The Cities Skylines 2 Hardware Benchmarking, Performance, and Settings Guide

[@CityPlannerPlays]

A few quick things ... 1) The benchmarks can be found here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JIUokAXWOvHYsVZzJv7Skju5oKgm0-r4/edit?pli=1#gid=1737240722 2) The benchmark example can be found here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqHcXqalnb6mqqc 3) At least in the US, you can get a Game Pass 14 day trial for $1 again. If you want to test CS2 without a big commitment, that's a valid way to do it - www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-game-pass . Not sponsored in any way. 4) A HUGE thank you to all channel members and patrons! This video is here because of you!

[@lostmymag]

Any info on upscaling? Noticed the upscaling on your stream said AMD FSR 1.0 with a drop down menu with constant dynamic resolution on. If this is FSR 1.0, might explain why it looks so bad and DLSS might actually be viable. kzbin.infoA9_5opzu8HU?si=hZ6m17JTD8DM8LpX&t=8083

[@heathhunt1992]

Do you think I will have any issues with the game using the asus-rog-strix-scar-18 240hz gaming laptop qhd intel-13th gen-core-i with 32gb memory nvidia geforce rtx 4090 2tb ssd and a 2460×1600 screen resolution. I'm worried because it is a 4000 laptop I just purchased from Best Buy. I only got it hopes it will run perfect for the game.

[@cptjpk]

Looks like the legend for the 2600x+GPUs is flipped between 1% lows and avg

[@DocNo27]

Nice - looking forward to digging deeper! I'm planning to head to Microcenter Monday to get parts for a build so this is very timely (especially since my closes Microcenter is now 4 hours away).

[@sleeplesson]

@@heathhunt1992 You should be fine honestly. Start with medium and tweak settings from there.

[@OVERCHARGEDEGG]

Mad respect for putting this together mate, a huge help for the CS community 🙏

[@CityPlannerPlays]

Thanks, bud!

[@cs2forlife]

Cities Skylines PR team working harder than optimisation team

[@oldjoe182]

i dont like this at all! those gfx cards are crazy expensive where i live. this sucks!

[@kr46428]

@@oldjoe182 I think they are crazy expensive no matter where you live, but for some places they are even more crazy expensive.

[@Xiyng]

I'm sure the optimization team is working hard (there wasn't supposed to be an update yesterday!), it just seems like it's harder task than they anticipated, so it's taking time.

[@JustMe-oo1gr]

Now THIS is the Cities Skylines 2 video people have REALLY been waiting for. Thanks so much for all the time and effort you put in on this project!

[@twodollarstwenty]

This is huge. Thank you for running all of these tests and providing us with your findings. This is such a big undertaking and it’s going to help people out immensely! Myself included. Thank you!

[@mrbfros454]

The CO dev team should pay you handsomely for this video. Not only have you saved them many difficult phone calls to customer service but you also have done a lot of their work for them by exposing weak points and features that need improvement. The time and effort put into this is just amazing. Your love and dedication to your viewers is truly heartwarming. ❤

[@GreenDavidA]

I think they should hire Phil as their product manager

[@fredpittman1972]

I was stunned to see so many tests done… this guy is amazing.

[@imperfectcookie9911]

THIS SHOULD BE THE STANDARD FOR BENCHMARKING VIDEOS. I can't stress enough that not everyone has the access to top-of-the-line equipment. Videos like this are a godsend. Thank you doesn't come close to how much I appreciate the work you've done, and I'm sure the same goes for a lot of people. Thank you Phil!! Taking one for the good of the community.

[@gregbrent2357]

This is one of the most valuable things a content creator has ever done not only for their community, but for the games they cover. This must have been nightmarishly expensive and incredibly time consuming so I just can't thank you enough. Majestic work as usual.

[@JouleThief29]

As someone who did benchmarking several times to find the best settings for the games I play, I really appreciated the huge amount of work, which must have went into this video. I'm glad that I don't need to do this myself and can enjoy CS2 then it releases on Tuesday (or Wednesdays because my Internet is slow as hell, welcome to Germany😅)

[@CityPlannerPlays]

Happy to help! Hopefully this gives you a good starting place for your settings! Thanks so much for the support!

[@c14b4tt4]

You may be able to preload the game over night

[@kaesden]

not even just the work, but the cost as well. Not many streamers have the equipment to do this thorough of a test, or the budget to do so.

