{"id":21198,"date":"2010-10-09T15:48:37","date_gmt":"2010-10-09T14:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=21198"},"modified":"2010-10-14T15:23:56","modified_gmt":"2010-10-14T14:23:56","slug":"galaxys-gt-430-nvidias-new-gf108-multi-media-gpu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/galaxys-gt-430-nvidias-new-gf108-multi-media-gpu\/","title":{"rendered":"Galaxy&#8217;s GT 430 &#8211; Introducing Nvidia&#8217;s new GF108 multi-media GPU"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 introduce Nvidia&#8217;s newest member of the GF108 Fermi family, the entry-level Galaxy GT 430 which is designed and built for mainstream gaming and especially for multi-media PCs.\u00a0 This means that your GT 430 should be well-equipped to handle any light to moderate gaming situation at 1200&#215;1024 or 1440&#215;900 resolution and with reasonable details and even some filtering applied.\u00a0 This reference GT 430 (pictured below) is Nvidia&#8217;s DX11 successor to their very successful DX10.1 GT 220 video card which MrK reviewed <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=12024\">here<\/a> and it is well suited for use in a home theater PC (HTPC) and as an upgrade from a motherboard&#8217;s integrated graphics (IG).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT430_REF.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21235\" title=\"GT430_REF\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT430_REF.jpg?resize=300%2C209\" alt=\"GT430_REF\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT430_REF.jpg?resize=300%2C209 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT430_REF.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Galaxy has also created their own version of GT 430 (pictured below on the right) and you should be able to buy it at etail for its suggested price of $79.95. It is the same suggested price as the older DX10.1 Galaxy GT 220 (pictured below on the left) which can be found now at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newegg.com\/Product\/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162040\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.newegg.com\/Product\/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162040', 'NewEgg.com']);\" >NewEgg.com<\/a> for about $65.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_gt220.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21276\" title=\"gt430_gt220\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_gt220.jpg?resize=480%2C282\" alt=\"gt430_gt220\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_gt220.jpg?resize=480%2C282 1000w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_gt220-300x176.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This review will bring you the details of our new ($79 MSRP) DX11 GT 430 performance showdown with the ($79 MSRP; now generally discounted) DX10.1 GT 220 and also compared with GTS 450 and HD 5750 &#8211; two cards that outclass them in performance and are also much more expensive; in the $119-$149 price range.\u00a0\u00a0  We are reusing the reference GTS 450 benchmarks that we used three weeks ago when we reviewed it <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=20306\">here<\/a> versus the factory overclocked Galaxy GTS 450 SOC and HD 5570. \u00a0 There you can make a direct comparison with even faster cards, GTS 450 SLI and also compare performance with the venerable 8800 GTX.\u00a0 The purpose of using these faster cards in today&#8217;s review is to establish the hierarchy of these cards in overall PC gaming.\u00a0 And naturally, our most important comparison is the GT 430 versus GT 220 to determine the new DX11 mainstream card&#8217;s value.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">We also overclock Galaxy&#8217;s GT 430 to see how it scales in more than 20 modern games.\u00a0 Here is the brand new Galaxy GT 430 pictured together with its box as professionally imaged by Galaxy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Galaxy_GT430_box_card.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21234\" title=\"Galaxy_GT430_box_card\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Galaxy_GT430_box_card.jpg?resize=480%2C322\" alt=\"Galaxy_GT430_box_card\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Galaxy_GT430_box_card.jpg?resize=480%2C322 1000w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Galaxy_GT430_box_card-300x201.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Nvidia released its delayed GeForce GTX based on its brand new Fermi DX11 GF100 architecture back in April of this year. This new Fermi 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.\u00a0 Over the past six months, Nvidia has finally completed its entire lineup today with the release of GT 430 -from their top $500 card, the GTX 480 right down to the mainstream $79 GT 430 which will outsell the rest of Nvidia&#8217;s line-up by two to one.\u00a0 Of course, most of these sales will be to OEMs as a solid upgrade over integrated graphics.\u00a0 Here is the GF108&#8217;s GPU as used in GT 430, pictured below:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GeForce_GT_430_CHIP.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21255\" title=\"GeForce_GT_430_CHIP\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GeForce_GT_430_CHIP.jpg?resize=300%2C299\" alt=\"GeForce_GT_430_CHIP\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GeForce_GT_430_CHIP.jpg?resize=300%2C299 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GeForce_GT_430_CHIP-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GeForce_GT_430_CHIP.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here are the specifications for this 40 nm mainstream gaming GPU.\u00a0 Notice that it has a 128-bit pathway to its 1GB of DDR3 vRAM; nothing has been said about using DDR5 yet, but Nvidia&#8217;s partners are now free to use 2GB of vRAM, if they wish.\u00a0 This design is very flexible for HTPC and can also be low-profile or passive design.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT430_SPECS.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21256\" title=\"GT430_SPECS\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT430_SPECS.jpg?resize=380%2C447\" alt=\"GT430_SPECS\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT430_SPECS.jpg?resize=380%2C447 380w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT430_SPECS-255x300.jpg 255w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Since the Galaxy GT 430 comes with a MSRP of $79, we need to answer the question: <em>Is it worth the premium over integrated graphics that come with many Intel and AMD motherboards? <\/em>We reviewed AMD&#8217;s integrated graphics HD 4290 in our <a href=\"..\/?p=17535\">ECS A890GXM-A AM3 Black Series motherboard review.<\/a> Based on that review, we would have to say that GT 220 will likely beat HD 4890 integrated graphics, but we will actually cover this in Part Two of our GT 430 testing when we review another vendor&#8217;s GT 430 in a week or so.<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\" \/> For now, before you read about the GT 430&#8217;s performance testing here, you can 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 GF104&#8217;s GTX 465 <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=18715\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">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\/104.\u00a0 Taking it down further to GF108, we now have our current review of GT 430.\u00a0 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>Now we see a performance slot open up for GT 430 in just below the DX11 GeForce GTS 450 (and the DX10.1 GTS 250) to go up against AMD&#8217;s HD 5500 series.\u00a0 According to Nvidia, the GT 430 is the DX11 successor to the DX10.1 GT 220 just as the DX 11 GTS 450 succeeds the DX 10.1 GTS 250.\u00a0 We also note that the GT 220 is not discontinued; we mostly see that it is being discounted now down from $79.95 as it is still a very nice upgrade from most integrated graphics solutions.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Specifications<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">As with the rest of the Fermi family, the GeForce GT 430 was designed from the ground up to deliver good tessellation performance, which is a major component of Microsoft&#8217;s DirectX 11 PC\u00a0 gaming development platform. Tessellation allows game developers to take advantage of the GeForce 400 series GPU&#8217;s tessellation ability to increase the geometric complexity of models and characters to deliver far more realistic and visually rich gaming environments.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Needless to say, the new Fermi GF108 GTX 430 brings a lot of features to the table that current Nvidia customers will appreciate, including improved CUDA&#8217;s PhysX, great 3D BluRay movie playback, superb tessellation capabilities and a really fast GPU in comparison to their GT200b series. Now let&#8217;s see how the Galaxy GT 430 directly compares to the reference GTS 450, XFX HD 5750 and the card it more-or-less succeeds, the Galaxy GT 220.