Killing is thirsty work, just ask Vampyr's Dr. Jonathan Reid. And so is benchmarking on a balmy summer's day. We've got our mitts on the PC version of Dontnod's Vampyr, and we've been busy putting this narrative-driven action RPG through its paces.

Vampyr's big hook is that experience can only be gained through killing innocent NPCs. The nicer they are, the better the nibble. It's an interesting twist on the usual experience gain formula, but that's for another time. What we're really interested in is, how does Vampyr run on PC?

Vampyr Graphics Settings

• Resolution
• V-Sync - On/Off
• Full Screen - On/Off
• Texture Quality - Low/Med/High/Ultra
• Material Quality Level - Low/Med/High
• Shadow Quality - Low/Med/High
• Effects Quality - Low/Med/High/Ultra
• Anti-Aliasing - Off/FXAA 2X/FXAA 4X/FXAA 6X/TXAA 2X/TXAA 4X/TXAA 6X
• Post Process Quality - Low/Med/High/Ultra
• Scatter Density - Low/High
• View Distance - Low/Med/High/Ultra
• Resolution Scale - 70%/80%/90%/100%

Vampyr has quite a rudimentary set of graphics options, truth be told. The core settings are hit, but there's not a massive amount to mess around with. 

Outside of the standard graphics settings, there doesn't appear to be an FOV slider of any sort. Vampyr feels as if it was designed to be played on a TV rather than monitor, so the cramped camera may be something to bear in mind.

Keeping on the TV aspect for a monitor, Vampyr is also a game evidently designed for gamepads first and foremost. Hitting the controls menu brings up an Xbox One controller with all of the inputs, and you actually have to burrow a little deeper to find keybindings. Mouse movement also doesn't feel great, so if you've got a controller lying around you may want to dig it out to play Vampyr.

Vampyr System Requirements

Vampyr Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i3-2130 3.4GHz or AMD FX-4100 3.6 GHz
• RAM: 8 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 2 GB Video Memory
• GPU: GeForce GTX 660 or Radeon R7 370 2GB
• HDD: 20GB Available Hard Drive Space
• API: DirectX 11

Vampyr Recommended System Requirements for 60 FPS High @ 1080p

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2 GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2 GHz
• RAM: 16 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 4 GB Video Memory
• GPU: GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon R9 390
• HDD: 20GB Available Hard Drive Space
• API: DirectX 11

Vampyr Recommended System Requirements for 60 FPS High @ 1440p

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2 GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2 GHz
• RAM: 16 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 8 GB Video Memory
• GPU: GeForce GTX 1070 or Radeon RX Vega 56
• HDD: 20GB Available Hard Drive Space
• API: DirectX 11

Vampyr Recommended System Requirements for 60 FPS High @ 4K

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2 GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2 GHz
• RAM: 16 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 11 GB Video Memory
• GPU: GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
• HDD: 20GB Available Hard Drive Space
• API: DirectX 11

Vampyr benchmarks and frames per second analysis performed on MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G | Intel i7-5820K | 16GB DDR4

For these benchmarks, we tested out how Vampyr performed while using MSI's GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G, equipped with 6GB video memory. It’s backed up by 16GB DDR4 memory and an Intel Core i7-5820K CPU. This system is slightly more powerful than the recommended specs, so the expectation is of decent performance.

These benchmarks were taken during a fairly early portion of the game, during a fight scene involving four other characters. Fight scenes tend to be the most demanding aspect of Vampyr, and it's also where players will be relying on a steady frame rate.

Unsurprisingly for a system that meets the recommended requirements, Vampyr runs great with a GeForce GTX 1060. In fact, despite being significantly weaker than the GTX 1070 suggested for 1440p, the GTX 1060 can still very much hold its own with an average frame rate of 58 on Ultra. Occasional dips can happen, but for the most part, it holds very steady. Vampyr is a game that's fairly light on action too, and when it does heat up it's often quite slow-paced, so it's certainly manageable even with the dips.

It's a bit of a different story on 4K, and the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB isn't up to scratch here. Playable frame rates are achievable, but it results in sub-optimal performance. While we haven't got a GTX 1070 on hand, it seems safe to assume it should run Vampyr at a decent clip while at 4K screen resolution.

The other thing to point out, as I'm sure you've noticed from the results - Vampyr appears to be running with a 60fps frame rate cap, or something to that effect. It may be tied into the refresh rate of your monitor as I'm using a fairly crummy 60Hz display right.

Vampyr benchmarks and frames per second analysis performed on MSI Radeon R7 370 2GB | Intel i7-5820K | 16GB DDR4

Compared to the GTX 1060, the Radeon R7 370 evidently runs into a few more issues. AMD's budget card begins to struggle a little at 1080p, and unless you're happy dropping those graphics settings down a few notches, 720p or 900p are probably the safer bets for a smooth gameplay experiences.

As always, it's helpful if you could add your benchmark results to the site using our tools. This helps provide more accurate information to the next member of the GD community who comes along to check it out. Just head here and then click the plus button at the top, just next to search bar, to begin adding your results.

We'll have our Vampyr review with you shortly, but in the meantime, be sure to check out our Low vs Ultra comparison sliders for a peek at Vampyr's PC graphics.