SoulCalibur 6 is the latest fighting game from Bandai Namco. As with most recent fighters, this one is also powered by Unreal Engine 4 and since the game is currently available on the PC, it’s time to benchmark it and see how it performs on the PC platform.
For this PC Performance Analysis, we used an Intel i7 4930K (overclocked at 4.2Ghz) with 16GB of DDR3-2400, AMD’s Radeon RX580 and RX Vega 64, NVIDIA’s RTX 2080Ti and GTX980Ti and GTX690, Windows 10 64-bit and the latest version of the GeForce (416.34) and Catalyst drivers (18.10.1). NVIDIA has not included any SLI profile for this game, meaning that our GTX690 performed similarly to a single GTX680.
Bandai Namco has implemented a respectable number of graphics settings (at least for a fighting game). PC gamers can choose their in-game resolution, can use a resolution scaler, and can adjust the quality of Textures, Anti-Aliasing, Post-Processing, Shadows and FX. The game, like most fighting games, is also locked at 60fps.
In order to find out whether the game requires a high-end CPU, we’ve simulated a dual-core and a quad-core system. And we are happy to report that both of these systems were able to run the game with constant 60fps. As such, PC gamers will not need a high-end CPU in order to enjoy it. Not that we are really surprised by these relatively low CPU requirements however it’s good knowing that there aren’t any CPU optimization issues here.
SoulCalibur 6 also does not require a high-end GPU. Our AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, NVIDIA GTX980Ti and NVIDIA RTX2080Ti were able to run the game with constant 60fps on Maximum settings in 4K. On the other hand, our AMD Radeon RX580 was able to run the game at 1080p with 60fps on Maximum settings. As for our GTX680, we were able to run the game on Maximum settings – but without AA – with 60fps at 1080p.
Graphics wise, I wasn’t really impressed by SoulCalibur 6 as there is something about the lighting and the skin shaders that make all the characters look like plastic dolls and not like real humans. The art style is also not that particularly impressive and I believe that overall Tekken 7 looks better than it. The game’s underwhelming visuals is something that we’ve noticed in all of its pre-release trailers, so this is nothing new if you’ve been following us.
I was also slightly disappointed by the lack of proper keyboard on-screen prompts. After all, I’ve been playing all fighting games, from Street Fighter to Tekken 7 so yeah… I am one of those gamers that can play great with a keyboard in this type of games (you can check this video from Tekken 7 in which I’m playing with a keyboard). At least you can re-bind all keys for both player 1 and player 2.
All in all, and even though SoulCalibur 6 is not as a great looking fighting game as ? had hoped for a 2018 title, it runs incredibly well on a huge range of PC configurations. We did not experience any issues or any crashes. And at the end of the day this is something that a lot of gamers will appreciate. Still, we kind of wished for more eye candy in a 2018 fighting game.
Enjoy!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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