{"id":20800,"date":"2010-09-26T21:58:19","date_gmt":"2010-09-26T20:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=20800"},"modified":"2010-09-29T07:03:41","modified_gmt":"2010-09-29T06:03:41","slug":"galaxys-gtx-480-superoverclock-the-fastest-single-gpu-video-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/galaxys-gtx-480-superoverclock-the-fastest-single-gpu-video-card\/","title":{"rendered":"Galaxy&#8217;s GTX 480 SuperOverclock &#8211; The World&#8217;s fastest single GPU video card!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\n             google_ad_client = \"pub-7021221536180758\"; \/* 468x60, created 11\/11\/09 *\/ google_ad_slot = \"1949837292\"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60;\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/p>\n<p><script src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">We would like to reintroduce Nvidia&#8217;s &#8220;Tank&#8221; as the Galaxy GTX 480 SuperOverclock (SOC) and this time we present  a much leaner, meaner and faster machine &#8211; all the while improving on the thermals and noise of the reference GTX 480.  The Tank refers particularly to Nvidia&#8217;s flagship GTX 480 which is equipped to handle any gaming situation at high resolution and with maximum details and filtering applied.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Galaxy advertises their new SuperOverclock as &#8220;the World&#8217;s Fastest GTX 480&#8221; and we now bring you the details of our performance showdown with the reference GTX 480, the reference Diamond HD 5870 and the overclocked PowerColor HD 5870 PCS+ to see if we can verify Galaxy&#8217;s claim.\u00a0 We also overclock Galaxy&#8217;s GTX 480 SOC even further to see how it scales in more than 20 modern games.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/TheTank.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20885\" title=\"TheTank\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/TheTank-300x273.jpg?resize=300%2C273\" alt=\"TheTank\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/TheTank-300x273.jpg?resize=300%2C273 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/TheTank.JPG 332w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Nvidia released its long awaited GeForce GTX based on its brand new Fermi DX11 GF100 architecture back in April of this year. This new GPU \u2013 Graphics Processing Unit &#8211; a term originally originated by Nvidia is a continuation of their strategy since their G80 which launched over three year ago to create a General Purpose Processor \u2013 co-equal with the CPU \u2013 that also renders amazing graphics. The culmination of Nvidia&#8217;s efforts with their new DX11 Fermi architecture, the GTX 480, their flagship GPU &#8211; definitely is the fastest single GPU with the caveat that it runs rather hot and the cooling solutions based on the reference design are somewhat noisy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Enter the new refined &#8216;Tank&#8217;, the Galaxy GTX 480 SuperOverclock, which Galaxy calls &#8220;the fastest GTX 480 card in the world&#8221; which is already the &#8220;fastest single GPU video card&#8221; in the slower-clocked reference version.\u00a0 Best of all, the new Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is not just super-fast, but it is also 30  dBA quieter than the reference version and also 30C cooler thanks to its impressive and well-engineered 3-slot design and Arctic-Cooling VGA cooler.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GTX480_ProShot.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20883\" title=\"GTX480_ProShot\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GTX480_ProShot.jpg?resize=400%2C274\" alt=\"GTX480_ProShot\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GTX480_ProShot.jpg?resize=400%2C274 500w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GTX480_ProShot-300x205.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is a massive 3-slot design:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/last-GTX480-SOC-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20899\" title=\"last-GTX480-SOC-1\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/last-GTX480-SOC-1.jpg?resize=300%2C141\" alt=\"last-GTX480-SOC-1\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/last-GTX480-SOC-1.jpg?resize=300%2C141 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/last-GTX480-SOC-1.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Now check the heavy backplate of the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC version:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Backplate-GTX480-SOC-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20897\" title=\"Backplate-GTX480-SOC-2\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Backplate-GTX480-SOC-2.jpg?resize=300%2C137\" alt=\"Backplate-GTX480-SOC-2\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Backplate-GTX480-SOC-2.jpg?resize=300%2C137 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Backplate-GTX480-SOC-2.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The Galaxy GTX 480 SOC comes with a MSRP of $489. So we need to answer the question: <em>Is it worth the $40 premium over the $450 or so dollars that one would currently spend for AMD&#8217;s top single-GPU video card &#8211; an <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">overclocked<\/span> HD 5870?<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">To properly bring you this review, we are using our reference Diamond HD 5870 (850\/1200 MHz) as well as our factory overclocked PowerColor HD 5870 PCS+ (875\/1250 MHz) and put them through their paces this week with the very latest performance drivers &#8211; Catalyst 10-9.\u00a0 AMD should be quite proud of this driver set as it brings sold performance increases over Catalyst 10-8 which we analyzed <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=20671\">here<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">You will see us pit our two HD 5870s against the new GTX 480 SOC and also against the reference GTX 480 in 21 modern games and 2 synthetic benchmarks using 1920&#215;1200 and 2560&#215;1600 resolutions.   Since we are using the fastest of the fast single-GPU video cards, it makes sense to test at the highest resolutions and with the most demanding settings.\u00a0 Actually, there is only one video card &#8211; the $600 dual-GPU, HD 5970 &#8211; that can generally beat the performance of any of our current cards when CrossFire is scaling well.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Is Galaxy&#8217;s GTX 480 SOC worth $489 which is about $40 more than its rival, AMD&#8217;s overclocked HD 5870?<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">We have already analyzed and compared the reference GTX 480 and the HD 5870 performance at all levels and we definitely can announce a performance winner &#8211; the GTX 480, despite its high TDP and noise levels as well as higher price.  Now we are going to look at Galaxy&#8217;s much more refined and overclocked version of GTX 480 and put it against the reference GTX 480 and two versions of HD 5870 &#8211; the reference Diamond HD 5870 (850\/1200 MHz) versus the non-reference overclocked PowerColor HD 5870 PCS+ (875\/1225 MHz) to see if it is worth its price premium as the &#8220;fastest single-GPU video card&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The HD 5870 is well-known for being a relatively cool-running and quiet video card; the PowerColor Version being mildly overclocked over the reference version and quieter due to its non-reference large VGA cooling fan which is nearly silent until it comes under heavy thermal load from high overclocking and manually forcing the fan&#8217;s RPMs over 80 percent.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/The4Competitors1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20900\" title=\"The4Competitors\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/The4Competitors1.jpg?resize=300%2C226\" alt=\"The4Competitors\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/The4Competitors1.jpg?resize=300%2C226 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/The4Competitors1.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Next page...\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif?w=720\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/>Before we do performance testing, let&#8217;s take a look at the GTX 480 and quickly recap its new DX11 architecture and features of the original Fermi GF100 which we covered in our reviews of the GTX 480, published <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=16475\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here,<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=16997\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a><\/span> and <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=17869\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a><\/span>.  Senior Editor BFG10K reviewed GTX 470 <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=17550\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=18180\">here <\/a>and Senior editor MrK covered GTX 465 <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=18715\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We also recently examined the performance of <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=20306\">Galaxy&#8217;s GTS 450 SuperOverclock<\/a> (SOC) and discussed its architecture, GF 106, a cut down version of GF100 on which all GTX 480s are based. We saw GTX 450 SLI soundly whipped by a single reference GTX 480 in the Galaxy GTS 450 SOC review and do not include it for testing here.  Here is how Nvidia lines up their competition:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Lineup.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20324\" title=\"Lineup\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Lineup.jpg?resize=400%2C197\" alt=\"Lineup\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Lineup.jpg?resize=400%2C197 400w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Lineup-300x147.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Specifications<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The GeForce GTX 480 was designed from the ground up to deliver exceptional tessellation performance, which is a key component of Microsoft&#8217;s DirectX 11 development platform for PC games. Tessellation allows game developers to take advantage of the GeForce GTX 480 GPU&#8217;s tessellation ability to increase the geometric complexity of models and characters to deliver far more realistic and visually rich gaming environments.\u00a0 You will soon see that the clocks of the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC are clocked far higher than the reference version and we were also able to go even further than the factory overclock that Galaxy set while still remaining cool and quiet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Needless to say, the new Fermi GF100 GTX 480 brings a lot of features to the table that current Nvidia customers will appreciate, including improved CUDA&#8217;s PhysX, 2D and 3D Surround to drive up to 3 LCDs with GTX SLI, superb tessellation capabilities and a really fast GPU in comparison to their GT200 series. Now let&#8217;s see how the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC compares to the reference GTX 480.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GTX480Specs1.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20908\" title=\"GTX480Specs\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GTX480Specs1-300x108.jpg?resize=300%2C108\" alt=\"GTX480Specs\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GTX480Specs1-300x108.jpg?resize=300%2C108 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GTX480Specs1.JPG 386w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Galaxy promises +60 MHz on the GTX 480 SOC core and over one hundred MHz increase on its vRAM while remaining much cooler and quieter than the reference version.\u00a0 The GTX 480 SOC includes all solid capacitors, a 6+2 PWM digital power supply and Dual Bios for protection against BIOS corruption while overclocking. Galaxy wasn\u2019t just focused on pure adrenaline with the GTX 480 SOC as they use  3 ultra quiet 92mm PWM fans with low noise impellers, 5 heatpipes and 84 fins for heat dissipation providing up to 30\u00b0 C cooler temperatures and as much as 30 dBA noise reduction over the reference GTX 480!\u00a0 We can attest to the Galaxy model being very quiet in contrast to the GTX 480 reference version which is quite noticeable under load.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GalaxyBox.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20902\" title=\"GalaxyBox\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GalaxyBox.jpg?resize=300%2C273\" alt=\"GalaxyBox\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GalaxyBox.jpg?resize=300%2C273 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GalaxyBox.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Galaxy GTX 480 SuperOverclock video card comes in a suitable box which protects it in shipping, but it is not a fancy package nor are there a lot of &#8220;frills&#8221; &#8211; Galaxy concentrates on bringing you a great video card with superb support.\u00a0 In the box you will find the driver CD, a HDMI cable, DVI to VGA adapter, the most basic of printed instructions, the warranty information and a toll-free 24-hour telephone number where you are guaranteed to talk to someone if you have any issues for the two years that your card is warrantied.\u00a0 Great support!<\/p>\n<h3>Can you SLI your reference GTX 480 with a three-slot Galaxy GTX 480 SOC video card in an X58 motherboard?<\/h3>\n<p>Normally, we would not expect a person buying a three-slot card to consider SLI&#8217;ing it. Quite often a gamer will buy one card and perhaps later on, add a second one.  However, there are recently more compelling reasons besides increased performance to consider GTX 480 SLI which includes being able to experience Nvidia&#8217;s multi-display 2D\/3D Surround.\u00a0 Amazingly the GTX 480 SOC can be used in the bottom slot and still get decent cooling in many X58 motherboards SLI&#8217;d together with a reference GTX 480 in the top slot.\u00a0 Using the latest 260 drivers, each card can keep its own unique clocks or they can be set synchronously.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GTX480_SLI.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20901\" title=\"GTX480_SLI\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GTX480_SLI.jpg?resize=300%2C246\" alt=\"GTX480_SLI\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GTX480_SLI.jpg?resize=300%2C246 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GTX480_SLI.