System Setup

Intel Core 2 Duo E8600

ASUS P5E3 Premium WiFi AP Edition
4GB OCZ DDR3 Platinum @ 1333MHz

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
EVGA e-GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 (stock GTX 260 clocks)
XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition
ForceWare 180.47

AMD Radeon HD 4870 512MB
AMD Radeon HD 4870 1GB
Catalyst 8.11


300GB Western Digital Caviar SE

Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit w/Service Pack 1

Benchmarks

Call of Duty: World at War
Left 4 Dead
Dead Space
Crysis 1.21
Fallout 3
Far Cry 2

Notes

Since CoD: World at War, Dead Space, and Fallout 3 lack built-in tools for benchmarking, we used FRAPS to test these games. Our test sequence for CoD comes from the end of the last level, just as you’re set to leave the prison camp your character is asked to slice a fuel drum lying in the back of a truck. The truck is then driven right into the camp, where the trail of fuel is ignited, setting off a chain of explosions. Our FRAPS run records this entire sequence, and then we proceed to run into the camp.

We like this sequence because it’s fairly repeatable while it’s also graphically demanding.

Our Dead Space sequence takes place in the first chapter, when you return to your ship, the U.S.G. Kellion. As you load the protocols, a malfunction occurs and the ship blows up in spectacular fashion. Our FRAPS sequence consists of walking through the hanger, killing the monster in front of your ship, and then of course the spectacular explosion sequence.