Star Wars Jedi: Survivor- Performance Review

Editor’s Note: Electronic Arts provided a review copy of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor for PC and Dell India provided Dell Alienware X15 R2 for long-term performance testing to IGN India.

Game publisher Electronic Arts and developer Respawn Entertainment released Star Wars Jedi: Survivor a few weeks back on April 28, 2023. Directed by Stig Asmussen, who is also known for God of War III, this sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019) was one of the most anticipated games of the year. The game takes forward the story of Cal Kestis, a Jedi Padawan who survived Order 66, and is now being hunted down by the Empire.

After we reviewed Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and gave it a score of 9/10, reports of performance issues started surfacing online just hours after the launch. Respawn Entertainment acknowledged the issues and promised prompt updates to improve the performance of the game. We waited for more than a month and about 5 major updates to the game to test the promised improvements.

Now, with enough time, we tested different graphics modes of the game on the Dell Alienware X15 R2. The gaming laptop features Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Mobile GPU along with Intel Core i7- 12700H processors. Let’s check how the Star Wars Jedi: Survivor fares in our performance review here.

System Specifications of the Dell Alienware X15 R2

Before we start presenting our testing, let’s check the complete specifications table for the Dell Alienware X15 R2. Here are the complete specifications of the system.

• Display: 15.6-inch FHD (1920×1080 pixels), 360Hz
• CPU: 12th-Gen Intel Core i7-12700H (24MB cache, 14 cores, 20 threads, up to 4.70 GHz Turbo)
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU with 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
• RAM: 32GB LPDDR5 5200 MT/s
• OS: Windows 11 Home
• Storage: 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
• Webcam: 720p
• Ports: 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 port with PowerShare, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, 1 x Thunderbolt 4 port with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, 1 x Universal Audio Jack, 1 x HDMI 2.1 port, 1 x MicroSD card slot
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6 (6E Pre-certified) 2×2 Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 5.2
• Dimensions: 14.16 × 10.91 × 0.626-inches (W x D x H)
• Weight: 2.35 kg

Suggested System Requirements for the game

Check out the system requirements for PC that Respawn Entertainment has suggested for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

Minimum

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• RAM: 8GB
• CPU Cores: 4 core / 8 threads
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1400 / Intel Core i7-7700
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 580 / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070
• GPU API and VRAM: DX12, 8GB VRAM
• Storage: 155GB

Recommended

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• RAM: 16GB
• CPU Cores: 4 core / 8 threads
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X / Intel Core i5 11600K
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT / Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070
• GPU API and VRAM: DX12, 8GB VRAM
• Storage: 155GB SSD

The Dell Alienware X15 R2 fulfills both the minimum and recommended requirements for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

Testing Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

We used CapFrameX while playing Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, to test how the game was performing on the Alienware X15 R2. The game supports Ray Tracing as well as AMD’s FSR (FidelityFx Super Resolution) upscaling technology. We tried various combinations of Ray Tracing and upscaling technology to figure out the performance of the game at launch and after Patch 5 that released on May 17.

The parameters that we have focused on during our testing are the average FPS, 1% Low Average and 0.1% Low Average. For context, Average FPS is the metric that describes the average FPS performance throughout the entire period of the recorded gameplay session.

1% Low Average on the other hand, picks out lowest 1% FPS from the total frames recorded in the entire testing session and gives us an average. The lowest FPS. 0.1% Low Average performs the same function, for an even shorter parameter of picking out the lowest 0.1% FPS from the total frames and giving us an average.

The reason we are focusing on 1% and 0.1% average lows is because players generally notice the hitches and lag that is recorded by these numbers and not the peak performance. Average FPS itself won’t give us the real picture of the performance of the game.

Performance of the game

Here are the results with both Ray Tracing and FSR switched off before Patch 2 and after Patch 5 update.

As per the session recording, the average FPS count, as well as the 1% Low Average, and 0.1% Low Average have all decreased significantly in our latest testing after Patch 5 update.

As we can see, the performance does get better with AMD’s FSR upscaling switched on, without ray tracing. But the latest test has worse results. It should also be noted that the duration of the second test was much longer than the first test, which might affect the numbers. However, we didn’t expect it to affect the results as much as it currently does.

The spikes at the start and end of the benchmark recording runs indicate the in-game cut-scenes or menus which have resulted in higher average FPS results.

With Ray Tracing turned on without FSR upscaling, the performance significantly decreased during both our tests. However, the more recent test with Ray Tracing turned on without FSR has given us the least average FPS counts in all our game testing sessions.

It is worth noting that lower average FPS results are expected when Ray Tracing is on. However, we did not expect a dip in the results after multiple performance-focused updates.

All these tests reaffirm that gamers can use FSR to boost performance in the game if they don’t want Ray Tracing. However, the overall performance of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor did not improve as showcased in ours tests after Patch 5 update. The stuttering and lags were starkly disturbing, and much more so than it was during our initial rounds of testing.

Thermals

While gaming, the Dell Alienware X15 R2 reached around 105-degree Celsius temperature. As you can see in the above picture, the temperature peaked at 109-degree Celsius while playing Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. As with any gaming laptop, the X15 R2 thermal throttled while pushing things to the limit.

This segment tied more to the machine (in this case X15 R2) than the performance of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. According to Dell these temperatures are normal for high-performance thin laptops like the X15 R2.

Verdict

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has been criticised by players for its performance issues, and playing the game on the Alienware x15 R2 gaming laptop did not present a very different experience. However, we felt that the performance has deteriorated over time, despite the different patch updates from Electronic Arts.

The stutters and lags affected my performance and progress in the game as well. If it wasn’t for the captivating experience that the game brings with its story and gameplay mechanics, at this point, playing Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is not an easy experience.