The PC version of BioShock Infinite features a Benchmarking Utility. Benchmark Utilities are used by advanced players to quickly test their PC hardware on a variety of settings, in order to best pick their in-game graphics settings. During a benchmark, the game will run through various in-game environment, under predetermined graphics settings and conditions, and export statistics on framerates at different points.
What the Benchmark Utility is most useful for is looking at relative results. Typically, it would be used to find out how much your framerate improves when switching from High to Medium settings, or decrease when switching from Low to Medium, and so on.
Benchmarking, in general, is considered an advanced method of troubleshooting hardware, but the tool is there for players who would like to try it out. If you would like to try it out, please try the following:
- Launch BioShock Infinite
- From the pop-up, select BioShock Infinite Benchmarking Utility
- A command window will pop-up, asking for a number between 1 and 8. 1 is your current default settings, 2 is the highest settings, and 8 is the lowest. Type a number between 1 and 8.
- The command window will now ask for your preferred screen resolution for the test. In the Command window, type either 1 or 2. 1 is for your current resolution, 2 is for a custom resolution. In most cases, 1 is the appropriate option. Press 1.
- The Benchmark Utility will commence, some game environments will be shown for about 2 minutes.
- Once the Benchmark completes, the results will be saved to a default directory, and a pop-up will give you the option of viewing the results.
- Click "Yes" and the results should open in your system's default spreadsheet application.
Some things to note:
- Benchmark results are intended to be interpreted as relative results, not necessarily indicative of actual in-game framerates. Benchmark results will almost always be higher than actual gameplay (in some cases considerably higher). The Benchmark runs the game without audio, without an in-game HUD, and with minimal in-game artifacts. For example, there are no enemies, and no associated graphic artifacts or textures. In most cases, the Benchmark results will be up to 20 frames per second higher than actual in-game framerates.
- The results will be exported as a spreadsheet file. A spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice Calc will be required to view the results.
- As the benchmark runs, it will show some in-game footage. No spoilers should be shown, but some of the fairly early game environments will. The revealed environments would be on par with a game trailer, no plot events are displayed.