Middle-earth - Shadow of Mordor Graphics Card Showdown & Benchmarking Procedure

Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor marks Linus Tech Tips’ first major game performance video of Q4 2014, introducing a refreshed benchmarking approach and a new stock-clock, game-specific test methodology. The video kicks off by explaining the shift to testing graphics cards at stock speeds for real-world scenarios, while also expanding testing to include 4K resolution alongside traditional 1080p. The host outlines that the open world game is highly optimized and even ships with an integrated benchmark, but the team will still run their own controlled tests to remove bottlenecks elsewhere in the system. They describe how 4K testing becomes increasingly relevant as higher resolution displays become affordable, and they discuss the new Nvidia feature super resolution as a practical tool for users with modern GPUs. The segment then introduces the open-world nature of Shadow of Mordor and the decision to benchmark within a controlled instanced mission, called Slaver, to maintain repeatability and minimize weather and spawn variability. The presenters emphasize that the test scene is chosen specifically for consistency, avoiding open-world randomness that would complicate replication, and they preview the results format and what viewers should expect from the charts. Finally, the hosts tease the practical steps of the benchmarking run, including how to mitigate variables like archers and reinforcements, and they invite viewers to share feedback on the new methodology and their shirt giveaways in the description.

Topics · technology · gaming · hardware-benchmarks · pc-gaming