\u00a0 You will soon see that we were also able to overclock our Galaxy GT 430 even further than the 700\/1800 MHz reference clocks that Nvidia set and that Galaxy also uses, while remaining cool and very quiet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here are the main competitors from last week which will out-class the new Galaxy GT 430 in gaming &#8211; a factory overclocked Galaxy GTS 450 (above; we used the <em>reference <\/em>GTS 450 benchmarks) and an XFX HD 5750 (below) which etail in the $119 to $149 price range.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/TheComp_5750XFX2-300x239.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/TheComp_5750XFX2.jpg?resize=300%2C239\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">For this GT 430 evaluation, we will take the stock GTS 450 and HD 5750 benches from our last review and set them head to head in new testing under the same conditions on the same PC, and with our two new contenders &#8211; the older DX10.1 Galaxy GT 220 and its successor, the new Galaxy GT 430. Both mainstream video cards are each priced at their MSRP of $79 but the older card can be found at etail for a few dollars less.\u00a0 This evaluation will determine if the new card is worth the difference.\u00a0 As something to note, our Galaxy GT 430 is equipped with 1GB of DDR3 while we are testing the slower DDR2 version of the Galaxy GT 220.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_gt220-12.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21278\" title=\"gt430_gt220-1\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_gt220-12.jpg?resize=540%2C320\" alt=\"gt430_gt220-1\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_gt220-12.jpg?resize=540%2C320 1000w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_gt220-12-300x178.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>The connections are the same.\u00a0 VGA, HDMI and DVI will run 3 displays and there is no need for any external PCIe power cable; both cards are very &#8220;green&#8221;.\u00a0 The TDP is rated by Nvidia at a mere 49 watts and they recommend at least a good 300W PSU to power the PC containing it. \u00a0 We can attest to the Galaxy GT 430 as being very quiet as it never appears to go over 52% fan speed, even under load.\u00a0 There is a point where one simply does not hear the GT 430 over the case fans and it does not appear to add <em>any<\/em> noise.\u00a0 It is also physically a very short card at 5.7 inches long.\u00a0 It is noticeably shorter than the GT 220 and it also requires no additional power beyond what it draws from the motherboard&#8217;s PCIe slot.\u00a0 Here is our Galaxy GT 430 pictured in an Intel X58 Gigabyte motherboard.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_in-the-case.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21279\" title=\"gt430_in-the-case\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_in-the-case.jpg?resize=384%2C274\" alt=\"gt430_in-the-case\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_in-the-case.jpg?resize=384%2C274 800w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_in-the-case-300x213.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The Galaxy GT 430 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.  Inside the box, you will find the driver CD, 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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_box-contents.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21280\" title=\"gt430_box-contents\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_box-contents.jpg?resize=480%2C414\" alt=\"gt430_box-contents\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_box-contents.jpg?resize=480%2C414 800w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_box-contents-300x258.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Since the Galaxy GT 430 is also sold in retail, the box clearly states the specifications and the contents of the box (GT 430 video card, driver CD, and quick start guide) on the outside of the box.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_BoxKeyFeatures_minreq.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21284 aligncenter\" title=\"gt430_BoxKeyFeatures_minreq\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_BoxKeyFeatures_minreq.jpg?resize=480%2C151\" alt=\"gt430_BoxKeyFeatures_minreq\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_BoxKeyFeatures_minreq.jpg?resize=480%2C151 800w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_BoxKeyFeatures_minreq-300x94.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Galaxy also gives you five excellent reasons to upgrade to their GT 430:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_5Reasons.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21283\" title=\"gt430_5Reasons\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_5Reasons.jpg?resize=480%2C305\" alt=\"gt430_5Reasons\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_5Reasons.jpg?resize=480%2C305 800w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_5Reasons-300x190.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">One of our readers wrote to us and said that he was unable to contact Galaxy tech support over this last weekend, so we investigated.\u00a0 We telephoned the the toll-free number and the Galaxy representative answered immediately and was ready to give us service on a Saturday afternoon.\u00a0 We mentioned that one of their customers had left unreturned voice mails and the Galaxy support person said that they were reviewing them at that very moment; that sometimes they got really busy and the calls had to go to voice mail but the customer inquiries were answered as soon as possible.\u00a0 Great service!<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Can you SLI your GT 430 ?<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Normally, we would not expect a person buying an inexpensive card to consider SLI&#8217;ing it. Quite often a gamer will buy one card and perhaps later on, add a second one.  However, Nvidia does not offer SLI support on the GT 430.\u00a0 We notice the GT 430&#8217;s lack of any SLI connectors. Nvidia does not support SLI without an SLI bridge connector as AMD does with their lower-end video cards in CrossFire.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/THECARD.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21281\" title=\"THECARD\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/THECARD.jpg?resize=480%2C270\" alt=\"THECARD\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/THECARD.jpg?resize=480%2C270 1000w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/THECARD-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Let&#8217;s flip the card over.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_obverse.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21282\" title=\"gt430_obverse\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_obverse.jpg?resize=300%2C156\" alt=\"gt430_obverse\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_obverse.jpg?resize=300%2C156 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_obverse.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>It is a very clean design and a small PCB if you are used to larger cards such as the triple-slot Galaxy GTX 480 SOC, which dwarfs it.\u00a0 But the important thing to most of us is its performance.\u00a0 We know that the GT 430 can handle multi-media way better than integrated graphics and even better than the GT 220 which excels at it.\u00a0 The Galaxy GT 430 offers DVI and HDMI outputs to connect your PC up to your HD TV and complete 1080p Blu-Ray 3D support enabling theater quality 3D in your home and also with TrueHD and DTS-HD HD audio bitstreaming.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u00a0 can view and edit your (yes, even 3D) photos and HD video or go online and enjoy a new web experience with Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 and GPU acceleration.<\/p>\n<p>Before we do the performance testing, let\u2019s take a look at the company that makes the GT 430.