[@JouleThief29]

@@kaesden ​I know, therefore the Super Thanks ;)

[@splintercat]

Thank you so much for this video. Can't even begin to show you the right amount of gratitude for all the work that went into this. 💜

[@CityPlannerPlays]

Thank you so much, Splintercat! Glad to hear that you're enjoying the videos and I really appreciate the support!!

[@asneakyninja1_]

I'm glad there is someone in this community that is willing to actually go and test various system configs to really see what the performance is, great work!

[@LumenTrails]

For somebody that is VERY confused about all of the information coming out about the performance, this was so incredibly helpful! Thank you!

[@DiamondOrPoor78]

This has got to be one of the best and most high effort Cites: Skylines videos of all time, thanks a ton we all really appreciate it!

[@StoneLegion]

Thank you for making this video. We know you put extra effort into this and had to redo it due to an update. Thank you so much! Looking forward to launch!

[@timestamppatrol]

00:00 The release of "Cities: Skylines 2" saw an increase in minimum and recommended system requirements, with performance issues acknowledged by the developers. 02:05 Disabling V-Sync led to significant performance improvements for many graphics cards, especially for the 40 series cards, significantly enhancing 1% lows and reducing stuttering. 03:15 Benchmarking methodology involved creating a city with around 100,000 population, mainly on a River Delta map to avoid weather effects on performance. 05:38 The game's performance heavily depends on the GPU, with poor 1% lows due to VRAM and system memory limitations, potentially leading to stutter and lag. 13:50 The game struggles to perform at 4K high settings, with up to a 50% reduction in FPS, highlighting the need for further optimization. 16:23 FPS doesn't scale linearly with city growth, with the steepest drop in FPS early on and a more moderate decline as the city expands. 17:06 Recommended settings vary depending on your graphics card, but general guidelines include adjusting graphical settings, depth of field, and volume metrics to optimize performance. 18:33 To enhance performance for "Cities: Skylines 2," it's essential to have a graphics card with at least 10 GB of VRAM, with a 4060 TI (16 GB) as a sweet spot for most users. 19:02 Avoid 8 GB variants of graphics cards to ensure better performance in demanding scenarios. 19:16 Consider upgrading your RAM to at least 16 GB, and aim for 32 GB if possible. 19:30 Invest in an NVMe drive as it will improve overall game performance and reduce reliance on the page file. 19:44 Processor upgrades are less crucial in City Skylines 2 compared to the GPU. Focus on getting a higher-end GPU first. 20:25 Try out the game using Steam's 2-hour refund policy or consider subscribing to Game Pass for a cost-effective trial. 22:10 Experiment with different in-game settings to optimize performance, including disabling features like V-Sync, depth of field, motion blur, and fog. ko-fi.com/timestamppatrol

[@UniversoXbox1]

“Avoid 8GB variants” My 3050 4GB 💀

[@kabloonuk]

It's ridiculous needing a 4060 or more when a 3080 play Phantom Liberty with ray tracing just fine WHILE looking better than CS:2

[@timestamppatrol]

@@kabloonuk this game still in beta what do you expect? players = beta tester now days, im crying on my 1060 3GB.

[@houseofdragons0867]

Oh boi, the 3050 is a bad card...@@UniversoXbox1

[@gorillaglueonmydick]

Yeah I'm using that steam refund policy to test if gameplay is bearable on my 3060ti as I used to play on a 1030 so I can bear shittier settings and fps opting in for my own preferences over word of mouth

[@ponli7532]

The population not impacting perfomance past 25k, this could be indicative of "hidden" limit where the number may go up but the city doesn't actually spawn more people/cars as you move up.

[@jrlivingspaces]

You're right on the money here I think you're on to something here

[@arminkaiser8933]

Actually sad. With the hardware of the recomended spec you should be able to run this game at 300 FPS+ without any problem.

[@mogamerclips6133]

​@@arminkaiser8933Thats still 25k or more enteties that need to be rendered, processed and all. Try spawning 25k npcs in gta 5 or any other game and see how it goes

[@furdiburd]

​@@mogamerclips6133Game engine go BRRRR KSDFHHH *BOOOOMMMM*

[@ralalbatross]

@@arminkaiser8933 rofl mate give over

[@screampillow3360]

Really high effort content! Thanks Phil, this is why you're THE Cities Skylines creator for me.

[@bitmau5]

Steve would be proud. Nice work. Editor Mouse here, it should be noted that you performing these tests before release really does give the devs a heads up on what to expect from the major tech channels. This video will raise eyebrows within that community. I said it once and I'll say it again. Outstanding job! /FadeToBlack Re-Editor Mouse here: GamersNexus has been @'d. Cross fingers. This is FANTASTIC!