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Because of severe time constraints on this article, GTX 480 SLI will be examined in depth in a further article as well as 3-panel 2D Surround versus Eyefinity.\u00a0 Before we do performance testing, let&#8217;s take a look at the company that makes the GTX 480 SOC:<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\">About Galaxy<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\">Galaxy, established in 1994, is a Nvidia Add-in-Board (AIB) partner which manufactures products from the low-end GeForce 7200 series to the high-end GTX400 series. They manufacture products based on Nvidia\u2019s reference design as well as using their own in-house production facilities to manufacture graphic cards based on their own designs using high-end coolers from Arctic Cooling and others.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\">Galaxy has shipped to the US for a long time as they built video cards for many of the tier 1 brands in the market today. They realized they could create a brand for themselves and save the end customer the middleman fees. Two years ago they launched Galaxy in the US and their products are now available at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bestbuy.com\/\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.bestbuy.com\/', 'Best Buy']);\" >Best Buy<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microcenter.com\/\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.microcenter.com\/', 'Microcenter']);\" >Microcenter<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.frys.com\/\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.frys.com\/', 'Fry\u2019s']);\" >Fry\u2019s<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dell.com\/\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.dell.com\/', 'Dell.com']);\" >Dell.com<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newegg.com\/\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.newegg.com\/', 'Newegg']);\" >Newegg<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tigerdirect.com\/\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.tigerdirect.com\/', 'TigerDirect']);\" >TigerDirect<\/a> and many other sites. They have excellent quality and toll-free tech support with a 2 year transferable no-registration warranty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Introduction--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><span style=\"font-size: large\"><span style=\"color: #ffff00\"><strong>Test Configuration<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span> <span style=\"color: #ffff00\"><strong> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><span style=\"color: #ffff00\"><strong>Test Configuration &#8211; Hardware <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\">\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Intel Core i7 920 reference 2.66 GHz and overclocked to 3.8 GHz); Turbo is off. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Gigabyte <\/span>EX58-UD3R <span style=\"font-size: small\">(Intel X58 chipset, latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire\/SLI 16x+16x).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">6 GB OCZ DDR3 PC 1800 Kingston RAM (3&#215;2 GB, tri-channel at PC 1600 speeds; 2&#215;2 GB supplied by Kingston)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">GeForce GTX 480, 1.5 GB reference design and clocks, supplied by Nvidia<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Galaxy <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">GTX 480<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> SOC; 1.5 GB, overclocked version, supplied by Galaxy <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">ATI Radeon HD 5870 PCS+ (1GB, overclocked clocks, 875\/1225 MHz) by PowerColor<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">ATi Radeon HD 5870 (1GB, reference clocks, 850\/1200 MHz) by Diamond<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Onboard Realtek Audio<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Two identical 250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives configured and set up identically from drive image; one partition for Nvidia GeForce drivers and one for ATI Catalyst drivers<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Thermaltake ToughPower 775 W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Thermaltake Element G Case supplied by Thermaltake<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU cooler, supplied by Noctua<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Philips DVD SATA writer<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">HP LP3065 2560&#215;1600 thirty inch LCD\n<p><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ffff00\">Test Configuration &#8211; Software<\/span><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">ATi Catalyst 10-9; highest quality mip-mapping set in the driver, Catalyst AI set to \u201cStandard\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">NVIDIA GeForce 206.52 beta release drivers for GTX 480; High Quality<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">DirectX July 2010<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">All games are patched to their latest versions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">vsync is off in the control panel and is never set in-game.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Varying AA enabled as noted in games and &#8220;forced&#8221; in Catalyst Control Center for<em> UT3<\/em> and <em>Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/em>; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for <em>Crysis.<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">All results show average, minimum and maximum frame rates except as noted.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Windows 7 64, all DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths; DX11 titles under DX 11 render paths.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ffff00\">The Benchmarks<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Vantage<\/li>\n<li><em>Call of Juarez<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Crysis<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Call of Pripyat<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Far Cry 2<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Just Cause 2 <\/em><em> <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>X3:Terran Conflict<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Dirt 2<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Lost Planet<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Unreal Tournament 3<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Resident Evil 5<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>STALKER, Call of Pripyat<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>H.A.W.X.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Battleforge<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Enemy Territory: Quake Wars<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>F.E.A.R.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Call of Duty 4<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Alien vs. Predator<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Serious Sam, Second Encounter HD <\/em>(2010)<em> <\/em><em> <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Metro 2033<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Mafia II <\/em><em> <\/em><\/li>\n<li>Heaven 2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Test Configuration--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><strong>Vantage<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\">Vantage is Futuremark\u2019s latest test. It is really useful for tracking changes in a<em> single <\/em>system \u2013 especially driver changes. There are two mini-game tests, <em>Jane Nash<\/em> and <em>Calico<\/em> and also two CPU tests, but we are still focusing on the graphics performance. Here is a scene from Vantage\u2019s second mini-game.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/3dmarkvantage-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px\" title=\"3DMarkVantage\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/3dmarkvantage_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"3DMarkVantage\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Let\u2019s go right to the graphs and first check the basic tests with the default benchmark scores:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Vantage-BT.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20831\" title=\"Vantage-BT\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Vantage-BT.jpg?resize=482%2C412\" alt=\"Vantage-BT\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Vantage-BT.jpg?resize=482%2C412 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Vantage-BT-300x256.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>We see an interesting lineup. Unfortunately for our purposes, Vantage is a meaningless test with meaningless numbers to attempt to compare one video card&#8217;s performance to another &#8211; even in the same system. However, the mini games might show a bit more as they are actually benching framerates.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Vantage-MG1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20832\" title=\"Vantage-MG\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Vantage-MG1.jpg?resize=482%2C413\" alt=\"Vantage-MG\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Vantage-MG1.jpg?resize=482%2C413 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Vantage-MG1-300x257.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Let&#8217;s move on to PC games and to real world situations!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Vantage--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><em><strong>Call of Juarez<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/coj_dx10-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px\" title=\"CoJ_DX10\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/coj_dx10_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"CoJ_DX10\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Call of Juarez<\/em> is one of the very earliest DX10 games. It is loosely based on Spaghetti Westerns that became popular in the early 1970s. Call of Juarez features its Chrome Engine using Shader Model 4 with DirectX 10. Our benchmark isn\u2019t built into Call of Juarez, but is an official stand-alone that is identical to the one that is built-into the game. It runs a simple flyby of a level that is created to showcase its DX10 effects. It offers good repeatability and it is a good stress test for DX10 features in graphics cards, although it is not quite the same as actual gameplay because the game logic and AI are stripped out of this demo.<\/p>\n<p>Performing <em>Call of Juarez<\/em> benchmark is easy. You are presented with a simple menu to choose resolution, anti-aliasing, and two choices of shadow quality options. We set the shadow quality on \u201chigh\u201d and the shadow map resolution to the maximum, 2048\u00d72048. At the end of the run, the demo presents you with the minimum, maximum, and average frame rate, along with the option to quit or run the benchmark again. We always ran the benchmark at least a second time and recorded that generally higher score.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><em> <\/em>Here are <em>Call of Juarez<\/em> DX10 benchmark results at 1920\u00d71200; there is no 2560&#215;1600 run available:<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoJ-192.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20833\" title=\"CoJ-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoJ-192.jpg?resize=482%2C500\" alt=\"CoJ-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoJ-192.jpg?resize=482%2C500 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoJ-192-289x300.jpg 289w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\">The GTX 480 takes the lead over both the stock and overclocked HD 5870s. At any rate, the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is the clear winner with some nice scaling translating to real performance increase over the reference version.<!--nextpage--><!--pagetitle: Call of Juarez--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong>CRYSIS<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/crysis64_1-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px\" title=\"crysis64_1\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/crysis64_1_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"crysis64_1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\">Next we move on to <em>Crysis,<\/em> a science fiction first person shooter by Crytek. It remains one of the most demanding games for any PC and it is also still one of the most beautiful games released to date. <em>Crysis <\/em>is based in a fictional near-future where an alien spacecraft is discovered buried on an island near the coast of Korea. The single-player campaign has you assume the role of USA Delta Force, \u2018Nomad\u2019 who is armed with futuristic weapons and equipment. <em>Crysis<\/em> uses DirectX10 for graphics rendering.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\">A standalone but related game, <em>Crysis Warhead<\/em> was released last year. CryEngine2 is the game engine used to power <em>Crysis<\/em> and <em>Warhead <\/em>and it is an extended version of the CryEngine that also powers <em>FarCry<\/em>. As well as supporting Shader Model 2.0, 3.0, and DirectX10\u2019s 4.0, CryEngine2 is also multi-threaded to take advantage of dual core SMP-aware systems and Crytek has developed their own proprietary physics system, called CryPhysics. However, it is noted that actually playing this game is a bit slower than the demo implies.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><em><strong>G<\/strong><strong>PU Demo, Island<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">All of our settings are set to in-game&#8217;s maximum &#8220;very high&#8221; including 4xAA and we force 16xAF in the control panels. Here is<em> Crysis\u2019 Island Demo <\/em>benchmark, first at 2560&#215;1600 resolution:<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Crysis-251.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20818\" title=\"Crysis-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Crysis-251.jpg?resize=482%2C502\" alt=\"Crysis-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Crysis-251.jpg?resize=482%2C502 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Crysis-251-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The PowerColor HD 5870 PCS+ and the reference GTX 480 are pretty much neck-and-neck overall although the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is definitely faster.