by Rob Williams on May 21, 2010 in Graphics & Displays
As our games continue to become even more robust, it would seem likely that having more memory available to the GPU would prove useful, but are we soon to see 2GB cards become commonplace? After many completed tests with Sapphire’s Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X 2GB, we’re having a hard time settling on that.
The Call of Duty series is one that needs no introduction. Although only six years old, CoD has already become a stature where both single-player and multi-player first-person shooters are concerned. From the series’ inception, each game has delivered stellar gameplay that totally engrosses you, thanks in part to creative levels, smart AI and realistic graphics.
World at War is officially the 5th game in the series, and while some hardcore fans claim that Treyarch is simply unable to deliver as high caliber a game as Infinity Ward, the title does do well to hold everyone over until Modern Warfare 2 hits (November 10, 2009). One perk is that World at War focuses on battles not exhausted in other war games, which helps to keep things fresh.
Manual Run-through: The level chosen for our testing is “Relentless”, one that depicts the Battle of Peleliu, which has American soldiers advance to capture an airstrip from the Japanese. The level is both exciting to play and incredibly hard on your graphics hardware, making it a perfect choice for our testing.
So far, there are obvious gains, but I’d attribute those to the pre-overclock that the card has long before the extra memory.
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ATI HD Radeon 5870 2GB (Sapphire)
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2560×1600 – Max Detail, 4xAA
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46
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84.22
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NVIDIA GTX 480 1.5GB (Reference)
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2560×1600 – Max Detail, 4xAA
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50
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81.669
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ATI HD Radeon 5870 1GB (Reference)
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2560×1600 – Max Detail, 4xAA
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44
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81.351
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ATI HD 5770 1GB CrossFireX
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2560×1600 – Max Detail, 4xAA
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40
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81.311
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ATI HD 5850 1GB (ASUS)
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2560×1600 – Max Detail, 4xAA
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37
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68.563
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NVIDIA GTX 285 1GB (EVGA)
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2560×1600 – Max Detail, 4xAA
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41
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66.527
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NVIDIA GTX 275 896MB (Reference)
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2560×1600 – Max Detail, 4xAA
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37
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61.937
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ATI HD 5830 1GB (Reference)
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2560×1600 – Max Detail, 4xAA
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30
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53.569
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NVIDIA GTX 260 896MB (XFX)
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2560×1600 – Max Detail, 4xAA
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33
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53.314
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ATI HD 5770 1GB (Reference)
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2560×1600 – Max Detail, 0xAA
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36
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60.337
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NVIDIA GTS 250 1GB (EVGA)
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2560×1600 – Max Detail, 0xAA
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30
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53.253
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ATI HD 5750 1GB (Sapphire)
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2560×1600 – Max Detail, 0xAA
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28
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50.727
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ATI HD 5670 512MB (Reference)
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1920×1080 – Max Detail, 4xAA
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24
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43.96
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NVIDIA GT 240 512MB (ASUS)
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1920×1080 – Max Detail, 0xAA
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30
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53.139
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ATI HD 5570 1GB (Sapphire)
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1920×1080 – Max Detail, 0xAA
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27
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45.841
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ATI HD 5550 1GB (Sapphire)
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1920×1080 – Medium Detail, 0xAA
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14
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27.199
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Modern Warfare 2 may be a great-looking game, but it’s not quite as intensive on today’s PC as we’d like. As it is, the card can handle the game at maxed-out detail settings without issue.