Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced brings the 2013 game to the modern day, but with all its technical upgrades, does it stick the landing? After playing the PC port for my review (on Gamewatcher), I think Ubisoft has done a fantastic job, making it scalable across a range of PC hardware while providing ample options to tune performance.
For my review, I played the game on a PC with a Ryzen 7 5700X3D and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 on a 1440p monitor. The game ran beautifully on it, as it should given that I’m throwing a 5070 at it. But I also switched to my older RTX 3060 Ti for a decent chunk to see how the game performs on cards the working class can afford. Fortunately, Ubisoft hasn’t forgotten about the majority of gamers. How could they, when the game offers a 60fps performance mode on the base PS5, which itself is roughly around the ballpark of a 3060 Ti in terms of performance, if not weaker. I also tried it out on the Nvidia GeForce Now cloud streaming service, where it ran on a virtualised RTX 5080.
This is also the first Assassin’s Creed title I’ve played with ray tracing on PC. I played last year’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows on PS5, where it performed admirably with its 40fps mode - a necessary compromise to retain the ray-traced lighting. Black Flag Resynced, on the other hand, soars across the seas with extended ray tracing features, which include RT-infused global illumination and reflections. Turning off RTGI radically changes the look of the game, stripping away the warmth of the sun on its beaches. RT Reflections are also surprisingly additive to the immersion here, more so than in other games. Seeing accurate reflections of puddles of water and shallower water bodies does wonders for a game trying to emulate the pirate fantasy.
Those with older cards can also glance upon the benefits of ray tracing with its software implementation, so budget gamers aren’t left behind.
But you’re here for the numbers, so let’s get on with it. I should note that the testing process was made tougher by the fact that Ubisoft forces you to reload the game when you alter some of its settings. Its settings menu also doesn’t show the expected CPU and GPU impact of settings, though it does provide a handy reference image along with a VRAM meter to show memory usage.
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced PC Benchmarks
Like many AC titles in recent years, Resynced includes a built-in benchmark, and it maps well to how the game actually performs. The benchmark ends with a results screen that shows exactly how your PC components performed, making it easy to find the bottleneck should there be any.
On the ultra preset with all RT features on their highest preset, the game hits the CPU hard. The Ryzen 7 5700X3D sat around 30-45% usage throughout gameplay, while the VRAM usage touched 9.5GB at its highest at native 4K. The good news is that the game includes multiple upscaling options, along with frame generation and a dynamic resolution toggle, so you can reach your target fairly easily.
1440p benchmarks with RTX 5070
- Ultra preset, DLAA, ray tracing extended - 52fps (avg)
- Ultra preset, DLAA, standard ray tracing - 50fps (avg)
- Ultra preset, DLAA, ray tracing off - 66fps (avg)
- Ultra preset, DLSS balanced, ray tracing extended - 84fps (avg)
- Very high preset, DLAA, ray tracing off - 56fps (avg)
- Very high preset, DLSS balanced - 93fps (avg)
4K benchmarks with RTX 5070
- Ultra preset, DLSS performance, ray tracing extended - 74fps (avg)
4K benchmarks with RTX 5080 (GeForce Now)
- Ultra preset, DLAA, ray tracing extended - 50fps (avg)
- Ultra preset, DLSS balanced, ray tracing extended - 81fps (avg)
AC Black Flag Resynced benchmarks with RTX 3060 Ti
- 1440p, High preset, DLSS quality, standard ray tracing - 49fps (avg)
- 4K, High preset, DLSS performance, standard ray tracing - 60fps (avg)
If you’re having trouble reaching a stable frame rate, I suggest locking the base frame rate to something evenly divisible by your monitor’s refresh rate, or something that comes within the VRR range. Following that, turn on frame generation using either of the vendor offerings, and enjoy a high-refresh rate experience. Personally, Nvidia’s DLSS frame generation provided the sharpest, most stable image, when combined with DLSS upscaling.
I should also note that the game contains certain quirks that I hope are fixed in future updates. The biggest being that cutscenes are locked at 30fps. And then there’s the case of objects in the far distance, like birds, animating at a lower frame rate. The frame rate limiter works quite well, but not so much when you lock it to 30fps, if you’re mad enough to try that. As with most PC games, the in-game FPS limiter doesn’t stick to a consistent frametime gap, so frames are ever so out of sync with each other.
Ubisoft has also suggested that the game is Steam Deck verified, and judging by gameplay from others (I only had the Ubisoft Connect version), it seems to be working about as well as expected. Expect more discussion on the same along with its console version on the Day Zero podcast later this week.
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