\u00a0 The Radeon appears to stumble at times in the minimums although no single GPU yet offers playable framerates at 2560&#215;1600 at very high plus 4xAA. Perhaps the larger framebuffer of the GTX makes a little difference. although we see the faster clockspeed of the overclocked Radeon helps over the stock one.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s move on to 1920&#215;1200:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Crysis-192.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20817\" title=\"Crysis-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Crysis-192.jpg?resize=482%2C502\" alt=\"Crysis-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Crysis-192.jpg?resize=482%2C502 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Crysis-192-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">All four of our top cards are now playable with Crysis at 1920&#215;1200 if you are willing to compromise with AA\/AF or lower a couple of detail settings. However, the experience is similar on all 4 cards although the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is slightly faster if you are keeping score.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Crysis--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><em><strong>FarCry 2<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/farcry2-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px\" title=\"farcry2\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/farcry2_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"farcry2\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>F<\/em><em>ar Cry 2 <\/em>uses the name of the original <em>Far Cry <\/em>but it is not connected to the first game as it brings you a new setting and a new story. Ubisoft created it based on their Dunia Engine. The game setting takes place in an unnamed African country, during an uprising between two rival warring factions<em>.<\/em> Your mission is to kill \u201cThe Jackal\u201d; the Nietzsche-quoting mercenary that arms both sides of the conflict that you are dropped into.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Far Cry 2 <\/em>game world is loaded in the background and on the fly to create a completely seamless open world. The Dunia game engine provides good visuals that scale well. The<em> Far Cry 2<\/em> design team actually went to Africa to give added realism to this game. One thing to especially note is <em>Far Cry 2\u2019s <\/em>very realistic fire propagation by their engine that is a far cry from the scripted fire and explosions that we are used to seeing.<\/p>\n<p>First we test <em>Far Cry 2<\/em> benchmark at 2560&#215;1600 with AI enabled and we use the Ranch Long benchmark with ultra settings plus 8xAA. The GTX 480 runs away from the Radeons and the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is clearly the fastest of the very best.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FC2-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20822\" title=\"FC2-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FC2-25.jpg?resize=482%2C501\" alt=\"FC2-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FC2-25.jpg?resize=482%2C501 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FC2-25-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And now at 1920&#215;1200 resolution:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FC2-191.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20821\" title=\"FC2-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FC2-191.jpg?resize=482%2C503\" alt=\"FC2-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FC2-191.jpg?resize=482%2C503 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FC2-191-287x300.jpg 287w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here we see a clean sweep by the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC in <em>Far Cry 2<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Far Cry 2--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><em><strong>Enemy Territory: <strong>Quake Wars <\/strong><\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/etqw_image-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"etqw_image\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/etqw_image_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"etqw_image\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Enemy Territory: Quake Wars <\/em>is an objective-driven, class-based first person shooter set in the Quake universe. It was developed by id Software and Splash Damage and published by Activision. <em>Quake Wars<\/em> pits the combined human armies of the Global Defense Force against the technologically superior Strogg, an alien race who has come to earth to use humans for spare parts and food. It allows you to play a part, probably best as an online multi-player experience, in the battles waged around the world in mankind\u2019s desperate war to survive.<\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Quake Wars<\/em> is an OpenGL game based on id\u2019s Doom3 game engine with the addition of their MegaTexture technology. It also supports some of the latest 3D effects seen in today\u2019s games, including soft particles, although it is somewhat dated and less demanding on video cards than many DX10 games. id\u2019s MegaTexture technology is designed to provide very large maps without having to reuse the same textures over and over again. For our benchmark we chose the flyby, <em>Salvage Demo<\/em>. It is one of the most graphically demanding of all the flybys and it is very repeatable and reliable in its results. It is fairly close to what you will experience in-game. All of our settings are set to \u2018maximum\u2019 and we also apply 4xAA\/16xAF in game.<\/p>\n<p>First we test at 2560&#215;1600 resolution with all settings fully maxed in-game plus 8xAA\/16xAF:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/ETQW-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20846\" title=\"ETQW-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/ETQW-25.jpg?resize=482%2C503\" alt=\"ETQW-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/ETQW-25.jpg?resize=482%2C503 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/ETQW-25-287x300.jpg 287w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>All four card offer a similar excellent experience with the Galaxy GTX 480 again beating the competition by a couple of frames per second.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/ETQW-191.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20847\" title=\"ETQW-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/ETQW-191.jpg?resize=482%2C502\" alt=\"ETQW-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/ETQW-191.jpg?resize=482%2C502 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/ETQW-191-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>All of our video cards have no trouble handling this game fully maxed out. The Galaxy GTX 480 SOC stands out as the quickest among the very best in this game.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><!--pagetitle: ET:QW--><\/ul>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><em><strong>F.E.A.R.<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fear-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"FEAR\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fear_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C184\" border=\"0\" alt=\"FEAR\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>F.E.A.R. \u2013 First Encounter Armed Assault<\/em> \u2013 is a DX9c game by Monolith Productions that was originally released in October 2005 by Vivendi Universal Production. Later, there were two expansions with the latest, <em>Perseus Mandate<\/em>, released in 2007. Although the game engine is aging, it still has some of the most spectacular effects of any game. <em>F.E.A.R.<\/em> showcases a powerful particle system, complete with sparks and smoke for collisions as well as featuring bullet marks and other effects including \u201csoft shadows\u201d. This is highlighted by the built-in performance test, although it was never updated. This performance test will tell you how<em> F.E.A.R.<\/em> will run, but both of its expansions are progressively more demanding on your PC graphics and will run slower than the demo. We always run at least two sets of tests with all in-game features at \u2018maximum\u2019. <em>F.E.A.R.<\/em> uses the Jupiter Extended Technology engine from Touchdown Entertainment.<\/p>\n<p>We test this game with the most demanding settings. Fully maxed details with 4xAA\/16xAF; soft shadows \u2018off\u2019, as they do not play well with AA. Let\u2019s start first at 2560&#215;1600:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FEAR-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20848\" title=\"FEAR-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FEAR-25.jpg?resize=482%2C502\" alt=\"FEAR-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FEAR-25.jpg?resize=482%2C502 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FEAR-25-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is strongest in this DX9 game followed by the GTX 480 reference version.  Both HD 5870s also offer very playable experiences in this game.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FEAR-19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20849\" title=\"FEAR-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FEAR-19.jpg?resize=482%2C502\" alt=\"FEAR-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FEAR-19.jpg?resize=482%2C502 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/FEAR-19-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>In this case, our Galaxy GTX 480 SOC has the best frame rates followed by the reference GTX 480.   Even so, there  is not much difference in practically playing <em>F.E.A.R.<\/em> between the fastest and the slowest video cards as the minimums are already sufficiently high.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><!--pagetitle: F.E.A.R.--><\/ul>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><em><strong><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em><em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/batmanaa_25x16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-17938\" title=\"batmanAA_25x16\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/batmanaa_25x16.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"batmanAA_25x16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/batmanaa_25x16.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/batmanaa_25x16-1024x640.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/em><em>Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/em> is an action-adventure\/stealth video game based on DC Comics&#8217; Batman.\u00a0  Arkham Asylum as written by veteran Batman writer Paul Dini is based directly on the long-running comic book&#8217;s Dark Knight character. The Joker devised an elaborate plot from inside Arkham Asylum that Batman is personally forced to put a stop to. The game&#8217;s primary characters are superbly voiced by the actors Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin who reprise their roles as Batman, the Joker and Harley Quinn.<\/p>\n<p>The game is played as an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective action-adventure game with a primary focus on Batman&#8217;s combat abilities, stealth, detective skills and complete with an arsenal of gadgets that can be used in both combat and as exploring in &#8220;detective mode&#8221;.The game uses a &#8220;Freeflow&#8221; combat system as well as the ability to use Batarangs and the Bat-Claw. The player also has access to progressively stronger counter attacks as well as a special attack that can quickly take down a single foe. Stealth tactics includes silent takedowns by sneaking up on foes including dropping and\/or gliding from overhead perches.<\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Batman: Arkham Asylum <\/em>uses a highly modified version of the Unreal Engine 3.  It does not support AA natively but must be added in and supported by the game&#8217;s developer.\u00a0 Unfortunately we cannot compare <em>Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/em> using our GeForce <em>exactly<\/em> against the Radeon with PhysX on.\u00a0 In the game&#8217;s control panel, the settings are also different, depending if you play with a GeForce or a Radeon. Using a Radeon, you will get a warning if you try to set Hardware Accelerated Physics to anything other than &#8216;off&#8217;. Ignoring the warning and setting our HD 5870 to the in-between &#8220;normal&#8221; physics setting, the frame rates are cut by almost 90% at 1680&#215;1050 resolution &#8211; literally down from an average of 200 frames per second to about twenty!!<\/p>\n<p>This time we did something different from our usual testing &#8211; we set MSAA in each vendor&#8217;s control panel and did not set it in-game for Nvidia cards.\u00a0 The developer optimized MSAA for GeForce cards in game but you must set non-optimized AA in the Catalyst Control Center.\u00a0 Only the <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=20560\">Game of the Year Edition <\/a>of <em>Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/em> supports in-game AA settings for both Radeon and GeForce cards.<\/p>\n<p>The only thing that we are not certain of is if 8xQ AA is being properly applied in the Nvidia control panel when it is disabled in the game&#8217;s settings as we are getting higher framerates than usual with our GTX 480s.\u00a0 Normally, the HD 5870 will completely equal the GTX 480&#8217;s framerates with no anti-aliasing.\u00a0 We shall explore this in an upcoming review of the Game of the Year Edition of <em>Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/em>.\u00a0 For Nvidia&#8217;s setting to more nearly equal AMD&#8217;s 8xMSAA, we (supposedly) used 8xQ in the Nvidia control panel, beginning with 2560&#215;1600 resolution:<\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Batman-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20850\" title=\"Batman-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Batman-25.jpg?resize=482%2C501\" alt=\"Batman-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Batman-25.jpg?resize=482%2C501 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Batman-25-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">We are uncertain if AA is being applied by the Nvidia Control Panel when it is disabled in-game.\u00a0 However, in each case, all 4 cards are able to offer similar playing experiences as the minimums are sufficiently high even at 2560&#215;1600 with details maxed and with 8xMSAA applied.