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\">About Galaxy<\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Introduction--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-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 3.2 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\">Galaxy GTS 450, 1 GB overclocked design and clocks, supplied by Galaxy<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Galaxy <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">GT 430,<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> 1 GB DDR3 , reference version, supplied by Galaxy <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Galaxy <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">GT 220,<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> 1 GB DDR2, reference version, supplied by Galaxy<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">AMD Radeon HD 5570 (1GB, reference clocks) by XFX<\/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 <\/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 style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">ATi Catalyst 10-8; 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 260.52 beta release drivers for GTS 450 and GT 420 and 206.77 release candidate drivers for GT 430; 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 forced off in the control panel.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">Varying AA enabled as noted in games<em> <\/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<li><span style=\"font-size: small\">All benchmarks are run at 1440&#215;900 resolution except for Vantage; we used the basic tests most commonly accepted as standard. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\">\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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--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:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/3DMarkVantage-.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21257\" title=\"3DMarkVantage-\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/3DMarkVantage-.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"3DMarkVantage-\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/3DMarkVantage-.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/3DMarkVantage--1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/3DMarkVantage-.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" 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\/10\/vantage.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21219\" title=\"vantage\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/vantage.jpg?resize=430%2C442\" alt=\"vantage\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/vantage.jpg?resize=430%2C442 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/vantage-291x300.jpg 291w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">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:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/vantageMG.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21218\" title=\"vantageMG\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/vantageMG.jpg?resize=430%2C442\" alt=\"vantageMG\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/vantageMG.jpg?resize=430%2C442 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/vantageMG-291x300.jpg 291w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">We see the GT 220 scoring less than half of the GT 430&#8217;s performance so let&#8217;s move on to PC games and on 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\/2010\/10\/CoJ_DX10.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21237\" title=\"CoJ_DX10\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/CoJ_DX10.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"CoJ_DX10\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/CoJ_DX10.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/CoJ_DX10-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/CoJ_DX10.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 full retail game which we also have. 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 from this demo.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">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 for the first test (left).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/c0j_HIGH_settings1.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21267\" title=\"c0j_HIGH_settings\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/c0j_HIGH_settings1-300x295.jpg?resize=300%2C295\" alt=\"c0j_HIGH_settings\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/c0j_HIGH_settings1-300x295.jpg?resize=300%2C295 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/c0j_HIGH_settings1.JPG 543w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>For the second test comparing the GT 430 vs the GT 220 we chose the lesser settings:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/c0j_LOW_settings.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21268\" title=\"c0j_LOW_settings\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/c0j_LOW_settings-300x298.jpg?resize=300%2C298\" alt=\"c0j_LOW_settings\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/c0j_LOW_settings-300x298.jpg?resize=300%2C298 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/c0j_LOW_settings-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/c0j_LOW_settings.JPG 539w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">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 1440&#215;900.\u00a0 We did not run the GT 220 at the higher settings because it is a slideshow; the GT 430 does much better with low details and offers a similar experience to playing this game at the higher setting with the GTS 450\/HD 5750 class of card:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/coj.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21221\" title=\"coj\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/coj.jpg?resize=500%2C342\" alt=\"coj\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/coj.jpg?resize=500%2C342 500w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/coj-300x205.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The Galaxy GT 430 can manage DX10 Call of Juarez at low settings much better than the GT 220 can.\u00a0 At any rate, we would recommend playing the DX9 version instead.<!--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:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/crysis64.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21238\" title=\"crysis64\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/crysis64.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"crysis64\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/crysis64.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/crysis64-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/crysis64.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" 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 second setting, &#8220;high&#8221; with no AA (1xAA) except for testing the GT 430 and GT 430&#8217;s overclock on &#8220;medium&#8221; settings as noted on the chart. \u00a0 For all settings, we force 16xAF in the vendors&#8217; control panels. Here is<em> Crysis\u2019 Island Demo <\/em>benchmark at 1440&#215;900:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Crysis.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21212\" title=\"Crysis\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Crysis.jpg?resize=430%2C535\" alt=\"Crysis\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Crysis.jpg?resize=430%2C535 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Crysis-241x300.jpg 241w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Crysis<\/em> is not playable on the GT 430 on all &#8220;high&#8221; settings at 1440&#215;900 and no overclock will make it so.\u00a0 Yet far worse is GT 220, so that we see there is good performance to be had going from one GPU generation to the next by upgrading to GT 430.\u00a0 However, once you set the in-game <em>Crysis<\/em> settings to all &#8220;medium&#8221;, it becomes very playable &#8211; especially overclocked.\u00a0 <em>Crysis<\/em> on all medium settings still looks very good and you may even consider 2xAA with your GT 430!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Crysis--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong>FarCry 2<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/farcry2-2010-10-10-16-12-21-91.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21269\" title=\"farcry2 2010-10-10 16-12-21-91\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/farcry2-2010-10-10-16-12-21-91.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"farcry2 2010-10-10 16-12-21-91\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/farcry2-2010-10-10-16-12-21-91.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/farcry2-2010-10-10-16-12-21-91-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/farcry2-2010-10-10-16-12-21-91.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\">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 style=\"text-align: left;\">We test <em>Far Cry 2<\/em> using the Long Ranch benchmark at 1440&#215;900 with AI enabled first with ultra settings plus 2xAA. Here are the Ultra settings that we used<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/fc2_HIGH_settings.