[@PragmaticWisdom]

& I have just @'d the other tech Steve, at Hardware Unboxed.

[@Acid_Burn9]

Dude woke up and decided to be Hardware Unboxed. My man you are just mental. You absolutely did not have to go this hard on this and yet you have went above and beyond. I am just speechless about this level of thoroughness and effort. This the level of content something i would expect from a professional benchmarking channel. WOW.

[@dcpassarell]

I'm suprised he didn't reach out to either Hardware Unboxed or Gamers Nexus to collaborate, but it's great to see people reach out beyond their comfort zone!

[@xanderbose974]

Thank you for doing this. Here’s a small tip of my appreciation. This was exactly what I was looking for before buying it… or in my case, waiting for them to finish the game. Other content creators have been obscuring how bad the optimization is so I respect you revealing the truth. Thank you again.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

Thank you! Tbh, we haven’t been able to talk about it due to NDA. The first chance was Thursday, so I wouldn’t hold it against anyone too much. We just weren’t allowed to talk about it and under the impression for a while that everything would be cleaned up before launch.

[@NicoRTM]

I'm amazed of how good your methodology of testing was even though is the first time you do it. It is on par with dedicated hardware youtube channels. Great job!!

[@OnTheNerdySide]

Thank you SO MUCH for putting in all this work!! This is the video I'd been waiting for!!

[@CityPlannerPlays]

You’re welcome! Thank you so much for the support!!

[@mpbattista5038]

Thank you for this information and your hard work to bring it to the community!!

[@CityPlannerPlays]

Happy to have the opportunity to do so! Thank you so much for the support!!

[@StaK_1980]

I work in testing so seeing you doing these runs with so many systems, so many times... man, I am REALLY impressed by this amount of work! Well done!

[@phosphorusgold2391]

It seems something trivial to mention, but you noticing how FPS drop is not linear is a big hint at where the issues may lie. It can help the developers to optimize it faster and more efficiently! Thank you for this video!

[@teun9380]

Can't express how useful this is for future C:S2 players. Keep up the good work CPP!

[@the_tiny_Rambo]

I'm one of the people that will be able to play it about as good as it will run, but I wanted to say I really appreciate your approach. Showing people their real options including how to test it on their system for as little money as possible is awesome.

[@Arphaxad17]

Thank you so much for all the hard work. It truly is appreciated!

[@Disco_Tek]

Unbelievable you attempted this on your own. Well done. I'd suggest contacting GN or HUB and offering them some of your save files to have them run true benchmarks. Honestly though... well done and you've definitely helped a lot of people in the community with this one.

[@benjibatch]

Glad to see my card (the 3060ti) get some big gains, may the gains continue, I'm confident over the next few weeks the performance will continue to get better, massive kudos to CO dev team and how hard they're working to get this game as good as they can for launch day and not pushing the date back!

[@wiezo8176]

The game mostly really on your CPU so if you are going to see a big difference in performance, that would be where to look

[@133TME]

​@@wiezo8176according to the video, it's mostly GPU limited.

[@zzz-pe3mp]

@@wiezo8176 after playing it all day while watching performance stats on my second monitor its absolutely GPU heavy

[@jamieknight326]

Thanks for all the effort here Phil. It’s super appreciated. Seeing a 4090 struggle is a bit alarming to say the least! I’m going to try it on game pass and see how it goes on my system. The performance situation has knocked my excitement for the game somewhat.

[@drakechapman7476]

Motion Blur is just bad. Disabling it is only good.

[@TechnicalParadox]

Only good in driving games

[@RryhhbfrHhgdHhgd356]

Honestly agree. Is almost universally nauseating. Depth of Field also makes me queasy sometimes though, so maybe I am not one to talk… 😂

[@Jarethenator]

Motion blur? More like motion sickness. I’ve never had a good experience with it any game, but this one’s is particularly nauseating.

[@raynjpg]

@@TechnicalParadoxI don't even like it in driving games. It's just a bad feature. Motion blur works a lot better in a movie because you're able to make it deliberate and smooth, but when it's dynamic and ever-changing, such as in a videogame, it looks awful and it makes people nauseous.

[@NickBosshard]

​@@raynjpgThe only game I use it in is Forza with it set to short. Adds to the sense of speed compared to off, but otherwise, first thing to tun off.

