ASUS Radeon EAH5850

I admit that I’m not a huge fan of RTS titles, but World in Conflict intrigued me from the get go. After all, so many war-based games continue to follow the same story-lines we already know, and WiC was different. It counteracts the fall of the political and economic situation in the Soviet Union in the late 80’s, and instead provides a storyline that follows it as if the USSR had succeeded by proceeding with war in order to remain in power.

Many RTS games, with their advanced AI, tend to favor the CPU in order to deliver smooth gameplay, but WiC favors both the CPU and GPU, and the graphics prove it. Throughout the game’s missions, you’ll see gorgeous vistas and explore areas from deserts and snow-packed lands, to fields and cities. Overall, it’s a real visual treat for the eyes – especially since you’re able to zoom to the ground and see the action up-close.

Manual Run-through: The level we use for testing is the 7th campaign of the game, called Insurgents. Our saved game plants us towards the beginning of the mission with two squads of five, and two snipers. The run consists of bringing our men to action, and hovering the camera around throughout the duration. The entire run lasts between three and four minutes.

The performance here shows that WiC is great with multi-GPU cards, but it again shows the HD 5850 beating out the much more expensive GTX 285.

40 FPS on average might seem like ideal performance for an RTS, but this game thrives on higher FPS. Without it, there are occasional tears or skips, and while not all too noticeable, or game-breaking, some might prefer lower graphics settings, or the removal of anti-aliasing. In my case, I find 40 FPS to be a general minimum, and the HD 5850 hits that mark almost spot-on. My personal preference might differ from yours, and if that’s the case, a simple drop to 2xAA or even 0xAA will speed things back up, with very little noticeable change to the graphics.