Homeworld 3 performance analysis: Surprisingly scalable but no ultra-high frame rates

HardwareHomeworld 3Homeworld 3 performance analysis: Surprisingly scalable but no ultra-high frame ratesWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)

In Homeworld 3, a ship emerges from a derelict�s circular opening into an asteroid field, colored orange by the system�s distant visible star.

Jump to:Benchmark performanceCPU and GPU balanceIn-game performanceBest settings

It’s been over twenty years since the last Homeworld game was released (and eight years since the remastered versions) but at long last, the next chapter in the 3D RTS-in-space series is now upon us. Homeworld 3 has beendelayed a few timesso expectations have been high as to how good the game is and how well it runs on today’s PCs.

Developers Blackbird Interactive issued PC system requirements last year butupdated them fairly recently, and along with amultiplayer demo, we’ve had a good idea as to what to expect in terms of performance. For the past two weeks, I’ve been testing a pre-release version of the full game across a variety of gaming PCs, in both single-player and multiplayer maps, to see what kind of hardware you need to enjoy Homeworld 3.

There are four graphics quality presets: low, medium, high, and epic. Using any of the first three will automatically enable upscaling. Depending on your graphics card, it will default to DLSS for Nvidia GPUs, FSR for AMD, and XeSS for Intel (though you can override these). In my testing, I forced upscaling off but set the render resolution to 100% to give the clearest picture of the GPU load.

Homeworld 3 benchmark performance

As you can see, with the low preset, changing the overall resolution resulted in relatively minor changes in the average and minimum frame rates. However, there’s an immediate drop in performance at medium or high settings, though changing the resolution still doesn’t hurt matters too much. Only when using the Epic quality preset do we see frame rates decrease significantly.

I’ll come to the real culprit behind this later when I go through the best settings to use in Homeworld 3. For now, let’s just focus on what’s going on with the benchmark—initially, there’s very little going on in the battle and for the initial third of the test run, the frame rates are quite high across the board.

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The benchmark indicates where the test run was CPU or GPU-limited, but I’m not convinced it’s completely correct—or rather, not in the sense that most people would expect. Here’s an example of a 1080p low settings run, on the 14700KF system.

(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)

A screenshot of Homeworld 3’s built-in benchmark results chart

Note how for the early stages of the run, the frame times are marked as being GPU bound. What’s going on there is that there’s very little work for the CPU to do in the early stages, so the bulk of the overall frame time is down to the GPU. So while that technically does mean the benchmark was GPU-bound at that time, it’s more a case that the whole PC just doesn’t have much work to process.

On a quick side note, the RAM usage counter often showed bizarre figures (such as the 2GB shown above) but its inclusion is very puzzling. Surely aVRAMcounter would be of more use? At 4K Epic quality, I recorded a VRAM peak usage of 9.2GB which could potentially cause a few issues for 8GB graphics cards, so keeping track of how much video memory is required is far more important than system RAM usage.

Homeworld 3 CPU and GPU balance

I used Intel’s PresentMon tool to independently record the frame times and it paints a somewhat different picture to Homeworld 3’s built-in benchmark. Here you can see that the CPU is busier for longer than the GPU, throughout the whole test run, and the latter has to wait longer, too.

Homeworld 3 will ask a lot of your central processor but you don’t need one ofthe best gaming CPUsto enjoy the game. All you need is one with six cores and 12 threads, as the engine doesn’t generate dozens of heavy threads—you won’t see any significant scaling beyond eight cores, as shown below.

These figures were obtained from a 5-minute sample of a single-player level, rather than the benchmark, but the data show that the game only generates six to eight threads of note. There are more than that being generated, but they contain very short workloads.

In short, Homeworld 3 likes modern CPU architectures and high clock speeds, rather than lots of cores, and while the game ran perfectly well on the Core i5 9600K gaming PC at 1080p low settings, you’ll get the best experience with something that’s within a generation or two of the latest processors.

The GPU only becomes important once you ramp up the quality settings, adding better lighting effects, higher resolution textures, and nicer space backgrounds.

Homeworld 3 in-game performance

Built-in benchmarks aren’t the same as the full game, though, so it’s time to dig into that. Running through the first few levels of the single-player campaign sometimes showed frame rates similar to those seen in the benchmarks, but generally, the performance was better.