[@Chri2992]

Thank you so so much for including the Arc card! I know not a lot of people have them but those of us that do really appreciate it!

[@AShadowinthedark]

You are a madman buying all that hardware. You tested with the hardware I have at home so I appreciate the lengths you have gone to for us.

[@FreakyMonkei]

Respect for pulling this off in such a proffesional way. Did not expect you to invest so much money and work into a video.

[@WillCSOfficial]

The dedication for this video is absolutely incredible, thank you so much for putting this together!

[@bradleythatcher2869]

Thank you for this Phil. It was great. I’m pretty disappointed though. I hope updates come fast and furious after launch. CO can say it is a “next-gen” title but if a 4090 can’t push the game with ease then something is really wrong with the game.

[@alecksweee]

Thank you so much for all the time putting this together CPP! The spreadsheet effectively put me at ease that I'll be able to play day 1 and just go into the game with what settings to shoot for and spend the time enjoying the game rather than troubleshooting.

[@springer1985]

From a technical and financial standpoint, this video is impressive. It must have taken a lot of time to gather this info... especially since you're not a tech KZbinr like LinusTechTips. Mad respect.

[@linmanfu913]

Thank you so much for including budget setups in your testing. So many websites only test the most expensive components. I play C:S1 on an APU so knowing what to expect from different budget cards is really, really helpful.

[@TheWootfish]

Phil, you are the absolute best. This looks like it was a ton of work. I've been watching since early bluffside and you still manage to keep finding new ways to impress and set an amazing example - thank you!

[@NoDecaf7]

My good sir, thank you kindly for what you've put together here. Myself and the rest of this community are grateful for the work and money put into making this possible. Back in August, I built a new machine purely to play this game. After your 5 hr livestream, I questioned the quality of my choices. But after comparing my old build to my new and then comparing those to what you've done here, I think I set my expectations low enough that I'll be pleasantly surprised, with a few graphics tweaks, with my gameplay experience. Thank you ❤

[@anders95]

I'm amazed by the effort you put into this. Simply incredible. I think I'm gonna wait a while and enjoy your videos for now lol, this is not great. I really hope they'll improve it over time.

[@Krinbo]

This video idea is awesome, so considerate of you to even think of this. Thank you so much!

[@ZeusAbhijeet]

You didn't have to, yet you spent so much time and money on this video and honestly I don't have anything else to say other than thank you lol.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

Thank you so much!

[@dcpassarell]

Just a note about AMD gpu worries: CO is clearly still trying to optimize, and one of the changes likely didnt play nice with AMDs drivers. While AMD may be subpar now or at launch, it should be fixed fairly quickly, either by CO or AMDs driver team. Also, both consoles use an AMD APU, so it should great by the time consoles launch.

[@JosefEngelfrost]

Thanks for this input! I had plans on getting a 7800 XT, but now I’m a little hesitant.

[@OmniUni]

​​@@JosefEngelfrostthe GPUs themselves are excellent. I have a 6800XT and it's been fantastic. Most games run up to 4k, and at worst 1440p, high settings and smooth as butter. When there are glitches, most devs get them fixed pretty quickly, it's just that they're still getting used to actually testing on AMD hardware. AMDs drivers are just good enough that most things work fine anyway. I'm also a Linux user, and AMD does great there as well. Oftentimes specific performance problems with games get fixed by the Proton devs who are absolutely brilliant at figuring out how to work around messy game code and hacks. Because AMDs Linux drivers are Open, sometimes they even fix problems that *can't* be fixed otherwise, like Elden Ring and Starfield, which both got significant performance boosts by some very clever optimization in the translation layer. Overall, unless you need ray tracing, you should feel totally comfortable with a modern AMD GPU in terms of both value AND overall performance.

[@arandomguy7486]

I hope so, but I'm still going to hold of from buying until it's fixed

[@AshtonCoolman]

I have a 4090 but I'm buying a 7800 XT for my 2nd gaming PC. It's silly to not recommend AMD GPUs that are much faster in rasterization than their comparably priced Nvidia competition just because of a bad patch in this broken game. I found that part of this video utterly ridiculous.

[@dcpassarell]

@@JosefEngelfrost no reason to hesitate. 7800 xt is a great card. CS2 just needs to get fixed.

[@voxxel]

Good lord the most important CS2 video this times.

