In case you didn't know, the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight is broken. The game launched for consoles and PC this week but PC gamers – especially those with AMD cards attempting to use the GameWorks features – are left out in the cold.
Thankfully, Warner Bros was quick to address the problem via a post on Steam. The VP of technology for Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, Gary Lake-Schaal, stated in the thread...
We are aware that there are performance issues for some users playing Batman: Arkham Knight on PC. WB Games is working diligently with our development teams, NVIDIA and AMD, to identify and fix the issues as quickly as possible.
The post makes it known that many people are dissatisfied with the performance of the game, as well as the frame-rate being hard-locked at 30fps. It's a strange occurrence when a PC game has its frame-rate hard-locked. Essentially what it means is that it's capped and the performance won't scale above 30fps, even if your hardware is capable of running the game at 120fps.
What's more is that Lake-Schaal is forward and honest enough to make it known that PC gamers dissatisfied with Batman: Arkham Knight can request a refund. This comes just on the heels of Valve implementing the new refund policy for Steam games, enabling gamers who have played less than two hours worth of gameplay and have only had the game in their library for two weeks, the opportunity to get a full refund on the game.
At the bottom of the post there are spec details on what gamers can do to get Batman: Arkham Knight running proper on their system.
It's kind of strange but they actually suggest turning the resolution down to 720p, almost as if PC gamers are playing the game through the lens of an Xbox One. What's more is that they suggest completely turning off any of the GameWorks features, turning the texture resolution down to “Low” and turning off any anti-aliasing.
As mentioned in the Steam post, Lake-Schaal states...
With these settings on Min Spec AMD GPU’s, users can expect some minor texture pops, occasional loading symbols during fast-paced scenarios, and some hitches & stuttering when gliding or driving the Batmobile.
So what he's saying is that even with the graphics turned all the way down and running at 720p, the game may still have texture pops and stuttering.
That's kind of insane... especially for anyone who purchased one of the high-end AMD GPUs.
Also, keep in mind that the minimum specifications for running Batman: Arkham Knight on an AMD GPU still requires that you have a 3GB card.
What's more is that the game doesn't currently support Crossfire for AMD cards. What this means is that even if you have two high-powered AMD GPUs in your system, Batman: Arkham Knight is not compatible with Crossfiring them. However, the game does support Nvidia's SLI mode, so if you have two Nvidia cards you will be able to get some performance gains out of the title.
Many of the commenters can't get over the 30fps hard-lock. I suspect if Warner Bros doesn't issue a patch for the frame-rate cap that modders will eventually get to it and create a solution.
For now, many YouTubers, gaming enthusiasts with any kind of community power and gamers themselves are advocating that PC gamers not purchase Batman: Arkham Knight on PC until Warner Bros fixes the game. You can learn more about troubleshooting for the game by visiting the Steam community thread.