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21270\" title=\"fc2_HIGH_settings\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/fc2_HIGH_settings-300x161.jpg?resize=300%2C161\" alt=\"fc2_HIGH_settings\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/fc2_HIGH_settings-300x161.jpg?resize=300%2C161 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/fc2_HIGH_settings-1024x549.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/fc2_HIGH_settings.JPG 1231w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here are the results:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/fc2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21216\" title=\"fc2\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/fc2.jpg?resize=500%2C350\" alt=\"fc2\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/fc2.jpg?resize=500%2C350 500w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/fc2-300x210.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The GT 430&#8217;s minimums are way too low for Ultra settings with 2xAA, but lowering them to Very High and dropping anti-aliasing brings it into reach, something that GT 220 owners cannot dream of .<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Far Cry 2--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong>Enemy Territory: <strong>Quake Wars <\/strong><\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/etqw-2010.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21258\" title=\"etqw-2010\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/etqw-2010.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"etqw-2010\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/etqw-2010.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/etqw-2010-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/etqw-2010.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\">As usual, we test at 1440&#215;900 resolution and this time all settings are fully maxed in-game plus 4xAA\/16xAF:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/etqw.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21225\" title=\"etqw\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/etqw.jpg?resize=430%2C534\" alt=\"etqw\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/etqw.jpg?resize=430%2C534 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/etqw-241x300.jpg 241w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The Galaxy GT 430 is able to play this very popular game at well over twice the frame rates of the GT 220.\u00a0 Fine-tuning some settings, such as dropping AA, will give you a very playable experience with the GT 430 at 1440&#215;900 resolution.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: ET:QW--><\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong>F.E.A.R.<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/FEARXP.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21259\" title=\"FEARXP\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/FEARXP.jpg?resize=300%2C225\" alt=\"FEARXP\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/FEARXP.jpg?resize=300%2C225 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/FEARXP-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/FEARXP.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\">We test this game with the most demanding in game settings: Fully maxed details with 4xAA\/16xAF; soft shadows \u2018off\u2019, as they do not play well with AA. Let\u2019s test as usual at 1440&#215;900:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/FEAR.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21222\" title=\"FEAR\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/FEAR.jpg?resize=430%2C536\" alt=\"FEAR\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/FEAR.jpg?resize=430%2C536 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/FEAR-240x300.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">All of our video cards offer very playable experiences in this game except for the GT 220.\u00a0 The GT 430 represents a solid generational performance increase over its predecessor in this DX9c game.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: F.E.A.R.--><\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em><em><strong> <\/strong><\/em><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/batman.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21239\" title=\"batman\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/batman.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"batman\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/batman.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/batman-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/batman.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/em> is an action-adventure\/stealth video game based on DC Comics&#8217; Batman.   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 style=\"text-align: left;\">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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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.  Unfortunately we cannot compare <em>Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/em> using our GeForce <em>exactly<\/em> against the Radeon with PhysX on.\u00a0 Also, the developer optimized MSAA for GeForce cards in game but you must set non-optimized AA in the Catalyst Control Center.  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 style=\"text-align: left;\">Until we test with the Game of the Year Edition of <em>Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/em>, we will not compare AMD graphics cards directly with Nvidia cards in this benchmark.\u00a0 Here are our results at 1440&#215;900 with maxed out settings and with 4xAA applied in the game&#8217;s control panel:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Batman.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21223\" title=\"Batman\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Batman.jpg?resize=430%2C537\" alt=\"Batman\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Batman.jpg?resize=430%2C537 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Batman-240x300.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong> <\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><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;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">There is absolutely no problem playing this game fully maxed out with any of our videocard configurations with AA &#8211; except for the GT 220.\u00a0  The GT 430 again provides nearly double the performance of the older DX11 card.<\/span><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Batman: AA--><\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\">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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Here is <em>CoD4 <\/em>at 1440&#215;900 resolution with all in-game settings completely maxed out plus 4xAA:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/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\/10\/cod4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21226\" title=\"cod4\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/cod4.jpg?resize=430%2C537\" alt=\"cod4\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/cod4.jpg?resize=430%2C537 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/cod4-240x300.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">We see results similar to <em>Unreal Tournament 3<\/em>.  A popular multiplayer game is very playable on a wide range of video cards. Only the GT 220 proves unsatisfactory at our chosen settings making the GT 430 an incomparably better gaming value now as both video cards are at $79 MSRP. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: CoD4--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/AvP_D3D11.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21240\" title=\"AvP_D3D11\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/AvP_D3D11.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"AvP_D3D11\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/AvP_D3D11.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/AvP_D3D11-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/AvP_D3D11.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\">Alien vs Predators DX11 benchmark is a stand alone bench that as the name says is only for DX11 cards. We bench at 1440&#215;900 with med settings and without AA.\u00a0 Here are our settings:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_AxP_Settings.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21264\" title=\"GT_430_AxP_Settings\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_AxP_Settings-300x169.jpg?resize=300%2C169\" alt=\"GT_430_AxP_Settings\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_AxP_Settings-300x169.jpg?resize=300%2C169 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_AxP_Settings.JPG 946w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here are the results; note that GT 220 cannot run this DX11 benchmark at all:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/AvP.