[@tiredgradstudent955]

Never clicked on a video this fast

[@N3UM4NN4TOR]

Thanks for doing this CPP! I just bought an MSI laptop and I’m right on the border. I didn’t realize CO was going to make the game this dense, but once they started talking about traffic ai and such it became a bit of a nail biter. I appreciate you taking the time to make this. S/o to the other homies who made this happen.

[@ChinchillaBONK]

Mad respect to one of the few channels who talk about city planner benchmarking.

[@max.ferrari]

I’m really digging this type of video. You’re clearly very knowledgeable about computers and I’d love to see more of that knowledge make it into your videos through one way or another

[@azahel542]

Man, I remember when I played SC4 for the first time as a kid on my Pentium III 128mb ram with onboard videocard that used the ram. I would just use the tools to build stuff (nothing changed on the screen) go watch tv and come back to see if it had changed. These CS2 numbers are nothing to me!

[@shaneintheuk2026]

😂 My first city was on Sim City (the original) and 4mb RAM was amazing. My first computer was a ZX81 with 4KB. Yes KB.

[@terrydactyl2077]

@@shaneintheuk2026me and my mate first played sim city on his Commodore 64. No colour, just blocks with R,C and I. Then I eventually got my first computer. i486 DX2 66! Felt like the future!

[@fenxis]

Ah the days of playing on an amber (b&w) screen. On a XT computer with a "turbo" button.

[@dijikstra8]

Haha yes, the kids are spoiled with fps nowadays. 10 fps? That's fine for someone who grew up with DOS games where you'd be luck to get 2 fps. (partly kidding, partly serious)

[@azahel542]

@@shaneintheuk2026 damn, what a beauty 😅My first contact with Simcity was the 2000, but it was on this same rig. Good times.

[@AFlyingCapybara]

First, thank you very much for your amazing work man! Very good performance review! And to everybody else, repeat with me: DO NOT PRE-ORDER! DO NOT PRE-ORDER! DO NOT PRE-ORDER! I was thinking about and almost did because I thought "come on, it's colossal order, they're cool". Thank goodness I didn't, game dev are all the same nowadays, delivering half baked products and getting all the sweet pre-order money...

[@marcuscreel3300]

What this video proves a year later, is that there is still an issue with the computers and Paradox Gaming just obliterated their fan base. I kind of stopped watching (still subscribed

[@Hossdelux]

Dude. You are amazing. The amount of work [and money, like how honestly] this took and for you to do then because of a massive release update you were not expecting. Just thank you. I am now subbed

[@NickCharles]

I appreciate your putting this all together! Also, I must say this is quite a good look into how difficult benchmarking games actually is. There are so many things to keep in mind with the methodology. There's going to be a lot more performance testing once the game releases to the public!

[@CityPlannerPlays]

I have gained a new level of respect for folks like Gamers Nexus, Paul’s Hardware, Jays2cents, LTT, etc. Very time consuming and very difficult to get a meaningful measure that is easy to reproduce.

[@idrisnobody]

Pretty disappointing that a 1 month old PC will still get pretty meh performance. Guess I can wait a while. Or not. Thank you CPP! 😊

[@unything2696]

If you play on PC, you always tweak the settings. It's like this for 20 years. Your PC. Shadows & water first, then things that hurt a little like more like Level of detail, viewing distance, etc. Works 90% of the time all of the time. CPU bottleneck is a little harder. Don't be that guy that doesn't try and just complains.

[@Antidepressiva1980]

Don't be that guy that flowercoats this shitshow of optimization effort from the devs. This is unacceptable ! Eff the devs for releasing in such a bad state. This should be illegal !@@unything2696

[@The123tactics]

This is how things are now, look at starfield or KSP 2.

[@Ben_Bazooka]

Have you watched the video? This isn't just about complaining. If a game can't properly run on mid range to high end configurations while looking objectively terrible with texture flickering, LoD pop in and scratching at the unplayable performance tier then this isn't a "oh just lower the settings till you're fine" type of case. You don't buy a car when the salesman tells you " oh the brakes ain't working yet but don't worry we will fix it in the future but we're sure you will love the experience". Nobody except video game players pay for broken products at the full price. The game runs at low settings @1080p @30-50fps what do you want to turn down? Just curious. If you are hyped and you're sure you gonna enjoy playing then that's fine but why tell others not to complain when it's obvious that it isn't a finished product. @@unything2696

[@mistersinister2043]

@@unything2696 No you don't tweak the settings for most games. Only a select few need that. People have a right to know whether or not their PC can handle the game before buying, stop being a douche.