\u00a0 1920&#215;1200 can only be faster:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong> <\/strong><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Batman-192.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20851\" title=\"Batman-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Batman-192.jpg?resize=482%2C501\" alt=\"Batman-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Batman-192.jpg?resize=482%2C501 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Batman-192-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">There is absolutely no problem playing this game fully maxed out with any of our top videocard configurations with AA forced in video card&#8217;s control panels.\u00a0 Only the uncertainty of the way AA is applied in Nvidia&#8217;s control panel keeps us from declaring any winner.<\/span><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<ul style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><!--pagetitle: Batman: AA--><\/ul>\n<p><strong><!--nextpage--><\/strong><strong><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare<\/span><\/span><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-4367\" href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?attachment_id=4367\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-4367\" title=\"iw3mpcod4\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/iw3mpcod4.jpg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"iw3mpcod4\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><em>Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (CoD4)<\/em> is a first person shooter running on a custom engine. It has nice graphics but the engine is somewhat dated compared to others and it runs well on modern PCs. It is the first <em>CoD<\/em> installment to take place in a modern setting instead of in World War II. It differs from the previous <em>Call of Duty<\/em> games by having a more film-like plot that uses intermixed story lines from two perspectives; that of a USMC sergeant and a British SAS sergeant. There is also a variety of short missions where players control other characters in flashback sequences to advance the story. <em>Call of Duty 4\u2019s<\/em> move to modern warfare introduced a variety of modern conventional weapons and technologies including plastic explosives.<\/p>\n<p>There are currently about 20 multiplayer maps in <em>CoD4<\/em>. It is very popular and there is a new expansion for it.  <em>CoD Modern Warfare <strong>2<\/strong><\/em> was also released with updated visuals but it is also not very demanding on graphics cards.  For multiplayer, <em>CoD4<\/em> includes five preset classes and introduces the Perks system. Perks are special abilities which allow users to further customize their character to suit their personal style. Our timedemo benchmark was created by ABT\u2019s own Senior Editor and lead reviewer, BFG10K. It is very accurate and totally repeatable.<span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Here is <em>CoD4,<\/em> first at 2560&#215;1600 resolution with all in-game settings completely maxed out plus 4xAA:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoD4-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20852\" title=\"CoD4-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoD4-25.jpg?resize=482%2C501\" alt=\"CoD4-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoD4-25.jpg?resize=482%2C501 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoD4-25-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\">This time the PowerColor HD 5870 PCS+ takes the lead followed by the reference HD 5870 then the Galaxy SOC and finally the reference GTX 480.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoD4-194.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20854\" title=\"CoD4-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoD4-194.jpg?resize=482%2C501\" alt=\"CoD4-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoD4-194.jpg?resize=482%2C501 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoD4-194-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\">We see results similar to <em>Unreal Tournament 3<\/em>.  A popular multiplayer game is very playable even on midrange graphics cards from the last generation and it plays very smoothly with this generation&#8217;s video cards. The HD 5870 is the fastest in this benchmark at our maxed out resolutions followed by the stock HD 5870 then the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC and finally the reference GTX 480 version.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: CoD4--><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Aliens vs Predator<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP_SS.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20450\" title=\"AvP_SS\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP_SS.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"AvP_SS\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP_SS.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP_SS-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP_SS.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><em>Aliens vs. Predator<\/em>, known to fans as Aliens versus Predator 3 or AVP3 is a video game developed by Rebellion Developments, and published by Sega in February 2010. It is the sixth game of the Aliens versus Predator game series. There are three campaigns in the game, one for each race or faction (the Predators, the Aliens and the Colonial Marines), that form one main storyline although they differ in objectives depending on your choice of campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Alien vs Predators DX11 benchmark is a stand alone bench that as the name says is only for DX11 cards.\u00a0 First we bench at 2560&#215;1600 with maxed out settings plus 4xAA.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20855\" title=\"AvP-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP-25.jpg?resize=482%2C290\" alt=\"AvP-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP-25.jpg?resize=482%2C290 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP-25-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">The Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is fastest.\u00a0 Now we test at 1920&#215;1080.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP-193.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20856\" title=\"AvP-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP-193.jpg?resize=482%2C290\" alt=\"AvP-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP-193.jpg?resize=482%2C290 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/AvP-193-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">We see the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC take a solid performance lead. The Radeons appear to struggle a bit more when 4xAA is applied.<\/span><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: AvP--><\/p>\n<p><strong><!--nextpage--><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Serious Sam Second Encounter HD (2010)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SamHD_SS.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20448\" title=\"SamHD_SS\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SamHD_SS.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"SamHD_SS\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SamHD_SS.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SamHD_SS-1024x640.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><em>Serious Sam <\/em> is the title of a series of first-person shooters created by the Croatian development team Croteam.  It follows the adventures of its hero Sam &#8220;Serious&#8221; Stone and his fight against the forces of the extraterrestrial overlord Mental who seeks to destroy humanity.  It&#8217;s gameplay is a throwback to early first-person shooters like Quake and Doom with the twist of being set in wide-open environments with large groups of enemies attacking at any time, and there are many hidden areas and treasures to find and puzzles to solve.<em> Serious Sam<\/em> features cooperative gameplay and allows for split screen action supporting up to 4 players.<\/p>\n<p><em>Serious Sam: The Second Encounter <\/em>was remade as &#8220;HD&#8221; using Serious Engine 3. It was released in April, 2010 for PC.  Besides updated visuals, new game modes including &#8220;Co-op Tournament&#8221; and &#8220;Survival&#8221; for single player, were introduced in this remake.  <em>Serious Sam 3<\/em> is currently in development by Croteam and is expected to debut at E3, 2011.<span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">We use the basic 3 &#8220;ultra&#8221; presets for benching <\/span><em>Serious Sam: The Second Encounter HD.<\/em><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> There are possible further fine-tuning which will make the game even more demanding, but we chose the &#8220;ultra&#8221; presets with one higher setting, 8xAA.  We test first at 2560&#215;1600<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> resolution:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SSSE-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20857\" title=\"SSSE-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SSSE-25.jpg?resize=482%2C502\" alt=\"SSSE-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SSSE-25.jpg?resize=482%2C502 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SSSE-25-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">And finally at 1920&#215;10<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">80 with the same ultra presets:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SSSE-19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20858\" title=\"SSSE-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SSSE-19.jpg?resize=482%2C501\" alt=\"SSSE-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SSSE-19.jpg?resize=482%2C501 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SSSE-19-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/strong><em>Serious Sam: The Second Encounter HD <\/em><span style=\"font-size: small;\">on the Serious 3 engine is quite demanding and yet all of our top configurations play it satisfactorily using the game&#8217;s built-in &#8220;ultra&#8221; presets.  The Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is the fastest but the HD 5870 puts in a good showing.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><!--pagetitle: Serious Sam SE--><\/p>\n<p><strong><!--nextpage--><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Mafia II<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/mafiaScreenCS.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20445\" title=\"mafiaScreenCS\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/mafiaScreenCS.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"mafiaScreenCS\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/mafiaScreenCS.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/mafiaScreenCS-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/mafiaScreenCS.jpg 1680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Mafia II<\/em> is a third-person action-adventure video game which is the sequel to<em> Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven<\/em>. It is developed by 2K Czech and is published by 2K Games and was released last month.   <em>Mafia II<\/em> is set from 1943 to 1951 in Empire Bay which is a fictional city based mostly on San Francisco and New York City along with some influences from Chicago and also Detroit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Mafia II<\/em> is a gritty drama which chronicles the rise of World War II veteran Vito Scaletta who joins the Falcone Crime Family and becomes a \u2018made\u2019 man. There are 15 chapters in the game and over two hours of game engine generated cutscenes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Mafia II<\/em> makes extensive use of Nvidia\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nvidia.com\/object\/physx_new.html\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.nvidia.com\/object\/physx_new.html', 'PhysX']);\" >PhysX<\/a> whose full effects are seen smoothly only by playing on a PhysX-enabled GeForce and preferably with a second video card dedicated to it.  ABT has recently got a copy of <em>Mafia II<\/em> and you can expect a review of this game by at least two Senior Editors, including a performance review.  For this article, we used the full game <em>Mafia II<\/em>&#8216;s built-in benchmark with the highest settings for 2560&#215;1600 and 1920&#215;1200 &#8211; without PhysX &#8211; and this time we will reserve comment until after both charts.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Mafia2-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20859\" title=\"Mafia2-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Mafia2-25.jpg?resize=482%2C290\" alt=\"Mafia2-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Mafia2-25.jpg?resize=482%2C290 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Mafia2-25-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Now at 1920&#215;1200:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Mafia2-19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20860\" title=\"Mafia2-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Mafia2-19.jpg?resize=482%2C290\" alt=\"Mafia2-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Mafia2-19.jpg?resize=482%2C290 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Mafia2-19-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">All of our video cards will give a satisfactory playing experience despite the benchmark&#8217;s suggestion that the framerates drop too low playing at 2560&#215;1600.  However, enabling AA and high PhysX together will bring a GTX 480 to its knees.  If you want to run <em>Mafia II<\/em> with AA on and even medium PhysX settings at 2560&#215;1600, consider getting a dedicated PhysX card.<\/span><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><!--pagetitle: Mafia II--><\/p>\n<p><strong><!--nextpage--><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Metro 2033<\/span><\/span><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/metro2033-SS.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20446\" title=\"metro2033-SS\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/metro2033-SS.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"metro2033-SS\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/metro2033-SS.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/metro2033-SS-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/metro2033-SS.jpg 1680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <em>Metro 2033<\/em> is the &#8220;Crysis&#8221; of 2010.  