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21228\" title=\"AvP\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/AvP.jpg?resize=430%2C359\" alt=\"AvP\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/AvP.jpg?resize=430%2C359 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/AvP-300x250.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">To play this game on a GT 430, you can lower settings further.\u00a0 Please note that this stand alone DX11 benchmark is generally more stressful on a graphics card than 99% of the game itself.<\/span><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: AvP--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><!--nextpage--><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Serious Sam Second Encounter HD (2010)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 including 4xAA, except as noted on the chart. Here are our results<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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\/10\/SSam.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21224\" title=\"SSam\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/SSam.jpg?resize=430%2C535\" alt=\"SSam\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/SSam.jpg?resize=430%2C535 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/SSam-241x300.jpg 241w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><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;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 using the game&#8217;s built-in &#8220;ultra&#8221; presets.  The Galaxy GT 430 would be able to easily handle this game while still providing good visuals by lowering a few additoinal settings. <\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><!--pagetitle: Serious Sam SE--><\/p>\n<p><strong><!--nextpage--><\/strong><\/ul>\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<ul style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong> <\/strong><\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/mafiaii.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21241\" title=\"mafiaii\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/mafiaii.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"mafiaii\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/mafiaii.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/mafiaii-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/mafiaii.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\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.\u00a0 We also plan to test performance of a GTX 480 when paired with the GT 430 as a dedicated PhysX video card, versus using a 8800 GTX for PhysX in Part Two of the GT 430 review.\u00a0 Here are our settings:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/mafia2-2010-10-10-15-38-38-81.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-21271\" title=\"mafia2 2010-10-10 15-38-38-81\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/mafia2-2010-10-10-15-38-38-81.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"mafia2 2010-10-10 15-38-38-81\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/mafia2-2010-10-10-15-38-38-81.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/mafia2-2010-10-10-15-38-38-81-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/mafia2-2010-10-10-15-38-38-81.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><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: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong> <\/strong><\/span><\/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\/10\/MafiaII.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21227\" title=\"MafiaII\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/MafiaII.jpg?resize=430%2C368\" alt=\"MafiaII\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/MafiaII.jpg?resize=430%2C368 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/MafiaII-300x256.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/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, consider getting a dedicated PhysX card.<\/span><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Mafia II--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><!--nextpage--><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/metro2033.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21242\" title=\"metro2033\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/metro2033.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"metro2033\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/metro2033.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/metro2033-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/metro2033.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Last 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 &#8220;medium&#8221; with (no) 1xAA and no PhysX.\u00a0 Here are our results at &#8220;medium&#8221; setting and also at &#8220;low&#8221; settings for the GT 430, stock and overclocked.\u00a0 On &#8220;low&#8221; settings, we also disabled DOF.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/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\/10\/Metro2033.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21229\" title=\"Metro2033\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Metro2033.jpg?resize=430%2C368\" alt=\"Metro2033\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Metro2033.jpg?resize=430%2C368 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Metro2033-300x256.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">All of our cards present varying degrees of a slideshow at 1440&#215;900.\u00a0 The GT 430 is simply unable to play this game until settings are set to low.\u00a0 The GT 220 fairs even worse and is limited to the DX10.1 pathway with no tessellation.<\/span><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 settings that we used. \u00a0 We would suggest lowering the resolution and the details even further.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Metro 2033--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><em>X3: Terran Conflict<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\">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.\u00a0 Here are the settings that we used:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/x3tc_settings.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21260\" title=\"x3tc_settings\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/x3tc_settings.JPG?resize=425%2C499\" alt=\"x3tc_settings\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/x3tc_settings.JPG?resize=425%2C499 708w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/x3tc_settings-255x300.jpg 255w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 425px) 100vw, 425px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here are our results:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/X3TC.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21215\" title=\"X3TC\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/X3TC.jpg?resize=430%2C535\" alt=\"X3TC\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/X3TC.jpg?resize=430%2C535 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/X3TC-241x300.jpg 241w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This time the Galaxy GT 430 delivers a playable experience very similar to the more expensive cards and is a solid upgrade over the GT 220.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: X3 - Terran Conflict--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong>DiRT 2<\/strong><\/em> <em><strong> <\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\">We are using the <em>Dirt 2<\/em> full retail game&#8217;s built-in benchmark at the highest &#8220;ultra&#8221; DX11 setting with 2xAA applied.\u00a0 Here are our results bearing in mind that the GT 220 cannot run the DX11 pathway and delivers less visual detail than the other cards tested:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/DiRT2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21203\" title=\"DiRT2\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/DiRT2.jpg?resize=430%2C442\" alt=\"DiRT2\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/DiRT2.jpg?resize=430%2C442 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/DiRT2-291x300.jpg 291w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The Galaxy GT 220 struggles in this game on the DX9 pathway while the GT 430 gets the <em>DiRT 2<\/em> checkered flag on the DX11 pathway.\u00a0 The Galaxy GT 430 delivers a playable experience at these settings, especially when it is overclocked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Dirt 2--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><em>Just Cause 2<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/JustCause.