[@S_Karthik]

What a Guide Man, Thanks for the effort. I'm still saving for an overhaul upgrade next year 2024 - 12600KF + 4070 + 16GB is the plan - 9100F Potato + King RX 570 is wht I'm running now

[@PazzoLucas]

Just watched the ign review, which I do take a grain of salt, but it was none the less alarming. I felt your prerelease review was the most critical. I appreciate you making this video as you seem to be taking some responsibility regarding your output and how it might not be aligned with the end product we get. This is much more than what other creators have been doing, who seem to have a bit of disdain towards their audience being up in arms. Some have just gone and like-bombed postive comments so anything negative gets pushed down. So while there is an issue, I just want to say you are doing the right thing in rectifying something you are not responsible for, but have been a voice for. Will stayed tuned into your content because you can see your heart is in the right place

[@7oshiki19]

Brilliant brilliant brilliant. You are now my favourite CS channel. You, sir, are a legend

[@xxstarsxx381]

Great video and thanks for the spec sheet, very very helpful. ‘Biffa plays’ also found during a video/ stream that the FPS could be improved by changing the resolution once the game loads, as the game takes the windows resolution rather than whats set in the game as default. So it needs to be re-set on game load.

[@ponli7532]

sounds like an issue with running as a window compared to running fullscreen. I don't stream so i never run games in window mode because it harms performance slightly.

[@ahmetkeremdeniz4536]

This work deserves great respect. Thank you so much!!

[@MateriaGirl]

The 1% lows and AVG FPS colors are backwards on some of the charts in the video

[@brosaus]

yea noticed that too

[@stephanie756]

This is immensely helpful - so much time and effort went into this. You are the reason that I got into CS1 originally and will be playing CS2 once optimized. Appreciate everything you do for the community!

[@baconsogood454]

Wow, this must have taken some serious money and even more time! Thanks for taken the time to do this! Respect!

[@JoeDecker]

Dang, thank you for all the incredible work here. Really appreciated! (And thanks for doing the test on the Mac Studio, I might have tried it on my own Studio with parallels otherwise.)

[@KriminalKrampus]

astonishing to me that it's just considered acceptable to release games in this state now

[@LinksRoyal]

and people defending it

[@spider496]

​@@LinksRoyalSteam Forums has lots of chills right now. They are in for a surprise tomorrow 😂😂😂.

[@LinksRoyal]

@@spider496 i mean i dont want this game to fail. CS1 was my favorite city builder. but the practice that this company is doing is simply one that i refuse to support. ( Releasing this game in such an unoptimize state )

[@skayt35]

Yay, I might be able to go with Medium settings instead of Low! Thank you so much for your efforts, the configuration tips are gold!

[@paullaure]

Same here! I am in the "Upper-Mid-Range" category with a new PC. ❤ This video is amazing!

[@Antidepressiva1980]

lol@@paullaure

[@sedatedape315]

WOW! This is, and will be, so helpful to the entire CS community. Thanks for the time and expense spent putting this together! As one who is completely lost about all the hardware and settings stuff you just made a lot of it very understandable. Many of us thank you this video.

[@AlecWiese]

This is so much work (and you near doubled it the day before posting due to a patch!!) thanks for putting this together. It’s a wonderful resource

[@tactaillike]

Awesome guide, really respect how far you went to test the game on many different setups. Can't imagine how long that must've taken just to change the test bench LOL Obviously it's disappointing that even an ultra-high end system can struggle in CS2, and that will definitely have me holding off on the game for a while, but I still hope they can get the game running a lot better by the time they have to release the game on consoles...

[@ItsGninja]

Thank you for putting this together. This had to have been a lot of work. I cancelled my pre-order because I too feel this game is not finished. Hated doing it as I've been playing CS1 since its release and I love it deeply. I am just tired of companies releasing games that need more time for polish. I will be trying it on GamePass and hopefully buy it once its optimized.

[@VaingloriousGaming]

great work! I do not miss my benchmarking days, I know how much work had to go into this. What an outstanding service to the CS community. Now... what are you gonna do with all of that hardware you picked up?

[@LTorni]

This is such an incredibly thorough evaluation for somebody who's NOT a "Tech" youtuber. Thank you, Sir!

[@macaidwin]

Thank you so much for taking the time to run tests and make this video. Made everything a lot more clear to me that my mid-range setup possible will work for cs2.

