It’s been a pretty hectic two weeks testing GPUs here at FiringSquad. Since taking an early performance look at the GTX 295 on December 18th, both ATI and NVIDIA have submitted new drivers designed to improve their performance in comparison to the competition. We have a strong suspicion this back and forth battle of the rival driver teams is going to continue to play itself out over the course of the next several weeks, if not longer. This makes coming to final conclusions today on the ultimate performance of GeForce GTX 295 vs Radeon HD 4870 X2 extremely difficult.
What we can tell you is that NVIDIA has a definite lead in Dead Space. Games based on the Call of Duty 4 game engine have also run faster with GTX 295 in our testing. Finally NVIDIA also enjoys a strong performance lead in Far Cry 2.
Falling in the lean NVIDIA category are Crysis and Fallout 3. Fallout 3’s performance is largely CPU-bound, but at 2560x1600 the GTX 295 managed to pull ahead of the 4870 X2 by 7%. The GTX 295 put up a good showing in our early Crysis tests, but ATI managed to pull even by 2560x1600 with very high graphics settings and 2xAA. There are also a couple of outstanding performance bugs for NVIDIA in this game, so it’s probably too soon to come to any definitive conclusions on Crysis performance.
BioShock was the one title where the 4870 X2 excelled, outrunning the GTX 295 by anywhere from 4-20% in BioShock, while L4D falls in the lean ATI category, with 4870 X2 running 6-8% faster than GTX 295.
For now we’re going to put STALKER in the toss-up category, but we still have a lot more testing we’d like to do with this game at the higher graphics quality settings. When we first tested this game a few months ago it really brought both ATI and NVIDIA GPUs to their knees. Thanks to recent driver improvements though things have changed significantly and it looks like we may be able to crank the settings up slightly more, perhaps even with a little bit of AA. We’ll have to wait for the benchmarks to come in first though.
Ultimately we have a feeling that picking between the GTX 295 and 4870 X2 would be akin to picking between two different Ferraris. Each is crazy fast and exotic with their own areas of strengths/weaknesses. But like the Ferraris, either card will definitely put a grin on your face. Right now though NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 295 is the Enzo Ferrari of the bunch. The GTX 295 is simply the faster card overall at this point.
The most intriguing move of the past 24 hours is ATI’s counter to the GTX 295. ATI is working with board partners and retailers on a 4870 X2 price cut. So far only one board partner, and one retailer have gotten onboard with the plan, with Sapphire’s 4870 X2 board selling for $450 on Newegg, plus a $50 mail-in rebate bringing the price down to $400. If ATI can get more board partners and retailers to play along with this price, they could have quite a coup on their hands, leading to more price cuts from NVIDIA.
Thanks to its slightly higher clocks, EVGA’s GeForce GTX 295 Plus is well positioned, regardless of what ultimately ends up happening. Because EVGA is pricing their board at NVIDIA’s MSRP, you’re essentially getting a free performance boost. And if NVIDIA happens to reduce the price on the GTX 295 in a few weeks, EVGA will obviously match the reduction. We’re crossing our fingers for a GTX 295 Superclocked though!
Elemental: Fallen Enchantress Preview Elemental: Fallen Enchantress is a standalone expansion pack and follow-up to developer Stardock's previous game in the series, subtitled War of Magic. That 4X strategy game was highly-anticipated and slated to compete with games such as Sid Meier's Civilization V for your turn-based strategy play-time, but was released in an incredibly broken and unfinished state that it never fully recovered from. Lead designer Brad Wardell apologized profusely to fans and set out with his team to go back to the drawing board and try again.
Almost two years later, the result of that proverbial mulligan is currently undergoing closed beta testing. In today's article, Will reports his thoughts on how Fallen Enchantress is shaping up, and will tell you whether or not you should be keeping an eye on it as it nears release later this year.
The Elder Scrolls Online Details Leak - Should Fans Be Excited? The Elder Scrolls Online, long rumored to be in development, was officially announced yesterday. Still in development at Zenimax Online Studios, this MMO aims to combine traditional genre mechanics with the spirit and sensibilities, not to mention setting and lore, of the immensely popular series of single-player RPGs. Though the game is set for a full unveiling in the next issue of Game Informer magazine, what appears to be the entire cover story article has been leaked to the interwebs already. In today's article, you'll find summary and analysis of all the alleged details, as well as feast your eyes on the very first screenshots and concept art from the game. Of course, the burning question now is, should you be excited?
