WarHammer 40,000 Dawn of War: Definitive Edition - Lightweight title with lots of playability.

The original game Dawn of War was already such a huge hit. But Warhammer brought back and updated this game with some enhancements that brings this 2004 legend for updated hardware. It brings some tweaks:

Native High Resolution support including 4K
Graphical enhancements
Improved Pathfinding for units especially Vehicles.

For a opening promo price just over USD 20, until August 28th, the Dawn Of War Definite edition brings:

- 4 Campaigns
- 9 Factions
- Multiplayer and Skirmish Battles with 100+ Maps

With that, the Dawn of War offers immense amounts of playability and replayability for a relatively reasonable price. Although it is still an old title with relatively kinda dated graphics, to be fair it is a 20 year old game ultimately, and remastering it is a good way to bring back an RTS classic.

But what I'm more interested is performance on this, as old as the game is. One thing I found, Dawn of War Definitive Edition is a very CPU bound title if your GPU is more than sufficient even though the requirements listed below are very light by today's standards.

6th Gen Core i5 or Ryzen CPU with at least 4 cores at 3GHz
8GB RAM
25GB Storage space
GTX 950 and Radeon R9 370

Like most RTS games, usually performance will only start to tank once there are a lot more units on screen. Although this game is no exception, GPU requirements are pretty damn light. Should be noted that it seems to run a lot better on nVidia GPUs than AMD Radeon ones.

Test Systems:
Ryzen 5 7500F, 32GB RAM, 4070 Super
Acer Swift X Ryzen 7 5825U, 16GB RAM, RTX 3050 Ti (40W TGP)
Clevo P950HR Core i7 7700HQ, 16GB RAM, GTX 1070 Max-Q
Chuwi UBook Pro Core m3 8100Y, 8GB RAM, Intel UHD 615

I'm disappointed that the devs didn't do this game with Apple OS or Mac OS in mind, because this would be a very good option if you're using an M1 MacBook Pro like I'm using as my current work laptop that is always in my car if I'm not using it.

Dated Laptop Test: Clevo P950HR Core i7 7700HQ, 16GB RAM, GTX 1070 Max-Q

An old Gaming Laptop powerful in its day and now starting to show its age.
It can still play this game, max settings, if the CPU doesn't hold the GPU back.

I'm starting with this Laptop first because it's pretty much the closest thing that I have to the minimum requirements in terms of hardware and age. Not surprisingly, although it runs alright, there are some hitches here and there. I reckon this is got to do with the CPU being bogged down. Because as old as the game is, it is still a very CPU-bound title. Although to be fair, the 7700HQ is almost an 8-9 year old CPU by now. If it was operating optimally otherwise, it can go 80-100fps. Maybe it's time to clean install the entire drive, not the end of the world since I don't really use this laptop a whole lot.

Acer Swift X Ryzen 7 5825U, 16GB RAM, RTX 3050 Ti (40W TGP):

But let's say I upgraded to a more capable CPU with more cores and threads, and similar, perhaps even less GPU horsepower. This proves my theory of Dawn of War being a more CPU bound title. I had no problems running on a Acer Swift X with a  RTX 3050 Ti that is tuned right down to 40W. The CPU on this thing is more than capable for this, even though it is rated for 15W to 25W max TDP.

The definite editions brings about some graphical enhancements to the game
while still being easy to run and keeping the soul of the base Dawn of War intact.
1080p on a laptop with a 4GB 40W RTX 3050 Ti is no problem.

That's on Maximum details and turning off V-sync to uncap the framerate.

4K Desktop Test: Ryzen 5 7500F, 32GB RAM, 4070 Super

I'm sure a full fledged desktop GPU will be overkill. But I decided to run with a RTX 4070 Super anyway. Again, Max details but at 4K. This game will be responsive as heck if you're running a high refresh monitor.

An RTX 4070 Super cuts through this game at 4K like a knife through butter.
Easy 200+ fps.

Across the spectrum:

 
We have the Core m3 8100Y and Intel UHD Graphics. 

This was from a Chuwi UBook Pro which is a work tablet for Windows. And the tech is abit on the dated side. Honestly was expecting a bit more from it but from these settings low settings with some upped to medium, it's good enough to maintain 30 fps and tolerable if it hovers around the cinematic 25 fps range. If you're playing just the campaign, that's fine. But not ideal on Multiplayer.

To be fair, the game still looks half-decent at low to medium settings. Reason why the resolution is weird is that this tablet uses a 3:2 Aspect ratio and 1920 x 1280 just can't really play it. So reducing the resolution here is a must. If you're using a more common 16:9 aspect ratio, then you'll want to set the resolution to 720p.