Homeworld 3 likes modern CPU architectures and high clock speeds, rather than lots of cores

However, the frame rate was rarely smooth, even on the most powerful of the gaming PCs used. Transitioning between the tactical and normal views often resulted in spikes in the frame rate, especially when using the High or Epic quality settings.

One issue with 3D RTS games is the frame rate will always bounce around, as the camera whips around the environment. Close-up views of multiple objects will make it more GPU-limited, whereas zooming out and taking in a wider view of a complex battle will shift everything toward the CPU.

Where the 14700KF gaming PC had issues with its minimum frame rates in the built-in benchmark, compared to the other systems, the skirmish test showed no such problems. At low/medium quality settings and resolutions, theRyzen 5 5600XandRTX 4070test benchmark performed just as well as theRyzen 9 7900andRX 7800 XTsystems.

The lengthy battles were quite similar to the benchmark, in that the frame rate starts very high, then slowly drops to a steady level once the firefights are in full swing. Multiplayer matches are generally more balanced between the CPU and GPU, even at 1080p low settings.

However, all of the tested graphics cards had little to do with such a configuration, to the point that, due to their low utilisation, most of the GPUs ran with clock speeds 800 to 1,000 MHz lower than their rated boost levels. That’s not ideal and could explain why the frame rate in single-player levels varies so much. Only when using High or Epic quality settings does the GPU work to its full potential and although the frame rates aren’t great with such graphics, it is a lot smoother.

Homeworld 3 best settings

3D RTS games aren’t expected to reach the same fps levels as a competitive shooter, but if you were hoping for 144 fps or more, then you’re going to be disappointed. Fortunately, getting a reasonably steady 60 fps, even on old hardware, is quite easy to achieve.

Image1of2(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)

Image1of2

(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)

(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)

Homeworld 3 upscaling options

(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)

Homeworld 3 upscaling options

Homeworld 3 isn’t replete with astounding graphics and the relative lack of visual difference between High and Epic quality settings means the latter isn’t worth using. Neither is the use of ray-traced shadows, even though it barely causes any noticeable hit in performance, regardless of the GPU used.

Just stick with Medium for older or lower-spec hardware, and High if you’ve got more recent/capable components. You’ll get the best balance of performance and graphics with those presets.

So why the developers choose to have it forced on when using most of the quality presets is rather odd. Forcing a 50% resolution scale when using Low is, to be frank, absurd. At 1080p, it makes the graphics look blurry and indistinct, and that’s the kind of monitor a PC gamer will have if they’re going to be using Low settings.

Image1of2(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)1080p Low quality preset (100% res scale)(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)1080p Low quality preset (default DLSS 50% res scale)

Image1of2

(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)1080p Low quality preset (100% res scale)(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)1080p Low quality preset (default DLSS 50% res scale)

(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)1080p Low quality preset (100% res scale)

(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)

Screenshots of Homeworld 3’s built-in benchmark

1080p Low quality preset (100% res scale)

(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)1080p Low quality preset (default DLSS 50% res scale)

(Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)

Screenshots of Homeworld 3’s built-in benchmark

1080p Low quality preset (default DLSS 50% res scale)

The only quality preset tonotforce upscaling is Epic quality, which is the one that needs it most. Low and Medium presets shouldn’t be using upscaling at all and the game’s menu doesn’t use the usual settings that other games employ for upscaling, making it less than obvious how to disable it (just set the resolution scale to 100%).

What the game really needs is a frame generation option, for those wanting high frame rates, and the implementation ofAMD Anti-Lag+andNvidia Reflex Boostto prevent the GPU from running too slowly at low settings. It could also do with an option to raise the resolution scale greater than 100% to get smoother-looking graphics.

Homeworld 3 has been in development for many years, initially starting in 2017 before going through a Kickstarter fund-raising campaign, and then a multitude of delays. This is why Unreal Engine 4 powers the game, rather than the latest version, and perhaps goes some way to explain the inconsistent performance.

Credit where credit is due, though, as Blackbird Interactive has created a game that can be enjoyed on a range of gaming PCs, rather than demanding the very best and most expensive hardware. Just don’t expect ultra-high frame rates and you’ll be fine.

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Homeworld 3 benchmark performance#

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Homeworld 3 CPU and GPU balance#

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Homeworld 3 benchmark performance

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Homeworld 3 CPU and GPU balance

Homeworld 3 in-game performance

Homeworld 3 best settings