by Rob Williams on August 27, 2009 in Graphics & Displays
Have just $100 to splurge on a new graphics card? Is having low power consumption and low temperatures important to you? If so, the HD 4770 certainly deserves your attention. This budget card handled each one of our games at 1920×1080 just fine, overclocks like a dream and has power and temp numbers worth drooling over.
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.
World in Conflict is a pretty demanding game, and that’s made obvious by our results here.
|
|
|
|
NVIDIA GTX 295 1792MB (Reference)
|
2560×1600 – Max Detail, 8xAA, 16xAF
|
40
|
55.819
|
NVIDIA GTX 285 1GB (EVGA)
|
2560×1600 – Max Detail, 0xAA, 16xAF
|
34
|
49.514
|
NVIDIA GTX 275 896MB (Reference)
|
2560×1600 – Max Detail, 0xAA, 16xAF
|
36
|
46.186
|
ATI HD 4890 1GB (Sapphire)
|
2560×1600 – Max Detail, 0xAA, 16xAF
|
31
|
46.175
|
NVIDIA GTX 260 896MB (XFX)
|
2560×1600 – Max Detail, 0xAA, 16xAF
|
23
|
39.365
|
ATI HD 4870 1GB (Reference)
|
2560×1600 – Max Detail, 0xAA, 16xAF
|
22
|
30.027
|
NVIDIA GTX 250 1GB (EVGA)
|
2560×1600 – Max Detail, 0xAA, 4xAF
|
24
|
32.453
|
ATI HD 4770 512MB (Gigabyte)
|
1920×1080 – Max Detail, 4xAA, 16xAF
|
22
|
31.561
|
I’d have to consider our HD 4770 results at 1920×1080 to be the bare minimum of what I’d accept, because we are reaching a point when the game is a little sticky at parts. But, it’s still fully playable and the lag is scarce enough to never detract from your gameplay. If you want the absolute best performance, disabling anti-aliasing is your best choice.