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21243\" title=\"JustCause\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/JustCause.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"JustCause\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/JustCause.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/JustCause-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/JustCause.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><strong> <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\">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 style=\"text-align: left;\">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.\u00a0 Please note that the image (below) contains an error as Point Light Specular is &#8216;on&#8217; for all runs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/JustCause14x9SETTING.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21252\" title=\"JustCause14x9SETTING\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/JustCause14x9SETTING.jpg?resize=518%2C324\" alt=\"JustCause14x9SETTING\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/JustCause14x9SETTING.jpg?resize=518%2C324 1440w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/JustCause14x9SETTING-300x187.jpg 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/JustCause14x9SETTING-1024x640.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 518px) 100vw, 518px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Now let&#8217;s look at the performance at 1440&#215;900:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/JC2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21207\" title=\"JC2\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/JC2.jpg?resize=430%2C368\" alt=\"JC2\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/JC2.jpg?resize=430%2C368 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/JC2-300x256.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The stock Galaxy GT 430 scores an impressive win over the GT 220.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Just Cause 2--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><em>Lost Planet<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/LostPlanetDX10.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21261\" title=\"LostPlanetDX10\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/LostPlanetDX10.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"LostPlanetDX10\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/LostPlanetDX10.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/LostPlanetDX10-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/LostPlanetDX10.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\">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 16xAF but with no (1x) AA.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/LP.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21220\" title=\"LP\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/LP.jpg?resize=430%2C536\" alt=\"LP\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/LP.jpg?resize=430%2C536 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/LP-240x300.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The GT 220 stands out as being particularly unplayable at our chosen settings.\u00a0 All of our cards have issues with minimum framerates but the lower performance cards should definitely use the DX9 pathway which is a lot less demanding and not really very different visually from the DX10 version.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Lost Planet--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Unreal Tournament 3 (UT3)<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/UT3-2008.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21262\" title=\"UT3-2008\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/UT3-2008.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"UT3-2008\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/UT3-2008.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/UT3-2008-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/UT3-2008.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\">For our tests, we used the very latest game patch for <em>Unreal Tournament 3<\/em>. 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 with UT3\u2019s in-game graphics options set to their maximum values.  One drawback of the way the UT3 engine is designed is that there is no support for anti-aliasing built in so we forced 4xAA in Nvidia\u2019s control panel for one benchmark test of our GT 430.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">We record a demo in the game and a set number of frames are saved in a file for playback.  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, as usual at 1440&#215;900 with maxed settings and 16xAF:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/ut3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21213\" title=\"ut3\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/ut3.jpg?resize=430%2C463\" alt=\"ut3\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/ut3.jpg?resize=430%2C463 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/ut3-278x300.jpg 278w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em> <\/em>There is absolutely no problem playing this game fully maxed out with any of our video cards including the GT 220. The Galaxy GT 430 puts in a better showing with 4xAA applied than the GT 220 does without.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: UnrealTournament3--><em><!--nextpage--><\/em><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><em>Resident Evil 5<\/em><\/em><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 PC 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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\">There are two benchmarks built-into <em>Resident Evil 5<\/em>.  We chose the variable benchmark as it is best suited for testing video cards. Here it is at 1440&#215;900 resolution with maxed out in-game setting plus 4xAA:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em> <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/RE5-251.jpg\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/RE5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21204\" title=\"RE5\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/RE5.jpg?resize=430%2C447\" alt=\"RE5\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/RE5.jpg?resize=430%2C447 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/RE5-288x300.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The Galaxy GT 430 clearly leads over the GT 220 which is unplayable at our settings. Overclocked and now with 1xAA, the stock Galaxy GT 430 is able to handle this game.\u00a0 Overclocking brings further good performance scaling.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Resident Evil 5--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Call of Pripyat<\/strong><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\">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 without MSAA two ways, first with the &#8220;ultra&#8221; settings&#8221; and here we present our &#8220;low&#8221; DX11 settings for <em>S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Call of Pripyat <\/em>DX11 benchmark:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_CallofPripyat_Settings.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21246\" title=\"GT_430_CallofPripyat_Settings\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_CallofPripyat_Settings.JPG?resize=594%2C304\" alt=\"GT_430_CallofPripyat_Settings\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_CallofPripyat_Settings.JPG?resize=594%2C304 1062w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_CallofPripyat_Settings-300x153.jpg 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_CallofPripyat_Settings-1024x523.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here are the results at 1440&#215;900:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/CoP_fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21231\" title=\"CoP_fix\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/CoP_fix.jpg?resize=500%2C369\" alt=\"CoP_fix\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/CoP_fix.jpg?resize=500%2C369 500w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/CoP_fix-300x221.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The GT 430 needs to play this game at &#8220;low&#8221; DX11 setting to have a playable experience.\u00a0 The GT 220 needs to run at the less demanding DX10.1 setting and it still cannot match the GT 430&#8217;s frame rates with better visuals.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Tom Clancy&#8217;s H.A.W.X.<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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\u00a0 fully maxed out in-game settings and 2xAA:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/HAWX.