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Ubisoft, which faced massive amount of criticism this week because of Assassin’s Creed Unity’s launch bugs, has issued a statement blaming AMD hardware of poor performance and glitches of the game on PC platforms. The company believes that the AMD-related problems only affect a handful of users and does not comment on issues with other PC hardware configurations as well as with game consoles.
“We are aware that the graphics performance of Assassin’s Creed Unity on PC may be adversely affected by certain AMD CPU and GPU configurations,” the statement by Ubisoft reads. “This should not affect the vast majority of PC players, but rest assured that AMD and Ubisoft are continuing to work together closely to resolve the issue, and will provide more information as soon as it is available.”
Assassin’s Creed Unity on PC. Screenshot from Neogaf forums.
Even though the official statement from Ubisoft implies that Assassin’s Creed Unity runs poorly only on personal computers featuring an AMD processor and/or an AMD Radeon graphics card, multiple media reports note performance issues on both Microsoft Xbox One as well as Sony PlayStation 4 game consoles. Multiple reviewers have also revealed that game puts even high-end PC builds powered by eight-core Intel Core i7-5960X “Haswell-E” and Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 graphics cards in multi-GPU SLI mode on the knees in terms of performance.
While bugs in drivers can cause issues with rendering speed, quality of graphics and effects, they are not responsible for many other problems that PC gamers have experienced with Assassin’s Creed Unity, such as textures going off and entity glitches.
Assassin’s Creed Unity on PC. Screenshot from Neogaf forums.
It should be kept in mind that Assassin’s Creed Unity is one of the first games to feature hundreds of NPCs [non-player characters] is many scenes, which requires tremendous amount of both CPU and GPU processing horsepower. An unknown engineer (presumably from AMD) explained to Wccftech that ACU suffers from bottlenecks of the current DirectX 11 application programming interface, which means that many problems cannot be solved easily at all.
“The game (in its current state) is issuing approximately 50,000 draw calls on the DirectX 11 API,” the engineer said. “Problem is, DX11 is only equipped to handle ~10,000 peak draw calls. What happens after that is a severe bottleneck with most draw calls culled or incorrectly rendered, resulting in texture/NPCs popping all over the place.”
While APIs used by Microsoft and Sony for their video game consoles provide a lot of flexibility to game developers, neither PS4 nor XB1 have enough processing power for Assassin’s Creed Unity. As a consequence, even console gamers suffer from poor performance.
“On the other hand, consoles have close-to-the-metal access and almost non-existent API overhead, but significantly underpowered hardware which is not able to cope with the stress of the multitude of polygons. Simply put, it’s a very very bad port for the PC platform and an unoptimized (some would even go as far as saying, unfinished) title on the consoles.”
Regrettably, Ubisoft has not spent enough time optimizing its title even for powerful personal computers to demonstrate the potential of a next-generation game that features a number of open-world related things that have never been implemented before.
Assassin’s Creed Unity on PC. Screenshot from Neogaf forums.
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KitGuru Says: Blaming an independent hardware vendor for poor performance and glitches is not a good thing in the first place. However, Ubisoft made it even worse by saying that only a minority of PC configurations are affected, implying that everything is good with the ACU in general. The reasons why Ubisoft does not want to admit obvious things are not completely clear. Perhaps, the company is afraid that once it admits all the issues, many gamers will demand a refund, which will enrage the investors.
Black face? o.o
so they rush an unfinished game in a year, then expect people to pay for micro-transactions too? so less effort, more money, and the fall of a classic series. EAbisoft in action.
The skin didn’t render; only the eyeballs and mouth and hair. And of course the clothes. So it looks like balls XD.
Kind of weird to Blame the Chip Manufacturer for the XB1 and PS4, especially since they still use GCN and even those versions are having issues, Oh Ubisoft, I’ll never pre-order a game from you.
Also taking a look at TB’s video, it’s nigh unplayable on Ultra with a 980, We have another BF4 on our hands people.
Wanna know what the funniest thing is? APPARENTLY if you go offline and play (negating the DRM/Microtransactions portion of the game) the framerate improves immensely.
Ya, but look closely lol due to the lighting it looks like black face. XD
problem is Uplay continues to suck even in offline mode.
Buy the game then pirate it so it works without Uplay. They can’t say a single thing for pirating a game you already own. It’s within the law even for games as far back as NES XD.
too much hassle, and I don’t like pirating anyway. For me, it’s either buy or forget the game even existed (until such time as the game is on the sales on Steam).
But then you still have to deal with Uplay XD.
But yes, I’m not touching this game (or any Ubisoft titles) until one comes out and actually works properly OR it gets fixed months after launch and I get it on a sale for no more than $5 on steam.
