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Creative Assembly’s optimization work for the original Total War: WARHAMMER (2016) targeted several different bottlenecks: CPU work was split across threads, particle simulation shifted toward GPU compute, memory handling changed with a 64-bit engine, and anti-aliasing was made more selective. None of those changes guarantees a particular frame rate on every PC. The game’s 2016 DirectX 12 beta was also hardware-dependent, so the practical answer is to compare DX11 and DX12 on your own system with the in-game benchmark.
What Creative Assembly changed in the original Total War: WARHAMMER
The game’s workload includes more than rendering scenery. In battles, the CPU handles game logic such as AI and tracking objects, while the renderer prepares draw calls and graphics work. Creative Assembly described changes intended to spread that work more effectively and reduce avoidable costs. These are development-era architecture claims, not controlled performance results for today’s hardware.
CPU work: separate logic and rendering
Creative Assembly said it separated the game-draw or logic process from graphics rendering so they could run on independent threads, and optimized the engine’s task system for multithreading. The goal was to ease Total War’s historical concentration of work on the first CPU threads. Separating tasks can make more effective use of available cores, but it does not mean every part of the game scales evenly across every processor. A contemporaneous account by GamersNexus, based on an interview with the studio, describes this decoupling of logic and render threads. GamersNexus’ 2016 technical report
GPU work: move particle simulation to compute
The developer moved particle simulation from pixel-shader work toward compute-shader work, alongside other rendering-pipeline changes. The intended effect was to assign more of that simulation to the GPU so the CPU could focus on other tasks. This is a change in where the work runs, not a published frame-rate guarantee.
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Memory: 64-bit engine and larger in-memory battles
The engine moved from 32-bit to 64-bit, removing a process memory restriction and allowing more models, animations, and textures to be held in memory. Creative Assembly explicitly said the bitness change itself brought no tangible performance benefit. The studio also reported shorter end-turn times alongside AI and other optimization work, so that improvement should not be attributed to 64-bit conversion alone. Creative Assembly’s optimization blog
Anti-aliasing: target visible edges more selectively
Anti-aliasing smooths jagged edges, but methods that sample scene pixels repeatedly can be computationally expensive. Creative Assembly described MLAA as a post-process option and MSAA options such as x2, x4, and x8 as more demanding. Its adjusted MSAA approach concentrated sampling on edges judged perceptibly jagged instead of applying the same work indiscriminately. That was intended to reduce the cost; it did not make MSAA free. The trade-off remains image smoothness versus performance.
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Why is Total War: WARHAMMER so CPU intensive?
A battle is a simulation as well as a rendered scene: unit behavior, AI, object tracking, and other game logic must be processed while the renderer prepares the graphics workload. When those tasks are concentrated on a small number of CPU threads, a system can be CPU-limited even if its graphics card is not fully occupied. Creative Assembly’s thread separation and task-system changes were intended to address that pattern, not eliminate CPU limits in every scene or configuration.
Campaign and battle workloads are not interchangeable. A result from a battle benchmark does not by itself explain campaign-turn duration, and end-turn time is not the same measure as frame rate. When comparing settings or APIs, keep the scene and workload consistent.
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Does DX12 improve Total War: WARHAMMER performance?
Not universally. The original game introduced DX12 as a beta in 2016, in a historical context where Windows 10 was required. Creative Assembly’s documentation said results depended on the graphics card, with broader expected benefits for AMD GPUs supporting asynchronous compute. It also described asynchronous compute as allowing GPU tasks to run in parallel and noted that non-DX12 optimization benefited DX11 too. These statements describe the original beta’s expectations; they are not a current compatibility guarantee or a promise for a particular modern driver or GPU. Historical DX12 beta documentation
Use the game’s built-in benchmark to compare DX11 and DX12 on the same PC. Keep resolution, graphics preset, and benchmark scene unchanged, then compare repeated runs under the same conditions. If one API is slower or less stable on your setup, use the better-performing option rather than assuming the newer API wins. Avoid treating results from different game versions, scenes, presets, or resolutions as a clean API comparison.
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Best settings for Total War: WARHAMMER FPS: a practical test order
There is no single best preset for all systems. SEGA Support’s current general Total War performance FAQ recommends using the game’s benchmarks and checking detail, shadows, mods, drivers, memory, VRAM, resolution, and laptop thermals. It is broad troubleshooting guidance, not a controlled test specific to this game. SEGA Support’s Total War: Performance FAQ
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- Establish a baseline: Run the in-game benchmark at your current settings and note the result. Keep the same benchmark, resolution, preset, and API for each comparison.
- Test graphics settings: Lower detail and shadow settings one at a time, rerunning the benchmark after each change. This helps distinguish a graphics-setting cost from a broader system issue.
- Isolate modifications: Temporarily disable mods and rerun the same test. If performance changes, re-enable them selectively to identify a likely source.
- Check software and resources: Review graphics drivers and operating-system updates, then check available system memory and graphics memory (VRAM) while the game is running. SEGA’s FAQ says less than 1 GB of free system memory may cause paging and repeated stutters; treat this as the support FAQ’s diagnostic guidance, not a universal measured threshold.
- Test resolution if VRAM pressure is suspected: Reduce resolution and repeat the benchmark. A change can help indicate whether graphics-memory pressure is involved, though it does not identify every possible bottleneck.
- Compare APIs: If the game offers both DX11 and DX12 on your installation, test each with the same settings and benchmark conditions. Keep the API that performs reliably on your configuration.
- Check laptop conditions: Make sure the laptop is plugged into power and consider whether heat or cooling could be limiting performance. Compare results under consistent conditions.
Separate frame-rate problems from stutters and long loading
- Low or inconsistent benchmark performance: Compare detail and shadows, then test the APIs and resolution under matched conditions.
- Repeated stutters: Check free system memory and VRAM, and test without mods. SEGA identifies low free memory as a possible paging cause.
- Long loading times: SEGA says a solid-state drive or M.2 storage can dramatically decrease loading times. That recommendation concerns loading, not higher FPS.
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