ATI’s Radeon HD 5450 – The Perfect HTPC Card?

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.

Like Call of Juarez, World in Conflict to some degree favors ATI cards, but even with that, the HD 5450 looks to be nearly twice as fast as the 210.

With performance as high as it was, there was no reason to lower the settings any further for a best playable. Going one step higher made the gameplay laggier, so there was no point. Because of the sheer number of graphic options found in the game, though, you could have a field day if you really wanted to fine-tune things.