BF4, I have had it since launch, I have a GTX 760(OC’ed that mofo!), and i have always played it at 60fps+? Please inform me…
I like EA waaaay more than I like Ubi, although they still don’t lick GabeN’s boots, but EA is getting there!
I wonder if Nvidia are proud of Ubisoft….as major sponsers of the PC ubisoft 2014 releases.
Its quite clear that PC port versions are all being done last minute..perhaps why the PC version is so poor.
Amd drives rarely get updated so how can they say its AMD fault. Guess they stuck test versions on some GTX’s said good to go and didn’t bother with AMD.
please tell me more about bf4 problems
Amd drivers are litterally updated 1-2 times a month or after every major release.
I run BF4 at ultra, 1080p, 60fps on a Toxic 270X and 8350. Been playing since beta with no problems.
I think a boycott from people who own AMD hardware would help nvUbisoft to start respecting more those who pay for it’s games.
I think you are referring to beta drivers…think we are on the third or fourth…beta driver for Xmas rush……note beta…actual official driver has been out ages. I have 4 290x and 3 290 so I know what’s what.
Yes indeed…
But if i buy a game is to play online, and with pirate games you can’t do it…
Ignoring the fact that NVidia is in fact affected by disgusting performance issues why would Ubisoft blame AMD? It’s their responsibility to make sure the game is good enough quality on a range of chipsets
Beta is a proper driver it ain’t just whql certified crapfest.
Yeah I cant imagine Nvidia being very happy about this whole thing. Hopefully they will terminate their relationship with Ubisoft.
Has Ubisoft apologised yet? I think a youtube video from the lead developer apologising to all the people who pre-ordered could go a long way.
Mantle would have less bugs and glitches and it would be faster lol
PC games use the windows api (directx) which access the GPU driver made by the chip manufacturer.
Console games each use their proprietary api (DirectX for X1 and GNM(X) for PS4) made by the console maker, and which access directly the hardware.
So it’s not false to say the problem lies on AMD’s side for PC, but Ubisoft should have tested their game before release on AMD cards (but it’s munch more simplier to let day-1 buyers do the QA).
I have a R7260x, and a cheap i5, 50-60fps as well on Higher settings, no issues
Can’t we all just get along and play some PC games???!!
the issues aren’t hardware or performance related any more, at launch they had issues but 2-3 patches after and people started to get good frames again.
The issues are on the hit box registration, servers not updating everyone at the same time about items in the server being moved (a bin is blown up into another location) (I prone behind the bin, that bin isn’t their on another players screen, on his screen its at the original spot) shooting at a player while lagging with packet loss puts all the registered shots into 1 bullet which causes “insta kills” Dice have owned up to this issue so you can’t deny that these have anything to do with peoples hardware, internet connections, these are the “updates” Dice did from Bf3 to Bf4 to make the netcode “better”
we are hopeful that next CTE update onto the ordinary game allot more issues will be fixed, soon though a year later we might have a finished product.
also to add anyone playing BF4 on ultra is pretty stupid, all those extra things to distract you from spotting/killing your target, all that shit flying around, soon as you put it on Low most of it disappears, less bush everywhere in the jungle area’s. nearly all the competitive players in my country I have spoken to have mentioned this is the best way to go if you’re serious about the game.
also the FPS increase is amazing, just be sure to put Mesh to ultra and AA to x4 and everything else to low.
yes when they force Uplay on us, they should in fact make the game for PC as well as they can and make proper use of their time then start porting it over to consoles and work a bit to try make it run nicely on their shitty last gen hardware.
What I don’t get is why Developers make games to work on consoles with lastgen Hardware then try port that shit to us on PC? wouldn’t you want your latest release to look amazing and have high ratings and be a standard for other game companies to try top? I don’t get it, the gaming world is all about Image, EA are screwed for their next Battlefield release, lets face it any Bf3 fan that bought Bf4 won’t be pre-ordering Hardline, now for AC for me personally I won’t be buying another one (I have them all other than Unity mainly because of the Watch_Dogs fuck up) and look at that I predicted how shit this game was going to be and lets face it, you’re only as good as your last release and watch_dogs is pretty shit.
Dx12….. we need DX12, its apparently much more powerful than Mantle, I do use Mantle over Dx11 for Battlefield 4 and get a nice extra 20 frames though.. =D
BlackFlag runs amazingly, finished the story in 2 days, didn’t patch it or anything..perfect release for me.
Then I pre-ordered Watch_Dogs and now I feel like you about the whole not getting anymore Ubisoft titles xD
lol
gotta love glitches
o.o
I would say use PIRATED copies of all ubisoft games in revenge. That should teach them a lesson
Eh Black Flag didn’t have as much crashing issues as it had the “if you want this game to go above medium-high, you have a problem” kind of issues… it also wouldn’t let people use 120Hz at any resolution above 720p, which is really really really dumb. Not that people could ever hit 120fps in that game unless they turned down settings XD.