It is a very demanding game on any PC with the very latest DX11 visuals. <\/span><em>Metro 2033<\/em> is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror, and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel &#8220;Metro 2033&#8221; by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010.  The game utilizes multi-platform 4A Engine and there is some doubt if the games engine is related to the original XRay engine used in <em>S.T.A.L.K.E.R.<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The <em>Metro 2033<\/em> story takes place mostly in post-apocalyptic Moscow&#8217;s metro system but occasionally the player has to go above ground on some missions and to search for valuables.  <em>Metro 2033<\/em>&#8216;s locations reflect the dark atmosphere of real metro tunnels but in a much more dangerous and lethal manner. Strange phenomena and noises are frequent, and mostly the player has to rely only on their flashlight to find their way around in otherwise total darkness. Even more deadly is the surface as it is severely irradiated and a gas mask must be worn at all times due to the toxic air.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Earlier this month, THQ released an official benchmark for <\/span><em>Metro 2033. <\/em><span style=\"font-size: small;\">It is available when Steam updates the game and it <\/span>includes a quality benchmark that provides minimum\/maximum\/average framerates, and you can adjust many graphics settings including PhysX, AA, DOF and tessellation, and the number of runs.<span style=\"font-size: small;\"> Our presets are set to maximum with 4xAA and no PhysX.:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Here is our first chart at 2560&#215;1600:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Metro2033-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20861\" title=\"Metro2033-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Metro2033-25.jpg?resize=482%2C290\" alt=\"Metro2033-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Metro2033-25.jpg?resize=482%2C290 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Metro2033-25-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Both cards present a slideshow at the highest resolution with the Radeons chugging from frame-to-frame.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Metro2033-19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20862\" title=\"Metro2033-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Metro2033-19.jpg?resize=482%2C290\" alt=\"Metro2033-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Metro2033-19.jpg?resize=482%2C290 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Metro2033-19-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\">All of our cards struggle with Metro <em>2033<\/em> with the aggressive settings that we used. Although we see our GTXes beating the HD 5870s at the setting that we used, we would lower settings further if we played at 1920&#215;1200; probably turning off DOF and lowering tessellation and AA .  <em>Metro 2033<\/em> is tessellation-heavy and it appears to take advantage of GF100 tessellators better than the Radeon&#8217;s single one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><!--pagetitle: Metro 2033--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><strong><em>X3: Terran Conflict<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/x3tc-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px\" title=\"X3TC\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/x3tc_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"X3TC\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>X3:Terran Conflict<\/em><em> (X3:TC) <\/em>is another beautiful stand-alone benchmark that runs multiple tests and will really strain a lot of video cards. <em>X3:TC <\/em>is a space trading and combat simulator from Egosoft and is the most recent of their X-series of computer games. <em>X3:TC<\/em> is a standalone expansion of <em>X3: Reunion<\/em>, 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 <em>X3: Reunion<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Compared to<em> Reunion, Terran Conflict<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n<p>First we note the results at 2560\u00d71600:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/X3TC-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20830\" title=\"X3TC-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/X3TC-25.jpg?resize=482%2C503\" alt=\"X3TC-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/X3TC-25.jpg?resize=482%2C503 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/X3TC-25-287x300.jpg 287w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Now at 1920&#215;1200:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/X3TC-191.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20829\" title=\"X3TC-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/X3TC-191.jpg?resize=482%2C503\" alt=\"X3TC-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/X3TC-191.jpg?resize=482%2C503 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/X3TC-191-287x300.jpg 287w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>This time the GTX 480 SOC leads followed by the reference version and then the HD 5870s run close behind in a fairly tight grouping. However, all of our video cards perform well and all of them experience similar minimum framerates and a similar playing experience.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: X3 - Terran Conflict--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><em><strong>DiRT 2<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong> <\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/dirt2SS.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20892\" title=\"dirt2SS\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/dirt2SS.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"dirt2SS\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/dirt2SS.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/dirt2SS-1024x640.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Colin McRae: <\/em><em>DiRT 2<\/em> is a racing game that was released in September 2009, and is the sequel to <em>Colin McRae: Dirt<\/em>. It includes many new race-events, including stadium events as your RV travels from one event to another in many real-world environments across four continents. <em>Dirt 2<\/em> includes five different event types even allowing you to compete at new locations. It also includes a new multiplayer mode. <em>Dirt 2<\/em> is powered by an updated version of the EGO engine which was featured in <em>Race Driver: Grid<\/em>. This updated EGO engine also features an updated physics engine.<\/p>\n<p>We are using the <em>Dirt 2<\/em> full retail game built-in benchmark at the highest &#8220;ultra&#8221; DX11 setting with 8xAA applied.\u00a0 First we test our top cards at 2560&#215;1600:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Dirt-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20820\" title=\"Dirt-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Dirt-25.jpg?resize=482%2C412\" alt=\"Dirt-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Dirt-25.jpg?resize=482%2C412 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Dirt-25-300x256.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The GTX 480 pulls ahead in a fairly tight race. What about 1920&#215;1200?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Dirt-19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20819\" title=\"Dirt-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Dirt-19.jpg?resize=482%2C412\" alt=\"Dirt-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Dirt-19.jpg?resize=482%2C412 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Dirt-19-300x256.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Galaxy GTX 480 SOC gets the <em>DiRT 2<\/em> checkered flag on the DX11 pathway as the GTXes pull further away at 1920&#215;1200.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Dirt 2--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><strong><em>Just Cause 2<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/justcause2_25x16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-17937\" title=\"JustCause2_25x16\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/justcause2_25x16.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"JustCause2_25x16\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/justcause2_25x16.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/justcause2_25x16-1024x640.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Just Cause 2<\/em> is a 2010 sandbox-style action video game by Swedish developer Avalanche Studios and Eidos Interactive and is the sequel to the 2006 video game, <em>Just Cause<\/em>.  <em>Just Cause 2<\/em> employs the Avalanche Engine 2.0 which an updated version of the engine used in the original and there are impressive visuals as it is made just for DX10.  It is set on the fictional tropical island of Panau in Southeast Asia. Rico Rodriguez returns as the protagonist who aims to overthrow the evil dictator &#8220;Baby&#8221; Panay and also to confront his former boss, rogue agent Tom Sheldon.  The game play is similar to that of its predecessor in that the player is free to roam the huge open world without a need to focus on the storyline.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Just Cause 2 <\/em>AI has been rewritten to use a planning system which enables the in-game enemies to do more and there is also more vertical game play as well as a manual aiming system that allows the player to target enemy NPC&#8217;s specific limbs.  <em>Just Cause 2<\/em> also includes an adaptive difficulty system which scales as the player progresses.  There are also new weapons in <em>Just Cause 2<\/em> which include launching laser-controlled rockets as well as several new vehicles including a Boeing 737.  <em>Just Cause 2<\/em> now includes dual-grappling hooks which give players the ability to tether unlimited objects to each other including the tethering of enemies to vehicles and to each other which works very well as one of your goals is to cause maximum chaos.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the maximum settings available to a GeForce card; the bottom two, the Bokeh Filter and GPU water simulation, are unavailable to Radeons and they are left off on all runs to give solid apples-to-apples comparisons for all of our tested video cards; we used the Dark Tower benchmark built into the retail game.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/JustCause2_GeForce2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17926\" title=\"JustCause2_GeForce\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/JustCause2_GeForce2.jpg?resize=330%2C346\" alt=\"JustCause2_GeForce\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/JustCause2_GeForce2.jpg?resize=330%2C346 550w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/JustCause2_GeForce2-285x300.jpg 285w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 330px) 100vw, 330px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>First the benches at 2560&#215;1600:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/JC2-251.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20881\" title=\"JC2-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/JC2-251.jpg?resize=482%2C290\" alt=\"JC2-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/JC2-251.jpg?resize=482%2C290 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/JC2-251-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now let&#8217;s look at the performance at 1920&#215;1200:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/JC2-192.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20882\" title=\"JC2-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/JC2-192.jpg?resize=482%2C290\" alt=\"JC2-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/JC2-192.jpg?resize=482%2C290 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/JC2-192-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Galaxy GTX 480 SOC scores an impressive win even over the reference GTX 480 although both Radeons deliver a playable experience at 1920&#215;1200 with maxed out details and 8xAA.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Just Cause 2--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><strong><em>Lost Planet<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\">\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lostplanet-jpg.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: 0pt none; display: inline;\" title=\"LostPlanet\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lostplanet_thumb-jpg.jpg?w=720\" border=\"0\" alt=\"LostPlanet\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/h2>\n<p><em>Lost Planet: Extreme Condition<\/em> is a Capcom port of an Xbox 360 game. It takes place on the icy planet of E.D.N. III which is filled with monsters, pirates, big guns, and huge bosses. This frozen world highlights high dynamic range lighting (HDR) as the snow-white environment reflects blinding sunlight as DX10 particle systems toss snow and ice all around. The game looks great in both DirectX 9 and 10 and there isn\u2019t really much of a difference between the two versions except perhaps shadows. Unfortunately, the DX10 version doesn\u2019t look that much better when you\u2019re actually playing the game and it still runs slower than the DX9 version.<\/p>\n<p>We use the in-game performance test from the retail copy of <em>Lost Planet<\/em> and updated through Steam to the latest version for our runs. This run isn\u2019t completely scripted as the creatures act a little differently each time you run it, requiring multiple runs. <em>Lost Planet\u2019s<\/em> Snow and Cave demos are run continuously by the performance test and blend into each other.Here are our benchmark results with the more demanding benchmark, Snow. All settings are fully maxed out in-game including 8xAA\/16xAF. Let&#8217;s start with 2560X1600.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/LP-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20808\" title=\"LP-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/LP-25.jpg?resize=482%2C502\" alt=\"LP-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/LP-25.jpg?resize=482%2C502 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/LP-25-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now at 1920&#215;1200:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/LP-191.