UHD with the Ryzen 5 2400G or Intel's iGP – Bioshock Remastered makes it possible!

I remember it as if it were yesterday. It was on 21.07.2007 and I had bought myself directly to the release Bioshock. And then experienced the first real Bioshock at home, because the game just didn't want to run my then ATI X850 XT. Except for a few undefined polygons, there was nothing. A feat, because ATI could do everything in the R480/481, just no pixel shader 3.0. After the massive disillusionment, the game flew into the corner disappointed until a hack later made amends.

But through something like this, games stick as strongly in memory as they do through their atmosphere. And that's exactly where Bioshock and later Bioshock 2 were able to score. Everything that came to Rapture was actually just warmed up to cold coffee. Why am I going so far here? I actually stumbled across the remastered versions of Bioshock and Bioshock 2, which you currently get behind for 4.99 Euros via Steam, rather by chance due to a lack of material (we are living between the launch weddings for AAA titles). By the way, if you already have the Steam version, you don't pay anything, but just have to reinstall it.

Nice, you like to revel in memories, but Bioshock certainly had its own individual charm. Because what was offered more than 11 years ago, God knows how to hide even today in terms of fun, excitement and atmosphere. Photorealism can't be expected, but both DirectX9 titles don't look that bad even by today's standards. The remastered version now offers much crisper textures, but brightens up a lot (for my taste) too much.

The rest has remained as it is. Challenging for the player, undemanding in the technique. And that's exactly what got me on an idea. Should it be possible to make a graphically slightly upscale title from 2007 with maximum resolution and settings on an integrated graphic work decently? I did tests in Ultra HD and WQHD, the latter even with edge smoothing. With 16 GB of memory in all systems (DDR4 3200, in the OC tests with DDR4 3466) you get there, because the game in Ultra-HD without AA needs around 2 GB of memory.

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And so that with AMD's Ryzen 5 2400G in the HTPC all get so boring, I also tested the fastest Intel graphics Iris Pro 6200 in the Core i7-5775C, the Core i9-9900K with UHD 630, as well as a GT 1030 and the GT 750 Ti. I run both external graphics cards in the system with the overclocked Ryzen 5 2400G. Only Intel's iGP solutions run separately on each platform, logically.

The results show that today's integrated graphics can easily keep up with the top models of the time, because with the resolution and image quality I consciously draw from the full here. Even if the Min-FPS of the separate graphics solutions are slightly better, the APU (especially overclocked) knows how to please. Since it is not a shooter or an over-the-top hack'n'Slay, you can still live with 40 FPS as long as the Min-FPS does not fall significantly below 30 FPS.

Ultra-HD can also be done quite well without anti-aliasing, which also looks pretty neat. The remastered version doesn't bring any nicer polygons, but you can still live with the graphics over 11 years after the launch, because once you've immersed you in the game world, you don't have time for RTX On and similar, purely optical icing. This is about the sausage, and it tastes equally greasy even without a graphic.

If you take a slightly smaller resolution, you get with overclocked APU and the GT 1030 loosely over the 50 FPS mark, which then provoked me to switch on the edge smoothing. And behold, that's possible!

By the way, I also see Intel's Iris Pro 6200 as a nice side-kick, which can still dominate the current UHD 630 in the Core i9-9900K. Whatever Intel has abandoned this good iGP approach, you'll probably never understand it as an outsider. If this had been consistently developed, it would have… Oh, let's forget, it doesn't change anything anyway. But the UHD 630 is almost useless for what I had in front of me. Point.

And what do we learn from this? First, old games still have their charm and look much better than you think. Second, an APU still manages these games at full resolution and with maximized graphics settings. And in summary, one can only advise to invest such a fiver again. There are much worse options for destroying it.