X3: Terran Conflict

X3:Terran Conflict (X3:TC) is another beautiful stand-alone benchmark that runs multiple tests and will really strain a lot of older video cards. X3:TC is a space trading and combat simulator from Egosoft and is the most recent of their X-series of computer games.

X3:TC is a standalone expansion of X3: Reunion, based in the same universe and on the same engine. It complements the story of previous games in the X-Universe and especially continues the events after the end of X3: Reunion. Compared to Reunion, Terran Conflict features a larger universe, more ships, and of course, new missions. The X-Universe is huge. The Terran faction was added with their own set of technology including powerful ships and stations. Many new weapons systems were developed for the expansion and it has generally received good reviews. It has a rather steep learning curve.

First we note the results at 2560×1600 with completely maxed out settings plus 8xAA:

Now we test at 1920×1200:

Only the very slightest edge goes to the GTX 590 over the HD 6990. This time all of our video cards run close to each other in a fairly tight grouping except for the more budget cards. However, all of our video cards perform well and all of them experience similar minimum framerates and a similar playing experience. We also note no change in the minimums by adding a second card yet all of our cards in multi-GPU blow past the fastest single-GPU video cards.