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20807\" title=\"LP-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/LP-191.jpg?resize=482%2C501\" alt=\"LP-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/LP-191.jpg?resize=482%2C501 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/LP-191-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>All of our top cards have issues with minimum framerates at the highest resolution. The GTX 480 SOC is beaten by the top two Radeons, with the PowerColor HD 5870 PCS+ taking the top spot for this game.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Lost Planet--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3>Unreal Tournament 3 (UT3)<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/ut3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"UT3\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/ut3.jpg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"UT3\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Unreal Tournament 3 (UT3)<\/em> is the fourth game in the Unreal Tournament series. <em>UT3<\/em> is a first-person shooter and online multiplayer video game by Epic Games. <em>Unreal Tournament 3 <\/em>provides a good balance between image quality and performance, rendering complex scenes well even on lower-end PCs. Of course, on high-end graphics cards you can really turn up the detail. UT3 is primarily an online multiplayer title offering several game modes and it also includes an offline single-player game with a campaign.<\/p>\n<p>For our tests, we used the very latest game patch for <em>Unreal Tournament 3<\/em>, released after its \u2018Titan\u2019 pack. The game doesn\u2019t have a built-in benchmarking tool, so we used FRAPS and did a fly-by of a chosen level. Here we note that performance numbers reported are a bit higher than compared to in-game. The map we use is called \u201cContainment\u201d and it is one of the most demanding of the fly-bys. Our tests were run at resolutions of 2560 x 1600 and 1920 x 1200 with UT3\u2019s in-game graphics options set to their maximum values.\u00a0 One drawback of the way the UT3 engine is designed is that there is no support for anti-aliasing built in so we forced 8xAA in each vendor\u2019s control panel; 8xQ for Nvidia to match AMD Graphics&#8217; 8xMSAA settings.<\/p>\n<p>We record a demo in the game and a set number of frames are saved in a file for playback.\u00a0 When playing back the demo, the game engine then renders the frames as quickly as possible, which is why you will often see it playing it back more quickly than you would actually play the game. Here is Containment Demo, first at 2560&#215;1600:<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/UT3-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20810\" title=\"UT3-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/UT3-25.jpg?resize=482%2C504\" alt=\"UT3-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/UT3-25.jpg?resize=482%2C504 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/UT3-25-286x300.jpg 286w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Now at 1920 x 1200<em>:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/UT3-191.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20809\" title=\"UT3-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/UT3-191.jpg?resize=482%2C505\" alt=\"UT3-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/UT3-191.jpg?resize=482%2C505 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/UT3-191-286x300.jpg 286w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em>There is absolutely no problem playing this game fully maxed out with any of our graphics configurations. The Galaxy GTX 480 SOC puts in the best showing although the playing experience is the same with all 4 cards.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: UnrealTournament3--><em><!--nextpage--><\/em><\/p>\n<h3><em><em>Resident Evil 5<\/em><\/em><\/h3>\n<p><em><em><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/re5dx10.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"RE5DX10\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/re5dx10.jpg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"RE5DX10\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Resident Evil 5<\/em> is a survival horror third-person shooter developed and published by Capcom that has become the best selling single title in the series. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil series and it was released for Windows in September 2009. <em>Resident Evil 5 <\/em>revolves around two investigators pulled into a bio-terrorist threat in a fictional town in Africa.<\/p>\n<p><em>Resident Evil 5<\/em> features online co-op play over the internet and also takes advantage of NVIDIA\u2019s new GeForce 3D Vision technology. The PC version comes with exclusive content the consoles do not have. The developer&#8217;s emphasis is in optimizing high frame rates but they have implemented HDR, tone mapping, depth of field and motion blur into the game. Re5&#8217;s custom game engine, \u2018MT Framework&#8217;, already supports DX10 to benefit from less memory usage and faster loading. <em>Resident Evil 5 <\/em>gives you choice as to DX10 or Dx 9 and we naturally ran the DX10 pathway.<\/p>\n<p>There are two benchmarks built-into <em>Resident Evil 5<\/em>.\u00a0 We chose the variable benchmark as it is best suited for testing video cards. Here it is at 2560&#215;1600 resolution with maxed out in-game setting plus 8xAA:<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/RE5-251.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20837\" title=\"RE5-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/RE5-251.jpg?resize=482%2C290\" alt=\"RE5-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/RE5-251.jpg?resize=482%2C290 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/RE5-251-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Here are the results at 1920\u00d71200 resolution:<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/RE5-191.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20838\" title=\"RE5-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/RE5-191.jpg?resize=482%2C290\" alt=\"RE5-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/RE5-191.jpg?resize=482%2C290 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/RE5-191-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Galaxy GTX 480 SOC leads over the top overclocked PCS+ Radeon and the reference GTX 480 is faster than either HD 5870. All of our video cards turn in a respectable performance and the playability is similar.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Resident Evil 5--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><strong>S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Call of Pripyat<\/strong><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/stalker_cs-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px\" title=\"STALKER_CS\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/stalker_cs_thumb-jpg.jpg?resize=244%2C154\" border=\"0\" alt=\"STALKER_CS\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Call of Pripyat <\/em>became a new DX11 benchmark for us after GSC Game World released a another story expansion to the original <em>Shadows of Chernobyl.<\/em> It is the third game in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. All of these games have non-linear storylines which feature role-playing game elements. In both games, the player assumes the identity of a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.; an illegal artifact scavenger in \u201cThe Zone\u201d which encompasses about 30 square kilometers. It is the location of an alternate reality story surrounding the Chernobyl Power Plant after another (fictitious) explosion.<\/p>\n<p><em>S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Call of Pripyat <\/em>features \u201ca living breathing world\u201d with highly developed NPC creature AI. Call of Pripyat utilizes the XRAY 1.6 Engine, allowing advanced modern graphical features through the use of DirectX 11 to be fully intregrated. Call of Pripyat is also compatible with DirectX 8, 9, 10 and 10.1. It uses the X-ray 1.6 Engine<strong> <\/strong>one outstanding feature being the inclusion of real-time GPU tesselation\u2013 a Shader model 3.0 &amp; 4.0 graphics engine featuring HDR, parallax and normal mapping, soft shadows, motion blur, weather effects and day-to-night cycles.<\/p>\n<p>As with other engines using deferred shading, the original DX9c X-ray Engine does not support anti-aliasing with dynamic lighting enabled, although the DX10 and DX 11 versions do. We are using the stand-alone \u201cofficial\u201d benchmark by Clear Sky\u2019s creators. <em>Call of Pripyat<\/em> is top-notch and worthy to be part of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R\u2019s universe with even more awesome DX11 effects which help to create and enhance their game\u2019s already incredible atmosphere. As with <em>Clear Sky<\/em> before it, DX10 and now DX11 comes with steep hardware requirements and this new game still really needs multi-GPU to run at its maximum settings. We picked the most stressful test out of the four, \u201cSun shafts\u201d. It brings the heaviest penalty due to its extreme use of shaders to create DX10\/DX10.1 and DX11 effects. We ran this benchmark fully maxed out in DX11.0 with \u201cultra\u201d settings plus 4xAA, including applying edge-detect MSAA which chokes performance even further.<\/p>\n<p>Here we present our maxed out DX11 settings for <em>S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Call of Pripyat <\/em>DX11 benchmark:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/cop_settingsdx11.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16379\" title=\"COP_SettingsDX11\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/cop_settingsdx11.jpg?resize=480%2C406\" alt=\"COP_SettingsDX11\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/cop_settingsdx11.jpg?resize=480%2C406 800w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/cop_settingsdx11-300x253.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Now on to the benchmarks at 2560&#215;1600:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoP-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20816\" title=\"CoP-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoP-25.jpg?resize=482%2C502\" alt=\"CoP-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoP-25.jpg?resize=482%2C502 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoP-25-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now at 1920\u00d71200:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoP-191.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20815\" title=\"CoP-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoP-191.jpg?resize=482%2C502\" alt=\"CoP-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoP-191.jpg?resize=482%2C502 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/CoP-191-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>The Galaxy GTX 480 SOC makes a clean sweep of these benches although we would still lower settings at 1920&#215;1200 to have a completely smooth playing experience.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Call of Pripyat--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\">Tom Clancy&#8217;s H.A.W.X.<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/hawx_dx10.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"HAWX_dx10\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/hawx_dx10.jpg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"HAWX_dx10\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\">Tom Clancy&#8217;s <em>H.A.W.X. <\/em>is an air combat video game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was released in United States on March 6, 2009. You have the opportunity to fly 54 aircraft over real world locations and cities in somewhat realistic environments that are created with satellite data. This game is a more of a take on flying than a real simulation and it has received mixed reviews.The game story takes place during the time of Tom Clancy&#8217;s <em>Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. H.A.W.X.<\/em> is set in the year 2014 where private military companies have replaced government-run military in many countries. The player is placed into the cockpit as an elite ex-military pilot who is recruited by one of these corporations to work for them as a mercenary. You later return to the US Air Force with a team as you try to prevent a full scale terrorist attack on the United States which was started by your former employer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><em>H.A.W.X. <\/em>runs on DX10.1 faster and with more detail than on the DX10 pathway. All of our video cards can take advantage of DX10.1. Let&#8217;s check it out <em>H.A.W.X.<\/em> with our top cards at 2560&#215;1600 with fully maxed out in-game settings and 8xAA:<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/HAWX-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20824\" title=\"HAWX-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/HAWX-25.jpg?resize=482%2C303\" alt=\"HAWX-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/HAWX-25.jpg?resize=482%2C303 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/HAWX-25-300x188.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>The GTX 480 flys away from the Radeons and clearly beats the reference GTX 480. Here are our results at 1920\u00d71200 resolution:<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/HAWX-19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20823\" title=\"HAWX-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/HAWX-19.jpg?resize=482%2C301\" alt=\"HAWX-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/HAWX-19.jpg?resize=482%2C301 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/HAWX-19-300x187.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Although all of our four cards give a similar playing experience in this game with maxed out settings and 8xAA, the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is clearly the top gun.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><!--pagetitle: H.A.W.X.--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><strong>BattleForge<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/battleforge.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"battleforge\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/battleforge.jpg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"battleforge\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><em>BattleForge<\/em> is an online PC game developed by EA Phenomic and published by Electronic Arts. The full game was released in March 2009. <em>BattleForge<\/em> is a card-based RTS that revolves around acquiring and winning by means of micro-transactions for buying new cards. By May, 2009, <em>BattleForge<\/em> became a Play 4 Free game with fewer cards than the retail version. <em>BattleForge<\/em> supports Directx 11 with full support for hardware tesselation. It is very impressive visually and quite demanding on any system.