[@sheepcow36]

Amazing information, thank you so much! Super disappointed that my pc, that actually runs most current games in high settings, will barely run this game on the lowest. I'm just not prepared to spend the money to upgrade so much just to run this game when everything else runs absolutely fine! Its madness! Ive been so excited for this game for such a long time - i even scheduled my annual leave to spend the week playing it! Looks like I'll be playing CS:1 for quite some time yet!! 😢

[@benjaminreynolds3659]

I appreciate all your effort CPP on these benchmarks, you're my fav CS CC! It will definitely help people with a baseline!!! But the overall test methodology good be a lot better. System RAM speeds (DDR4/5), driver versions (AMD, NV, Intel Arc), motherboards used and BIOS versions, PCIe generation selected in the BIOS (it does affect certain cards depending on their gen), what version of Windows and build num, and more.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

I’ll add that to the chart. Generally, windows 11, ddr 4 - 3600 except for the 7950x3D. Asus b450 for test bench, most current bios.

[@crazydanz]

I'm sorry but having to lower your resolution even on a 4090 to get even somewhat playable FPS is unacceptable.. I'd be even more disappointed if they were asking what seems to be the new triple A price tag of £70/$80 but they aren't so that's somewhat nice. But I think I'll skip launch and wait for any/if any optimization patches. But huge thanks! for the detailed video. Helped massively.

[@benverhaegen9006]

Wow, when you said on the stream that you really hoped we were still going to watch this because it was a lot of work and really expensive, I had no idea what a behemoth we'd be getting. What an absolutely massive amount of work, especially with the Friday update hitting you in the face. I really feel the apprehension and disappointment in your voice, and I really hope that my rig, which was an absolute top rig when I bought it 7 years ago, will be able to play it okay, but I am kinda scared now... But at least I know what I'll need to update :) Thanks for the great work Phil! Here you go, have some "engagement" 😊

[@molybdane7240]

This will be a go-to video for the foreseeable future and essential in giving people a soft landing into CS:2. I've been taking notes along the way and feel confident again about my machine being able to handle CS:2.

[@roflcopter3625]

16:16 you definitely did not play at native 4k high in this scene. you get 52fps with a population of 1000. that's completely impossible. you must have changed certain settings. i tested it myself on my 7950x3d@-17/4090oc rig. at native 4k with the untouched high preset you get 23fps on the completely empty untouched river delta map.

[@shangshi6731]

correct. this guy is a muppet.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

For every run, I disabled depth of field, motion blur, and volumetrics. EDIT - some runs have vsync disabled, too, and are noted as such in the charts.

[@roflcopter3625]

@@CityPlannerPlays yeah, that's what i thought. because when using the unmodified high preset at native 4k you get the 23fps i reported above on an empty map.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

@@roflcopter3625 yep. Some of the defaults don’t make sense. I wish they would have hidden bugged/broken setting or not enabled them by default. Regardless of setting level, all of the defaults are horrible from a performance standpoint

[@roflcopter3625]

@@CityPlannerPlays the brandnew patch brought huge improvements to the game. i again tested at native 4k + unmodified high preset. 1. menu fps are now 84 instead of 12. 2. empty map fps are now 58 instead of 23. 3. gpu utilization % on map unfortunately is now 97-98 instead of 99 for me. 4. i suddenly have a dlss2 3.1.11 dll in the game folder although the game not supporting dlss. what's going on? do you also have this dll in your game folder? 5. all 16 cores of my 7950x3d@-17 are now utilized equally on map.

[@trippybruh1592]

I still game at 1080p in 2023.

[@blob0000]

Before you go out and buy a 4090ti, remember that it is still important to use a "bottleneck calculator". He says that the CPU is the last thing to upgrade, if you have a 5000 something k CPU for example it WILL still defidently bottleneck you GPU. And remember that your not only going to use the PC for Cities: Skylines 2. A bottleneck in a PC is a waste of performance and money.

[@paraflax9198]

I got a 3060 ti and I was happy to hear you do more performance testing after the update with vsync off. Thank you so much!!

[@thadizzie1]

Thanks for taking the time to show us this Phil. It's much appreciated!! Now I know I need to save a little more for a new pc. Which is ok. I can wait for CS2 to be somewhat fined tuned and then go in on it!

[@wadeab]

Thanks for putting this together! Sounds like my 12 GB 3060 should be passable at least. Hopefully CO adds weather toggles.