AC3 was a lot worse running-wise though.
A massive poor optimisation on Ubisofts part! Blaming AMD for what is clearly their own shortcomings…
I prefer to ignore them. Ignoring a company completely is even worst for that company than using pirated copies of it’s software. Just ask Microsoft and they will verify it.
I think there are a lot of people exagerating their PC specs to make Ubisoft look bad. I have a laptop with a gtx 780m and an i7, both of which in the laptop version are under the minimum requirments and my copy of ACU runs quite well at high settings… Stop being dicks and just play the freaking game or wait a couple days for a patch if your hardware doesn’t like the game. Also if you guys have done any research into different chip technologies you would know that it is very possible for one type of chip to fail uterly with the game engine written in one particular manner. Simply stop being dicks to Ubisoft. Nobody is perfect.
Hey just like Black Flag!!! AC3 ran on highest with my desktop and it cant even run black flag on low hardly for some reason, I dont even want to try Unity.. AC has ALWAYS been good on PC until Black Flag and Unity, Please get at least Black Flag to run better, lol.. Unity should be downscaled to what DX11 can handle also, that seems..Weird.. You dont push an API past its limits by 40k lol >.<
Also GTX 700 series poor performance on AMD to blame as well?
true words, 770 GTX SLI here and FPS 19.
I have 2 r9 290x and a friend of mine have 2 980’s and we’re still experiencing poor performance
WTF Ubishit!?
I don’t intend to defend Ubisoft who clearly released an unfinished/untested game just to meet the black friday deadline.
I was just explaining how bugs could be seen on AMD hardware on PC although console are also equipped with AMD (just not used in the same way).
Just seeing the minimal requirement of the game tells how unoptimzed the game is (having trouble running the game on an 8-core intel CPU and GTX980 in SLI is way paste a question of scalability to current available hardware).
it is not like the game is working on nvidia hardware anyway… ubisoft is just in panic
Thank you I have 3 290s and wife has 3 780s and we are having trouble with frame dips as low as 19fps , this is crazy dips as low as 19fps with 3 cards in cf and sli really bad game.
Considering I am using both Nvidia and AMD set up both in 3way cf and sli and it still runs like crap O and I put $3,000 Into my gaming rigs to play max setting not high settings if I can’t max out the game its crap.
Well they can’t blame Nvidia they are the supporters of the game and have there Nvidia stamp on it.
Beta’s are fine 9/10 times. You have to realise that WHQL certification takes time for AMD and Nvidia, they can’t do that for every driver they release.
Don’t be scared of beta’s, it’s always best to use thet very latest drivers for new games.
Stop trolling!
hmmm why are there so many gamers now days that don’t actually play games anymore, they just look at them? Plus you spent too much money for a system capable of playing the game on max settings. You can do that for around $1700. Why waste the money? My machine is worth maybe 1500 (Laptops are also much more expensive than desktops for the equivalent power…) and I can almost max the settings and it runs fine.
I’m just frustrated with the amount of harassment Ubisoft is getting for a game that people pre-ordered. Pre-ordering is inherently an investment as you don’t know what the results will be, and then everyone is pissed off thinking they’re getting ripped off.
Because Gaming is not all I do on the rigs I use them for work and need the GPU horse power (at least that’s why I build mine for my wife did not like that mine was faster so I had to build her one that was as good at gaming)but it makes for a nice gaming rig to so I killed two birds with one stone.
That makes sense, I have a friend that did the same thing but he doesn’t really game at all. Is it possible for you to disable cf and sli to play the game better until they decide to fix it?
Bf4 worked perfect for me from beta and still does only few people has issue stop being a novideo fangirl
There were a few low frame/frame drop at launch for some configurations but they got fixed after a few month.
There’s a bunch of other bugs – most of which are fixed (its more than 1 year ago).. there’s quite a few left and hopefully the most annoying ones will get fixed for the last DLC they’re adding this december.
So you pay to pay for a beta for a year+ while they fix it up basically…
If AC is any worse, I would certainly NOT buy it. I did regret buying BF4 full price instead of waiting at least 6month for the first promotion and get a half-fixed game.
so basically ubisoft is scapegoating amd seriously wouldn’t it be more ethical and less damaging just to admit yeah we messed up
It’s not fair to say It’s AMD Hardware issues though….the SAME issues are also happening on Intel/Nvidia set ups….and i’m one of those setups… They are just trying to push blame wherever they can, and since Nvidia is their Partner with this game, i believe AMD was the only one to point the finger at. Classic pUPISoft Actions.