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\">First we test with our top cards at 2560&#215;1600 using the <em>BattleForge<\/em> built-in benchmark with all of its settings completely maxed out and with 8xAA:<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/BF-251.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20875\" title=\"BF-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/BF-251.jpg?resize=482%2C290\" alt=\"BF-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/BF-251.jpg?resize=482%2C290 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/BF-251-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\">The GeForce video cards are the fastest with the Galaxy SOC taking a strong lead over the reference GTX 480; now at 1920&#215;1200:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/BF-192.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20876\" title=\"BF-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/BF-192.jpg?resize=482%2C290\" alt=\"BF-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/BF-192.jpg?resize=482%2C290 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/BF-192-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>The Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is again fastest in <em>BattleForge<\/em> followed by the reference GTX 480 and then the HD 5870s.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: BattleForge--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\">Heaven 2.0 Unigine<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/unigine-1-0.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"unigine-1.0\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/unigine-1-0.jpg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"unigine-1.0\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Finally we come to our last benchmark, Heaven 2, on the Unigine engine. We are still using Heaven 2.0 although 2.1 was recently released.\u00a0 It uses DX11 and fairly heavy tessellation which will strain any graphics card. At least two DX11 games based on Unigine are expected to be released this year.\u00a0 Here are the settings we used for this benchmark.<a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/heaven_2-0_settings.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16406\" title=\"Heaven_2.0_settings\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/heaven_2-0_settings.jpg?resize=440%2C309\" alt=\"Heaven_2.0_settings\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/heaven_2-0_settings.jpg?resize=440%2C309 550w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/heaven_2-0_settings-300x210.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>As you can see, there is a setting that we used for &#8220;extreme tessellation&#8221;. We will tell you right now that this test chokes the GTX 480 at the highest settings but it is better than the slide show that the Radeon HD 5870 manages. However, the visuals are also extraordinary.\u00a0 Here is our benchmark run at 2560&#215;1600<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Heaven-251.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20865\" title=\"Heaven-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Heaven-251.jpg?resize=482%2C290\" alt=\"Heaven-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Heaven-251.jpg?resize=482%2C290 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Heaven-251-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The extreme tessellation and 4xAA slow down the GTX 480s and choke the Radeons.\u00a0 Now at 1920&#215;1200:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Heaven-192.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20866\" title=\"Heaven-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Heaven-192.jpg?resize=482%2C290\" alt=\"Heaven-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Heaven-192.jpg?resize=482%2C290 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Heaven-192-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is a synthetic benchmark and we will withhold judgment until we play PC games using the Unigine engine.\u00a0 However, the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC again scores highest.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Heaven 2.0--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3>Overclocking<\/h3>\n<p>When it first launched, it was wrongly assumed that the GTX 480&#8217;s high thermals and TDP would limit overclocking.\u00a0 However, the maximum temperatures achieved with &#8220;worst case&#8221; FurMark showed temperatures in the upper 90s C with thermal throttling coming into play at 105 C. Clearly this GPU was built for high thermals. Now we want to know how far it overclocks. Enter Galaxy&#8217;s overclocking tool, Xtreme Tuner HD:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/XtremeTuner.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20992\" title=\"XtremeTuner\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/XtremeTuner-300x203.jpg?resize=300%2C203\" alt=\"XtremeTuner\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/XtremeTuner-300x203.jpg?resize=300%2C203 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/XtremeTuner.JPG 448w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We were not content to play with Galaxy&#8217;s GTX 480 SOC at its factory-set overclock even though it is solidly faster than the reference GTX 480 &#8211; and quieter and cooler to boot!\u00a0 However, this editor has his own set of criteria for overclocking the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC further.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Voltage is kept stock. Not many people are willing to boost voltage on a five-hundred dollar video card.<\/li>\n<li>It must be 100% stable and continue to scale with each increase of any clock.<\/li>\n<li>The fan must not go over 70%. From experience using the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC over the past 4 days, 70 percent is not annoying to this editor and is barely noticeable over the case and CPU cooling fans whereas 80 percent becomes noticeable &#8211; something we never experienced in playing or benching games with the fan on automatic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here are our GTX 480 clocks:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212; <\/span><strong>Reference &gt;&gt; <em>Galaxy&#8217;s OC<\/em> &gt;&gt; new OC<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Graphics Clock\u00a0 &#8211;\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>700 MHz\u00a0 &gt;&gt;\u00a0 <em>760MHz<\/em> &gt;&gt;\u00a0 850 MHz<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Processor Clock &#8211; <strong>1401 MHz &gt;&gt; <em>1520MHz<\/em> &gt;&gt; 1700 MHz<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Memory Clock\u00a0 &#8211; <strong>3696 MHz &gt;&gt; <em>3800MHz<\/em> &gt;&gt; 4000 MHz<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An overclock of +60 MHz on the reference GTX 480&#8217;s core &#8211; from 700 MHz to 760 MHz with Galaxy&#8217;s overclock &#8211; brought us some solid performance increases, earning it the title of the &#8220;World&#8217;s fastest GTX 480&#8221;. \u00a0 Our further +90 MHz moderate overclock makes it faster still, taking the reference version&#8217;s title of the &#8220;World&#8217;s fastest single-GPU videocard&#8221; to a new height as we shall see.<\/p>\n<p>We are quite certain that we could do better with our Galaxy GTX 480 SOC overclock as we had very little time to fine tune it.\u00a0 As a guess, with some more fine-tuning, we probably could have got 855 or 860 MHz on the core and perhaps up to +50MHz on the vRAM without increasing the voltage. However, it makes little to no performance difference to increase the card&#8217;s vRAM speed much further and it can result in instability. Our main point is to show that this Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is a screamer when it gets a moderate overclock over the Galaxy&#8217;s factory overclock.\u00a0 In contrast, overclocking the reference GTX 480 got us 825 MHz on the core but 1100 MHz on the memory.\u00a0\u00a0 Overclockers always prefer a higher core over a higher memory overclock.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Overclocked Performance Charts<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Let&#8217;s take a look at a dozen of our newer and more demanding games benched at the same settings that we used all throughout this review.\u00a0 First we look at 2560&#215;1600 resolution and compare the averages with clockspeed scaling:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/OVERCLOCKING-25.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20877\" title=\"OVERCLOCKING-25\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/OVERCLOCKING-25.jpg?resize=450%2C935\" alt=\"OVERCLOCKING-25\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/OVERCLOCKING-25.jpg?resize=450%2C935 450w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/OVERCLOCKING-25-144x300.jpg 144w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In each case, we see good to excellent scaling with clock speeds.\u00a0 In a few cases, the +150 MHz overclock on the core and +100 MHz on the vRAM brings a game from barely playable to playable.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s look at these same games at maxed details at 1920&#215;1200 resolution:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/OVERCLOCKING-19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20878\" title=\"OVERCLOCKING-19\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/OVERCLOCKING-19.jpg?resize=450%2C935\" alt=\"OVERCLOCKING-19\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/OVERCLOCKING-19.jpg?resize=450%2C935 450w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/OVERCLOCKING-19-144x300.jpg 144w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Impressive! And best of all, the (further) overclocked Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is *still* running quieter and cooler than the slower, hotter-running and louder reference GTX 480.\u00a0 This is a real testimonial to Galaxy&#8217;s excellent design which make the best use of the GTX 480&#8217;s strengths while mimizing its power and heat-related issues as we shall see in the following section on power usage.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Overclocking--><!--nextpage--><\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Power Usage<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Power usage is important for many people as a very hot running GPU is not only not &#8220;green&#8221;, it throws warm air into your room that your air conditioner must work extra hard to compensate for. Of course, for those of us like this editor who lives where it is cooler than warmer, a small space-heater in ones PC is a plus. We have seen that the GTX 480&#8217;s TDP specification, which is 250W, is far more than the HD 5870&#8217;s 188W TDP &#8211; and the GTX 480 requires 6-pin+8-pin PCIe connectors as shown below in the reference and also in Galaxy&#8217;s GTX 480 SOC version.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/480_pcie.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-16449\" title=\"480_PCIe\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/480_pcie.jpg?resize=300%2C255\" alt=\"480_PCIe\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/480_pcie.jpg?resize=300%2C255 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/480_pcie.jpg 550w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As we contrast the GTX 480 with the HD 5870, only 6-pin+6-pin PCIe connectors are required for the Radeon. You will also note that the reference Diamond HD 5870 is physically longer than the reference GeForce 480 and some cutting modification had to be made to the Cooler Master Gladiator 600 to accomodate it.  This time, we are using our larger over-sized mid-tower Thermaltake Element G case which does accommodate our 10.5 inch HD 5870, but the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is a few mm longer than the reference Diamond HD 5870.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-16448\" title=\"5970_PCIe_noroom\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/5970_pcie_noroom.jpg?resize=300%2C159\" alt=\"5970_PCIe_noroom\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/5970_pcie_noroom.jpg?resize=300%2C159 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/5970_pcie_noroom.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is a long card.\u00a0 We had to remove our hard drive cage to fit it in our Thermaltake Element G case.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/DriveCageOut.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20903\" title=\"DriveCageOut\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/DriveCageOut.jpg?resize=300%2C281\" alt=\"DriveCageOut\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/DriveCageOut.jpg?resize=300%2C281 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/DriveCageOut.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The reference GTX 480&#8217;s performance does come at a power cost; compare the system total power draw at the wall with the with the HD 5870 first &#8211; at idle and then at maximum GPU usage when running FurMark with the exact same system back in April.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/powerhdmax.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16453 alignright\" title=\"PowerHDMax\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/powerhdmax.jpg?resize=173%2C160\" alt=\"PowerHDMax\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/powerhdmax.jpg?resize=173%2C160 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/powerhdmax.jpg 550w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 173px) 100vw, 173px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/PowerHDIdle21.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16452 alignleft\" title=\"PowerHDIdle2\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/PowerHDIdle21.jpg?resize=173%2C156\" alt=\"PowerHDIdle2\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/PowerHDIdle21.jpg?resize=173%2C156 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/PowerHDIdle21.jpg 552w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 173px) 100vw, 173px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now the total system power draw from the wall with the same PC, but with the GTX 480 inside instead of the HD 5870. First, we see the idle state and then with the GTX GPU maxed out running FurMark.