The battle of the HTPC cards, Galaxy’s GT 520 vs. HD 6450 (GDDR5 vs. GDDR3)
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 1680×1050 with completely maxed out settings plus 4xAA:
The GTS 450 is faster than the new Radeons while the HIS HD 6450 is beaten by the GT 520. The GT 430 is solidly ahead of either new card although the minimums are similar. This time we drop the resolution to 1280×720 and also drop our AA to 2x.
Our video cards now run closer to each other in a fairly tight grouping. The GT 520 edges the GT 230 and is solidly faster than the HIS card. In the Summary, we see the GT 520 come very close to the GDDR5 version of the HD 6450.
