Introduction

Until 2013's Killer Instinct, it had been nearly 20 years since we last saw the fighting franchise. Rumors circulated for years since that we'd see another entry, but after so long, fans all but gave up completely. Fortunately, things changed, the project got off the ground and saw good reception upon its eventual release.

Then, this year, Microsoft began its big PC push, finally putting its money where its mouth was. Among the console titles to come to the platform: Killer Instinct, complete with upgraded visuals.

The game is optimized for Windows 10, going so far as to require it. While it doesn't utilize DirectX 12 (yet at least), it does impress visually and performance-wise.

As a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) game, it, unfortunately, forces V-Sync and therefore a 60 frames per second (FPS) cap (on 60Hz monitors at least), and doesn't work with our benchmarking tool. This would make it useless for a proper tweak guide, but the in-game benchmark still yields useful results with unique benchmark scores (not FPS measurements), so that's what you'll see today.

Note that another Microsoft UWP title – Forza Motorsport 6 – will abolish the forced V-Sync at some point in the future, so it's possible Killer Instinct and other titles will too.

Test Setup and System Requirements

Our Test System

OS: Windows 10 64-bit

Processor: Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz (Stock)

Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB DDR3-1600 (Stock)

Storage: Crucial BX200 2.5'' 480GB 6GB/s SSD

Video Card: Sapphire Tri-X R9 290X 4GB (Stock)

Driver: Radeon Software Version 16.4.1

Resolution: 1920x1080

Input: Logitech G400 mouse, G.SKILL Ripjaws KM780 Mechanical Keyboard

System Requirements

Minimum:

OS: Windows 7 64-bit

Processor: Intel Core i5-750 @ 2.67 GHz | AMD Phenom II X4 965 @ 3.4 GHz

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 | AMD Radeon HD 5850

DirectX: Version 11

Storage: 30 GB available space

Recommended:

OS: OS 64-bit Windows 7 / 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1) or Windows 10

Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K @ 3.4GHz | AMD FX-4300 @ 3.8 GHz

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 | AMD Radeon HD 7950

DirectX: Version 11

Storage: 30 GB available space