From a competitive viewpoint you are probably correct. But some people play for the all around experience of what the game has to offer. There are more than one type of gamer out there.
same setup here and roughly same performance.
Wow, such beautiful eyes!!! lmao
They didn’t apologize for watch-dogs broken incomplete pile of crap , with ”record number pre-order sales”. They just took the money to the bank and kept on that same platform of releasing whatever incomplete pile they have and then point the finger at other hardware vendors or setups or driver issues etc etc. I can’t wait for UBISoft to go belly up, Unless they start respecting their customers a bit more, which i don’t see happening as long as people keep funding this shitty business model.
I think DX 12 will have everything that’s good about mantle, plus some. Apparently AMD is Collaborating with microsoft on directx, so they should be able to implement everything that’s good with mantle into the new API.
keyword here, you ”think”…Just because your copy is running ok, doesn’t mean you can speak for everyone that has bought the game. Stop being ignorant. I have i7-4770k OC’d @ 4.7ghz and 2 asus gtx 780ti’s in sli, i can verify if you need…and this game is utterly fkn broken and pretty much unplayable on ANY setting, for me. So try not to think you know everything.
If you pre-order a car, i’m pretty sure you would be pist if it came without an engine and drive-train….you pay for a product you expect it to work as advertised. That’s how capitalism works….what do you have to say about watchdogs? Ubisoft is not on behalf of the gamer at all, you are defending the wrong company dude.
First off, you should never pre-order a car. That would be a fool’s mistake, and almost every car that is released eventually comes in contact with a “recall”. Second off, that’s not how capitalism works. Capitalism has nothing to do with what a consumer expects or doesn’t expect. Capitalism is only about making money in a nearly free economy that unfortunately allows for sub-par products to be sold, and for those that don’t invest proper research can and will essentially be scammed. A pre-order is an investment, while you can expect all you want out of the producers of the game, they didn’t actually promise you shit for your money. To expect them to give you a fully working game from a pre-order is like expecting a president to do the things he promised in an election campaign. There are going to be problems, and if you can’t deal with that your only going to hate the product/president. It’s also a shame people expect there to be no problems from a game that wasn’t beta tested. These are all things that can be figured out before you pre-ordered/invested in the game. Ubisoft is on behalf of whoever pays them money is what you need to understand. You pay them money, therefore they care about your opinion even if you don’t see it(It’s simple numbers and they want more of those numbers). They are well aware that if people don’t like them that they won’t make money, you should also be aware that it’s a lot of work to produce a game and mistakes are going to happen and the only way to catch them all is to have a wide array of people playing the game. Every game has problems on release and it takes time to sort those problems out. Ubisoft managed to get a patch out within two days of release that fixed many problems for people having those problems. There are so many variables to take in when designing for the PC that they need to be cut some slack. Every single rig is different and that changes how the game needs to run in each case. In response to “Defending the wrong company”, what gaming company should I defend then? I see this same harassment towards nearly every big gaming industry after every big title release of a game not just from Ubisoft, maybe our expectations are too high? Yes, I will agree that blaming AMD is a poor choice of dealing with things in the media however.
If there is a problem it is not related to the hardware but to the software (driver).
But truthfully, it doesn’t matter, the fault is on Ubisoft side for not having tuned their game for to two most used gpu brand on the market.
And seeing how even nvidia’s chips get lots of bugs and performances issues (maybe less than AMD since they worked with Ubi early on), I would say they didn’t tuned anything at all.
Ultimately, I would qualify this mess as the BF4 one we had last year, probably resulting from the marketing having decided the game MUST launch just before Black Friday, ready or not.
And if the game doesn’t sell well … no problem, they still have the piracy to use as a scapegoat.
Ubisoft credibility these days = ZERO. Fuck Ubisoft. Anyone who pre order a game from them is a fucking retarded moron.
Only reason I’m not pissed about all the bugs on this game is because I got the game free with the purchase of my monitor. The monitor was already on sale and plus a free game. I will not preorder the next assassins creed though. Too bad because the game was finally good 4 months after initial release. Even then, its shockingly draining on my GPU and I have an AMD Radeon r9 295×2 with AMD FX 9590 CPU and SSD drive. 32 GB of RAM at 1866. I don’t understand the issue. Is it something to do with SLI or overlays? Perhaps it conflicts with Dxtory? Maybe it just doesn’t like AMD
No a good idea, they’d just point at the number of pirated versions and conclude that the game, is in fact, wildly popular but that we’re all petty thieves; take money meant for making the next game good (well, decent, it’s Ubi, after all) and putting it towards DRMs and paying the anti-pirate companies more than they do now.