ANNO 2070 Review
The year is 2070. The majority of life on Earth was devastated when global sea levels surged after the melting of the polar ice caps. Swaths of previously habitable land are now deep underwater, and sovereign nations are a relic of the past. But there is still hope...
This city-building RTS/simulation game from Ubisoft tasks you with re-colonizing what little land areas are left on the planet following a global warming apocalypse. Does it have what it takes to be worthy of your time and money, or should it be cast out to sea with the rest of civilization? Find out in today's review!
Hear that? It's the sound of the largest computer chip manufacturer in the world churning out new processors to power your gaming rig. This week, Intel is launching their next generation of Core CPUs, code-named Ivy Bridge. Like last year's Sandy Bridge chips, they're low-power, quad-core powerhouses that also feature integrated graphics processors. Want to find out more? Maybe check out a whole bunch of performance benchmarks on both the CPU and graphics sides of things? Well you can, in today's review!
Intel Z77 Chipset & DZ77GA-70K Motherboard Overview
Looking forward to those new Ivy Bridge CPUs? In anticipation of their release later this month, Intel has already unveiled the new Series 7 chipsets designed especially to take advantage of what will be the 3rd-generation of Core processors. In today's article, we take a look at the architecture of the enthusiast variant, the Z77, and how it's used in the Intel Desktop Extreme DZ77GA-70K motherboard. Even if you're not particularly interested in the motherboard itself, you'll probably want to see some of the new features that come along with it, so read on!
Mass Effect 3 PC Review
This latest release from EA/BioWare is the final entry in their trilogy of sci-fi action RPGs, putting you in a dire situation: rally the troops to save Earth at all costs. There was a lot of hype surrounding the final act of what has been a vast and highly-customizable story-telling experience, and the reception among many hardcore fans has been less than stellar. Even people that haven't played the game have probably heard about all the nerd rage going on over Mass Effect 3's ending...
If you want to cut through all the crap and find out whether or not the rest of ME3 is worth playing, come check out Will's spoiler-free take on the first blockbuster game release of 2012.
Batman: Arkham City PC Review Batman: Arkham City is the sequel to 2009’s smash-hit action game Batman: Arkham Asylum. As the name suggests, you will be reprising your role as the Caped Crusader and going against an even larger 'prison' filled with Gotham's criminals and villains. A textbook example on how to do a proper sequel, Arkham City takes what worked in the original, excised or improved upon what didn’t, and elevated everything to an even greater scope. The PC version suffered from a few months of delay, but in that time, Rocksteady worked closely to NVIDIA to implement some familiar technologies from the last game, such as PhysX and 3D Vision, along with new DirectX 11 optimizations. But how well was the whole package executed? Read on to find out!
Saints Row: The Third PC Review Saints Row is one of most unique series of games to build upon the open-world action template forged by Grand Theft Auto, and has met with plenty of critical and commercial success since it began on consoles back in 2006. This latest iteration, titled Saints Row: The Third promises the most outlandish fun and freedom of customization of them all, and in a much more PC-friendly package than its predecessor. Does it live up to those expectations and, more importantly, is it worth the price of admission? Find out in Will's latest review!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim PC Review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Bethesda Softworks’ latest offering in their series of epic fantasy RPGs, as well as one of the most highly-anticipated PC titles of 2011. As the Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn, prepare to take the fight to the mythical beasts that have returned to the realm after centuries of slumber, all the while exploring a huge and highly-detailed open world.
The PC version of the game promises enhanced graphical fidelity, standard RPG trimmings such as hotkeys and quick-save, as well as unbridled mod support, something we’ll all be thankful for once they release that SDK. Skyrim has already sold millions of copies and set records for play-time on Steam... Find out why in today's review, which happens to be one of the biggest and most in-depth articles on the subject out there!
L.A. Noire Complete Edition PC Review L.A. Noire, as the name clearly states, is a video game built on the tropes of one of the greatest periods of American cinema: film noir. Developed by the now defunct Australian developer Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games, this title has been out on consoles for a full six months before finally making its way to the PC. This “Complete Edition” of the game features improved graphics, keyboard/mouse controls, and every bit of previously-released DLC for free. But was it truly worth the wait? Read on and find out!
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