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21211\" title=\"HAWX\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/HAWX.jpg?resize=430%2C358\" alt=\"HAWX\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/HAWX.jpg?resize=430%2C358 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/HAWX-300x249.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">We would consider lowering some settings or eschewing anti-aliasing to get a completely playable experience with the GT 430.\u00a0 In contrast, we would have to drop the resolution or make major downward changes to our settings to get a playable experience on GT 220.<\/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;\">We test using the <em>BattleForge<\/em> built-in benchmark with all of its settings as following:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Shadows are &#8220;medium&#8221;, Texture and Shaders are set to &#8220;high&#8221;, FX quality is set to &#8220;very high&#8221;, MT is &#8220;auto&#8221; and cloud shadows and glow are &#8220;on&#8221;.\u00a0 The single biggest performance impact comes from setting SSAO to &#8220;off&#8221; and here are our DX11 results with no anti-aliasing:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/BF1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21230\" title=\"BF\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/BF1.jpg?resize=430%2C368\" alt=\"BF\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/BF1.jpg?resize=430%2C368 430w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/BF1-300x256.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The Galaxy GT 430 needs to have settings lowered to have playable framerates in <em>BattleForge. <\/em>On the other hand, the GT 220 requires most of its settings set to low to make it playable.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: BattleForge--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Heaven 2.0 Unigine<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/unigine-2010-06-20-07-58-41-62.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21247\" title=\"unigine 2010-06-20 07-58-41-62\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/unigine-2010-06-20-07-58-41-62.jpg?resize=300%2C187\" alt=\"unigine 2010-06-20 07-58-41-62\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/unigine-2010-06-20-07-58-41-62.jpg?resize=300%2C187 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/unigine-2010-06-20-07-58-41-62-1024x640.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/unigine-2010-06-20-07-58-41-62.jpg 1680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">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.  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.  Here are the two settings we used for this benchmark.\u00a0 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 even the GTX 480 at the highest setting so we chose &#8220;normal&#8221; and &#8220;moderate&#8221; tessellation for these mainstream video cards.<a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/heaven_HIGH_settings.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21248\" title=\"heaven_HIGH_settings\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/heaven_HIGH_settings.JPG?resize=376%2C272\" alt=\"heaven_HIGH_settings\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/heaven_HIGH_settings.JPG?resize=376%2C272 627w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/heaven_HIGH_settings-300x217.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 376px) 100vw, 376px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here is the lowest DX11 settings; the GT 220 cannot run DX11 and will default to the much less demanding &#8211; and less visually impressive &#8220;flat&#8221; looking DX10.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/heaven_LOW_settings.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21249\" title=\"heaven_LOW_settings\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/heaven_LOW_settings.JPG?resize=379%2C268\" alt=\"heaven_LOW_settings\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/heaven_LOW_settings.JPG?resize=379%2C268 631w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/heaven_LOW_settings-300x212.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 379px) 100vw, 379px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here are the results of our benchmark runs at 1440&#215;900<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Heaven2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21206\" title=\"Heaven2\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Heaven2.jpg?resize=500%2C307\" alt=\"Heaven2\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Heaven2.jpg?resize=500%2C307 500w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Heaven2-300x184.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This is a synthetic benchmark and we will withhold judgment until we play PC games using the Unigine engine.  However, the Galaxy GT 430 again solidly beats the GT 220 while delivering far more impressive DX11 tessellation-related visuals.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Heaven 2.0--><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Overclocking<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Nvidia&#8217;s GT 430 overclocks well as does the rest of the Fermi family. Enter Galaxy&#8217;s overclocking tool, Xtreme Tuner HD with our settings at stock values:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_xtremetun_stock.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21250\" title=\"GT_430_xtremetun_stock\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_xtremetun_stock-300x204.jpg?resize=300%2C204\" alt=\"GT_430_xtremetun_stock\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_xtremetun_stock-300x204.jpg?resize=300%2C204 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_xtremetun_stock.JPG 634w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">We were not content to play with Galaxy&#8217;s GT 430 at its factory-set clocks and so we pushed it to near its limit.  However, this editor has his own set of criteria for overclocking the Galaxy GT 430 further.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li>Voltage is kept stock. Not many people are willing to boost voltage on even an inexpensive 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 its factory-set 52% with stock cooling only; no profiles were created.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here are our Galaxy GT 430 clocks:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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 style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li>Graphics Clock  &#8211;   <strong>700 MHz  &gt;&gt;  825 MHz<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Processor Clock &#8211; <strong>1400 MHz &gt;&gt; 1650 MHz<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Memory Clock  &#8211; <strong>3600 MHz &gt;&gt; 3680 MHz<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">An overclock of +125 MHz on the reference Galaxy GT 430&#8217;s core &#8211; from 700 MHz to 825 MHz with our overclock &#8211; brought us some solid performance increases in every case.\u00a0 However, our DDR3 did not want to overclock very far.\u00a0 This may change later on if Nvidia decides to allow support for DDR5.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Check out our overclock and during gaming the temperatures which never even went above the 50s C nor did the card make any noticeable noise under full load:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_xtremetun_OC.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21251\" title=\"GT_430_xtremetun_OC\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_xtremetun_OC-278x300.jpg?resize=278%2C300\" alt=\"GT_430_xtremetun_OC\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_xtremetun_OC-278x300.jpg?resize=278%2C300 278w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT_430_xtremetun_OC.JPG 588w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 278px) 100vw, 278px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Although we had very little time to fine tune it, we are pretty sure we are near the limit of both our DDR3 and our core.\u00a0\u00a0 Each sample is different and your own results may vary considerably from ours.\u00a0 We did not raise the voltage or the fan and you may be able to get even a higher overclock if you are willing to do this.\u00a0 Running Furmark it never overheated nor could we hear the GT 430&#8217;s VGA cooling fan ramp up.\u00a0 It stayed cool under extreme stress and it will not drain your wallet with its low 49W TDP specification.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Overclocked Performance <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">We overclocked our games at the same settings that we used all throughout this review and in most cases, we see good to excellent scaling with clock speeds.  