing.

[@FilthyPeasantGaming]

Would have liked to know if Fidelity FX sharpen is a good idea if im not using DLSS.

[@LinuxRenaissance]

I'm just gonna add that it runs flawlessly on Linux. 👍 Big thumbs up for programmers.

[@sd_q3st3r]

Now this is a roll that will never be left to chance.

[@EspyMelly]

As long as you can get consistent FPS this is definitely the kind of game to push the settings as high as you're comfortable. It being turn-based means there's no quick reactions required so cranking up the cinematic quality should be a better experience.

[@steerj07]

God bless Larian. Following DOS and DOS2 as two of the best games I've ever played, this looks sensational. Just need the MS ATG to hurry up and help Larian so I can play it on my Series X ASAP.

[@MrH-GB]

It's a shame you couldn't make it to Act 3 (or borrow a save) because the performance absolutely tanks, I went from capped 120fps with plenty of headroom throughout acts 1 & 2 to dropping into the 60s.

[@james_tiberius_kirk73]

Another exceptional video. Thank-you.

[@pokealong]

This game is what all games should strive to be. Not in the sense of genre, but of quality and effort. $60, hundreds of hours of content, great quality in cutscenes, acting, and story, no MTX, no battle pass.... Just a damn good game for a solid price. There may not be ray tracing or path tracing, but it looks gorgeous regardless and with how expansive and detailed it all is, it makes sense they wouldn't make it hyperrealistic. I get 120fps at ultra settings 1440p with DLAA (that's right, DLAA not DLSS) and it is a great experience.

[@Uni0nDirect0r]

I might not be an expert, but there's no game other than just a couple of $200+ million AAA with such advanced facial animations. I mean, the characters can eye roll, grin, smirk, stare at you with pure hatred in their eyes... It's impressive.

[@Poet_from_ice]

When they choose to release game almost month early i was expecting optimization problems, but game runs perfectly! Best game i played this year

[@smittyvanjagermanjenson182]

The game has been in early access for like 3 years and Larian was hugely open to player feedback.

[@VenoXj1]

Apparently problems get more noticeable once you are in act2 and beyond that. Act1 has been running flawless for me too as of now.

[@xwize]

There are optimisation problems don't kid yourself. They just show up in the later acts.

[@aouyiu]

@@smittyvanjagermanjenson182 3 years spent on act one yea

[@adriankoch964]

@@VenoXj1 Both previous Larian titles kinda unravelled and got thinner and buggier the closer you got towards the end. I think while disappointing, it's fair to emphasize polishing the front of a game - most people don't play more than the first 20% of a any game if you take a look at achievement distribution.

[@WereCatStudio]

I have black rectangles flickering at the right side of the screen during dialogues when using Vulkan with RX 6800 XT. Works fine with DX11

[@smittyvanjagermanjenson182]

This game is excellent! True GOTY material even! 3070 and 3800x, user here and the most ive experienced running the game at 1440p ultra dlss off are a few dips to 30fps once in a while, but other than that its holding around 78-98fps and im not even mad about the dips.

[@JudeTheYoutubePoopersubscribe]

Game looks boring AF. Top down Diablo clone trash.

[@Alex-nk8bw]

Mh, I wonder if the Slow HDD option will make a difference on a slower 4C/8T cpu as in my Steam Deck. Will try that later.

[@matternicuss]

BG3 is by far the best looking CRPG ever made. It may not stand up to top of the line modern titles graphically, but when you consider Larian's origins and how niche this genre is, it's a massive achievement.

[@matternicuss]

@@HondaWanderer on a technical level, there really is no comparison. Name another CRPG that you think rivals BG3 in the graphics department…

[@matternicuss]

@@HondaWanderer it’s relevant when the visuals and overall high production values help your game become the best selling ever in its genre lol. I already said it can’t compete with other top of the line AAA games graphically so I’m not sure what your point is, if you even have one.

[@truknet]

Hey Alex, can you do another video Using Richard's Rift apart PC to deduce the issue. As to why baulders gate 3 has issues running co-op on series S. I've looked up the specs on the minimum pc specs. The rx480 and the gtx970. As far as memory is concerned has 8+gb vram. Which is more than both. The series S has similar bandwidth and higher memory throughput at 14gbs. Using gddr6 ram. So it doesn't seem to be memory issue. So what is it?🤷‍♂️