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16455 alignright\" title=\"PowerGTXMax\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/powergtxmax.jpg?resize=173%2C151\" alt=\"PowerGTXMax\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/powergtxmax.jpg?resize=173%2C151 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/powergtxmax.jpg 550w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 173px) 100vw, 173px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/powerhdidle.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16454 alignleft\" title=\"PowerHDIdle\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/powerhdidle.jpg?resize=173%2C157\" alt=\"PowerHDIdle\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/powerhdidle.jpg?resize=173%2C157 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/powerhdidle.jpg 550w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 173px) 100vw, 173px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Of course, the second image is of our overclocked GTX 480. We see that we would be pulling well over 250W from the wall; today we pulled almost 50 watts more than the reference GTX 480 version with the same PC as we saw 550W with the overclocked Galaxy GTX 480 SOC.<\/p>\n<p>FurMark will stress a GPU&#8217;s stability and give the maximum thermals that one would never see in-game. You can consider FurMark&#8217;s torture tests, &#8220;worst case&#8221; scenarios for power and heat. Here is a screen shot of FurMark running at 2560&#215;1600 with the Reference GTX 480:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/furmark.PNG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-18065\" title=\"FurMark\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/furmark.PNG?resize=300%2C197\" alt=\"FurMark\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/furmark.PNG?resize=300%2C197 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/furmark.PNG 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>The reference GTX 480 is very hot at 97 C.\u00a0 Now compare the temperatures with the overclocked Galaxy GTX 480 SOC at its peak of only 70C running Furmark; but first notice that the overclocked Galaxy GTX 480 SOC will pull about fifty more watts than the reference GTX 480, requiring that you have a very stable PSU:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/MAX_wattsFM.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-20904\" title=\"MAX_wattsFM\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/MAX_wattsFM.jpg?resize=180%2C162\" alt=\"MAX_wattsFM\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/MAX_wattsFM.jpg?resize=180%2C162 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/MAX_wattsFM.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Now let&#8217;s compare the reference GTX 480 at 97 C with the Galaxy GTX SOC running the same Furmark hot-as-hell test at 70C, or 27C cooler with the Galaxy&#8217;s quiet Arctic Cooler:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Furmark_70C.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20905\" title=\"Furmark_70C\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Furmark_70C.jpg?resize=420%2C218\" alt=\"Furmark_70C\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Furmark_70C.jpg?resize=420%2C218 1000w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Furmark_70C-300x155.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The reference GTX 480 definitely runs toasty at 97C as &#8220;worst case&#8221; but the reference cooling solution appears up to the task with plenty of noise.  In cold contrast, the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC has tamed the thermals quietly by hitting only 70 C in Furmark and it never seems to leave the 50s C during actual gaming!!\u00a0 That is 97C for a reference GTX 480 vs. 70C for the Galaxy GTX 450 SOC &#8211; all the while, the Galaxy&#8217;s overclocked GPU is putting out 50 more watts!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Power Usage &#038; Temperatures--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Price to Performance<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">It is pretty clear from our 21 games and two synthetic tests that the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is a potent GPU to put against AMD&#8217;s HD 5870. \u00a0 It definitely has the clear distinction of being the fastest video card in its class and at a suggested retail price of $489, sets it just above the average price of most reference GTX 480s and overclocked HD 5870.\u00a0  Considering the awesome, cool and quiet cooler and the much better performance, it is a no-brainer to go for Galaxy&#8217;s solution if you are considering buying a GTX 480.\u00a0 We also expect that some of its success will depend on market pricing and what AMD does with their HD 5870 pricing.\u00a0 But if you want the fastest single GPU with an awesome cool and quiet VGA cooler, the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC gives you your cake and allows you to eat it also.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Clearly AMD is confident in its own mature product with HD 5870 and HD 5890 and they are apparently going to counter Nvidia with discounted pricing and it is also clear that they are leaving their partners to use their own judgment. Will this strategy work? How will Nvidia respond?  There are rumors of AMD&#8217;s new HD 6000 series that may well be introduced this year.  Until then &#8211;\u00a0 and right now &#8211; it is an excellent time to upgrade as there is price competition again, something we have not seen for a long time until recently.\u00a0 The Galaxy GTX 480 SuperOverclock is actually priced below Nvidia&#8217;s own suggested retail price for the reference GTX 480.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle: Conclusion--><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This has been quite an enjoyable &#8211; if physically exhausting &#8211; four days, hand&#8217;s on experience for us in comparing our two GTX 480s versus our two HD 5870s. We used all &#8220;fresh&#8221; testing with the very latest drivers for all of these video cards and we wish that we had more than the 3 days that we were allowed to benchmark the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC to give you our first impressions.\u00a0 Fortunately, we have been gaming for months with both the reference GTX 480 and with our HD 5870s separately and in CrossFire, so that we can provide you with a reliable comparison.\u00a0 During that same week, we also had to set up and benchmark two differently clocked HD 5870s. However, it was certainly worth it and we feel priviliged to bring you our very first benchmarks and performance testing of Galaxy&#8217;s amazing GTX 480 SOC.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">We like the Galaxy GTS 480 SOC a lot and we plan to follow up with this editor&#8217;s special areas of interest &#8211; multi-GPU scaling and multi-display&#8217;s Eyefinity versus (2D) Surround.  We were amazed by the supeb scaling of SLI in newer games when we tested GTX 450 SLI last week.  So, expect an ongoing series which will include evaluating GTX 480 SLI.  We also expect GF108 from Nvidia soon to take on HD 5500\/5400 series.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">In the meantime, feel free to comment below, ask questions or have a detailed discussion in our ABT forum. If you have any requests on what you would like for us to focus on for further testing or for any other information, please join our ABT forum or leave a comment.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\">Galaxy GTX 480 SOC<\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Pros and Cons:<\/h3>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Pros:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Galaxy GTX 480 is much faster than its competition, HD 5870 and solidly faster than overclocked HD 5870 performance although only priced about $40 higher.<\/li>\n<li> There is further room for overclocking and the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is already solidly faster than the reference GTX 480.<\/li>\n<li> New architecture brings support for GPU computing and a level of performance way beyond the last generation.<\/li>\n<li> DX11 and great support for tessellation, PhysX and CUDA, 3D gaming, and 2D\/3D Surround (with SLI) bring realism to gaming<\/li>\n<li> Galaxy&#8217;s 3 Arctic-Cooling VGA fans are great for achieving and keeping your OC by keeping your GPU cool.\u00a0 It is one awesome cooler that tames GTX 480&#8217;s thermals very quietly<\/li>\n<li> Galaxy&#8217;s GTS 480 SOC sports 4ns memory \u2013 the fastest on the market &#8211; a 6+2 PWM digital power supply, a MOSFET heatsink and solid components<\/li>\n<li> Two year warranty and a toll-free number for support!<\/li>\n<li> If you are considering SLI (for performance, 3D or Suround), 2 x GTX 480 is a very potent performance solution and you may be able to use the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC 3-slot cooler paired with a reference GTX 480; in that case, you are unlikely to need a further dedicated PhysX card.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Three slot cooler.\u00a0 Which is not really a con by any stretch &#8211; except for very specific situations.\u00a0 Measure your case to make sure it fits!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">That&#8217;s it.  For about the same price or slightly more than a reference GTX 480 or overclocked HD 5870, you get all the features that Nvidia video cards have to offer in an overclocked and very solidly-built, cool and quiet-running GTX 480; something this editor never imagined outside of watercooling.\u00a0 Add to this all the benefits of a premium card such as a two year warranty, the Galaxy&#8217;s amazing Arctic-Cooling VGA cooler and solid components,\u00a0 we feel that Galaxy has a real winner in their GTX 480 SOC to offer us and we are pleased to award them our ABT Editor&#8217;s Choice and Kick-Ass awards!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/kick-ass.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/kick-ass.png?resize=150%2C251\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/edchoice_awd-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/edchoice_awd-jpg.jpg?resize=150%2C251\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">On top of these accolades, we would like to add the Great Value award.\u00a0 Until this editor learned the MSRP a little over an hour before publishing this article, he believed it to be well over $500.\u00a0 We do not know what the future will bring, but this amazing card brings a great value to the Galaxy GTX 480 lineup.\u00a0 Look for it at an etailer this week.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/greatvalue_awd-jpg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/greatvalue_awd-jpg.jpg?resize=150%2C251\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This editor believes that Nvidia, although late, does bring a very remarkable full-featured DX11 GPU lineup to the market that will find good acceptance among customers and their fans alike. Fermi architecture is impressive and flexible and it does translate to performance in gaming &#8211; although with a bit of a price premium. We have also seen Nvidia&#8217;s drivers improve and their multi-GPU SLI scaling for newer games is very impressive.  We also like the direction they are heading in with their simplified installations of the GeForce 260 drivers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">If you currently game on a HD 4870, 8800 GTX, 8800 GTS, or 9800 GT class of card on up to HD 4870-X2, GTX 280, GTX 285 and even GTX 295, you will do yourself a big favor by upgrading. The move to a Galaxy GTS 480 SuperOverclock will give you better visuals on the DX11 pathway and you are no doubt thinking of GTX 480 SLI if you want to get even higher performance or want to use Suround&#8217;s three-panel display (which we are going to explore in a future article versus Eyefinity).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">If the many exclusive features of the new GTX 480 appeal to you and you are gaming at 1920&#215;1080 or above, you cannot go wrong with a Galaxy GTX 480 SOC.\u00a0 In this editor&#8217;s experience, it is a great choice if you are considering overclocking further.  The competition is hot as the prices on HD 5870 have softened and they offer their own set of features including a cheaper way to experience 3-panel multi-display with Eyefinity.  Stay tuned, there is a lot coming from us at ABT.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;\">Please join us in our <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/abt\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\">Forums<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;\">Become a Fan on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/AlienBabelTech\/123268467142\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/AlienBabelTech\/123268467142', 'Facebook']);\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;\">Follow us on <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/alienbabeltech\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/twitter.com\/alienbabeltech', 'Twitter']);\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;\">For the latest updates from ABT, please <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?feed=rss2\" target=\"_blank\">join our RSS News Feed<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;\">Join our Distributed Computing teams<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 60px;\">\n<li>Folding@Home &#8211; Team AlienBabelTech &#8211; 164304<\/li>\n<li>SETI@Home &#8211; Team AlienBabelTech &#8211; 138705<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcommunitygrid.org\/reg\/viewRegister.do?teamID=3P39R3SRV1\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.worldcommunitygrid.org\/reg\/viewRegister.do?teamID=3P39R3SRV1', 'World Community Grid &#8211; Team AlienBabelTech']);\" target=\"_blank\">World Community Grid &#8211; Team AlienBabelTech<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=20800\"><img decoding=\"async\" align=top title=\"Author: Mark Poppin\" src=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/GTX-480-SuperOverclock.png\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2533,7814,6],"tags":[92,72,73,3509,680,3058,4118,2079,121,4119],"class_list":["post-20800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abt-news","category-articles","category-news","tag-add-new-tag","tag-amd","tag-ati","tag-benchmark-review","tag-galaxy","tag-gtx-480","tag-gtx-480-soc","tag-hd-5870","tag-nvidia","tag-powercolor-hd-5870-pcs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}