In a few cases, the +125 MHz overclock on the core and +20 MHz on the vRAM brings a game from barely playable to playable.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Impressive!\u00a0 Just like the rest of the Fermi family that we have tested.\u00a0 We also usually get a much nicer VGA cooling fan solution from Galaxy over the reference cooler, which will keep your overclock cool and quiet. This is a real testimonial to Galaxy&#8217;s excellent in-house design.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Overclocking--><\/ul>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Power Usage<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">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, these small GPUs put out very little heat and use little energy compared to the GTX 480 or GTX 470.\u00a0 In fact, the 49 average watts that are required to run GT 430 comes solely from the PCIe slot and there is no additional PCIe power cable connector.\u00a0 In addition, the Galaxy GT 430 is a very short card &#8211; much shorter than the GT 220 which allows it to fit into some very small cases.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_in-the-case1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-21285\" title=\"gt430_in-the-case\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_in-the-case1.jpg?resize=300%2C213\" alt=\"gt430_in-the-case\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_in-the-case1.jpg?resize=300%2C213 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gt430_in-the-case1.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Testing with FurMark&#8217;s worst case, Hot-as-Hell GPU burning test, we noted that the temperatures never even climbed into the 60sF.\u00a0 &#8220;Pass&#8221; with flying colors on the power usage and thermal tests!<\/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 GT 430 is a potent GPU to put against AMD&#8217;s HD 5400\/5500 series.\u00a0\u00a0 In Part 2 of our testing, we shall pit a reference GT 430 from another vendor against AMD&#8217;s 4290 IG to see if it is a worthwhile $79 upgrade or not.\u00a0 And we shall test the GT 430&#8217;s PhysX performance as a dedicated PhysX card when paired with our Galaxy GTX 480 SOC.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Clearly AMD is confident in its own mature product with HD 5500 and HD 5400 and they are apparently going to counter Nvidia with discounted pricing. \u00a0 We are also aware that AMD&#8217;s new HD 6000 series will launch very shortly although it will undoubtedly take a few months to introduce their entire new lineup.  Until then &#8211;  and right now &#8211; it is an excellent time to upgrade as there is price competition again, something that we have not seen for a long time until recently.  The Galaxy GT 430 is an excellent value compared to the GT 220 at the same $79 MSRP and even though the older card is discounted a few bucks, the GT 430 still comes out on top in every department.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!--pagetitle: Conclusion--><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This has been quite an enjoyable but short, hand&#8217;s on experience for us in comparing our GT 430 versus our GT 220 with thanks to Galaxy for supplying both cards.\u00a0 We like the Galaxy GT 430 as a mainstream gaming card and we plan to follow up with Part Two &#8211; PhysX testing and versus integrated graphics.  We were disappointed that this GT 430 series misses out on the superb scaling of SLI by not offering any support for it, even without a SLI bridge.<\/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 Part Two testing or for any other information, please join our ABT forum or leave a comment.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\">Galaxy GT 430<\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Pros and Cons:<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Pros:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li> The Galaxy GT 430 is much faster at gaming than its predecessor, the DX10.1 GT 220.<\/li>\n<li> There is further room for overclocking and the Galaxy GT 430 delivers much the same good scaling as the rest of the Fermi family.<\/li>\n<li> New architecture brings support for GPU computing and a level of performance way beyond the last generation for mainstream gaming and multi-media PCs.<\/li>\n<li> DX11 and great support for tessellation, PhysX and CUDA, and 3D for BluRay and games.<\/li>\n<li>GT 430 is ideal as a mainstream gaming video card and as the video basis for a HTPC or rich multimedia PC<\/li>\n<li> Galaxy&#8217;s improved VGA fan is great for achieving and keeping your OC by keeping your GPU cooler than the reference version and it is very quiet indeed.<\/li>\n<li>The Galaxy GT 430 is physically very short; smaller than GT 220 and ideal for small form PCs.<\/li>\n<li> Galaxy builds their own GT 430 with solid components<\/li>\n<li> Galaxy&#8217;s unique two year warranty which includes a 24-hour toll-free number where a tech support person actually *talks* to you for great support!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li> No SLI support and thus no 3-display Surround.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">In our opinion, the success of GT 430 depends on its pricing compared with the competition.\u00a0 That&#8217;s it.  For about the same price as the GT 220&#8217;s MSRP, you get DX11 and all the new\u00a0 features that Nvidia video cards have to offer in a very solidly-built, cool and quiet-running GTX 430.  Add to this all the benefits of a premium card such as a two year warranty and great support, we feel that Galaxy has a real winner in their GT 430 to offer mainstream gamers and we are pleased to award them our ABT Editor&#8217;s Choice award.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><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;\">We do not know what the future will bring, but this amazing card brings a great value to the Galaxy 400 Fermi series lineup.  Look for GT 430 availability right away.\u00a0 The Galaxy GT 430 is also available at brick and mortar Best Buy stores nationwide (and online at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bestbuy.com\/site\/Galaxy+-+GeForce+GT+430+1GB+DDR3+PCI+Express+2.0+Graphics+Card\/1325428.p?id=1218250289594&amp;skuId=1325428&amp;st=Galaxy%20GT%20430&amp;cp=1&amp;lp=1\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.bestbuy.com\/site\/Galaxy+-+GeForce+GT+430+1GB+DDR3+PCI+Express+2.0+Graphics+Card\/1325428.p?id=1218250289594&amp;skuId=1325428&amp;st=Galaxy%20GT%20430&amp;cp=1&amp;lp=1', 'BestBuy.com']);\" >BestBuy.com<\/a>), at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tigerdirect.com\/applications\/searchtools\/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=6759736&amp;sku=G458-0430&amp;srkey=Galaxy%20GT%20430\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.tigerdirect.com\/applications\/searchtools\/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=6759736&amp;sku=G458-0430&amp;srkey=Galaxy%20GT%20430', 'Tiger Direct']);\" >Tiger Direct<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B0046OW9XM?tag=invihand-20\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B0046OW9XM?tag=invihand-20', 'Amazon']);\" >Amazon<\/a> and other leading etailers.<\/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 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 integrated graphics or a GT 220 class of video card, you will do yourself a big favor by upgrading. The move to a Galaxy GT 430 will give you better visuals on the DX11 pathway.\u00a0 If the many exclusive features of the new GT 430 appeal to you and you are gaming at 1440&#215;900 or 1200&#215;1024, then you cannot go wrong with a Galaxy GT 430.  In this editor&#8217;s experience, it is also a decent budget choice if you are considering overclocking further.  The competition is hot as the prices on the competing HD 5000 video cards have softened and they offer their own set of features including a way to experience 3-panel multi-display with Eyefinity on a single budget card.  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=21198\"><img decoding=\"async\" align=top title=\"Author: Mark Poppin\" src=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/GT-430.png\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2533,7814,6],"tags":[4211,2354,680,4208,4210,2384,4207,4049,2395,4209,4212,121],"class_list":["post-21198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abt-news","category-articles","category-news","tag-1400x900","tag-fermi","tag-galaxy","tag-gf108","tag-gs-450-soc","tag-gt-220","tag-gt-430","tag-gts-450","tag-hd-5750","tag-mainstream-gaming","tag-multimedia-pc","tag-nvidia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21198","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=21198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}