[@Stijn9.81]

I have a 3060 too and I wonder if it is better then the 3060 ti since that card only has 8gb of vram compared to the 12 the 3060 has

[@Stwarrior23]

How much ram do you guys have I have a 3060 but only 16gb ram

[@SirHuddy]

@@Stwarrior23go 32 at least… in this day and age you want atleast 32…

[@Stijn9.81]

I also have 16 but I might upgrade t0 32 after playing C:S2 for a bit@@Stwarrior23

[@vinceontheweb]

This level of performance is unacceptable, I guess I need to refund my preorder. Thanks Phil.

[@martingab2556]

This game is gonna flop..

[@SuperDeucen]

Yup how could it do well if 98 percent of people can’t play it

[@LautaroQ2812]

Amazing video Phil. And you're one of the biggest CS creators doing this. I saw a lot of smaller creators "calling out others" for being upset when saying the game didn't run well. As an owner of a 2600 (non x so it doesn't matter that much) and a 580, I am sad. I wasn't expecting the game to be idk, 250fps no sweat with my rig. I know it's dated but seeing people having issues even with 4070s which are miles ahead of my card, I'm not looking forward to it. However, I totally appreciate you getting a 580 and testing it. A lot of people today, especially in better countries have moved to being "budget" while having 3060-4060s or some 6700 cards which to me is not really "budget" but established mid-tier cards that will play things in 1440p. While you didn't do every single combination possible, you have covered quite a range of time, price and performance cards, as well as all manufacturers. And those cards are the most popular so it makes sense. And not having Intel also makes sense, since you would've had to buy a different motherboard as well. Also, I want to give you a small note regarding the 5600. You said it was strange it had better lows, it's confusing if you meant 2600 had better lows, which would actually make it strange, or you meant the 5600 had better lows, which actually would make sense. It's a much better processor, efficient, faster, better IPC, etc. Having the power to output more fps will give you more MAX, more AVG but also it means it uplifts everything across the board, having the min-lows and percentiles smoother and much more consistent. And the 3080Ti is better performant on HIGH settings because it's using MORE GPU and not being bottlenecked and slowed down by the processor. Generally speaking, you would always want your card to be as maxed out (100% usage) as possible at all times. This is an easy test to replicate. Go to any game, and test your current resolution, one resolution higher and maybe 1 or 2 lower. Always at the same graphical settings of course. In general, you will see that playing at lower resolution will increase your FPS, and make your components (at least the GPU) cooler but you should also see worse 1% lows, worse frametimes and even stuttering and peaks even if you're over 60fps most of the times. Dynamic resolution is also a feature inside Adrenalin AMD drivers. Everytime I tested it in a game it was pure garbage. Maybe now it's better and I should try it again but it always made me vomit. I guess I will keep the game for the future if I ever get to build a better computer good enough to run it, but I do have a lot of lingering feelings of just refunding it. There's no other game I'd rather play right now, but maybe I could get a game I can actually play.

[@RobinOttens]

Thanks for all the effort you put into this. This is very useful, especially the tips on settings and demo of how the game looks at different settings.

[@91Wildcat700]

As someone who has a decent amount of hours into CS1 I really enjoyed that game and seeing that I will likely really struggle with CS2 on my rig bums me out. I wish this game was finished and already optimized at launch I hope you will continue making updates in the future about any new optimizations for this game. Even if they are just put in the beginning of your regular videos because I watch literally every single one. I think I speak for everyone when I say thank you for taking the time to put together probably the most in depth video discussing the performance of Cities skylines 2.

[@igoriane93]

outstanding work to the community. You are a hero.

[@jmannUSMC]

Going to definitely wait to buy this. If developers can't get their software running smoothly for a release, then I cant get my wallet running smoothly either. Huge thanks CPP, this video was an immense undertaking and it's much appreciated!

[@GribGFX]

These kind of videos are best with timestamps. Good work anyway. Very informative.

[@Doctrtony]

This is so much effort put into this video I applaud you

[@gola_chief]

Phil, you are the best content creator I've ever followed. Really, your videos are outstanding! I hope you make 1M followers soon cause you really put up the good work!

[@thecardczar8764]

This is a wonderful prerelease review, with a ton of time, effort, and money sunk into deep-diving those specs! Thank you for this!

[@mechwarrior83]

Comprehensive analysis dude, seriously well done! You deserve a medal for running a test 72 times alone!

[@drmoshie]

I can't believe you took this upon yourself, that's a crazy amount of work

[@Seizuqi]

I needed this. Love your shit man.

[@Waltztacular]

This video was an immense help, thank you for commiting the time for this. I'm glad i didn't pre order as it's clear i can't even run the game at this time. Hopefully the improvements will be quick