With today’s arrival of the Radeon 4830, ATI’s finally addressing one glaring hole in their GPU lineup: the $100-$130 price point. How did the new card fare in our testing?
It depends on the game tested and amount of AA applied.
In games like Devil May Cry 4, World in Conflict, and Quake Wars, the Radeon 4830 card ran faster than the GeForce 8800/9800 GT by 16%, 12%, and 5% respectively at 1600x1200. The Radeon 4830 also outran the 9800 GT in Crysis, a game which has traditionally performed better with ATI’s Radeon 4800 architecture in comparison to GeForce, with the 4830 running 7% faster than the 9800 GT at 1600x1200.
NVIDIA has gained some ground thanks to their Big Bang II ForceWare 180 driver. The new ForceWare driver delivers tangible performance improvements for GeForce cards under DX10.
The GeForce 8800/9800 GT ran 10% faster than 4830 in Lost Planet at 1600x1200, while Company of Heroes DX10 was 4% faster at the same resolution (since its launch last year Lost Planet has always performed better with GeForce cards in comparison to Radeon).
The 8800 GT also outperformed the Radeon 4830 in Call of Duty 4.
We witnessed contrasting results with our newest DX10 titles, STALKER and Far Cry 2. With the exception of 1280x1024, the 9800 GT and Radeon 4830 were dead even in STALKER. The GeForce 9800 GT ran slightly faster than the 4830 in Far Cry 2 under 2xAA at 1600x1200 with the 8800 GT running 7% faster than the 4830. Interestingly enough however the Radeon 4830 managed to pull even with the GeForce 8800 GT under the more demanding 4xAA in Far Cry 2, and actually pulled ahead of the 8800 GT by 1920x1200.
Where the Radeon 4830 really shines in comparison to the 8800/9800 GT is under 8xAA. In fact the 4830 managed to outperform NVIDIA’s more powerful GeForce 9800 GTX in multiple titles we tested with under 8xAA. ATI’s Radeon 4800 cards clearly scale significantly better than competing GeForce cards at higher AA settings.
In all honesty though, we can’t help but get the feeling that the Radeon 4830 would have been a killer product had this card been launched in August or September. The card delivers an excellent price/performance ratio, generally running around 15% slower than ATI’s Radeon 4850 while selling for just $129 (cards on Newegg are actually priced as low as $109.99 after mail-in rebate). Unfortunately for ATI however the 4830’s performance story is muted somewhat thanks to the performance improvements NVIDIA has managed to bake into their ForceWare 180.42 driver.
As a result, the GeForce 8800/9800 GT, which generally sells for $100-$130 delivers very competitive performance at a price that’s comparable to the 4830; the two cards trade wins depending on the game tested. If ATI would’ve launched this GPU a month or so ago, NVIDIA wouldn’t have fared as well as they did today because the 9800 GT would be relying on an older, slower driver.
ATI’s got driver improvements in the works for their own GPUs. Catalyst 8.10 for instance delivered nice gains for Radeon 4800 card owners and it’s likely that the company has room for improvement in new games like STALKER and Far Cry 2. The Far Cry 2 hotfix driver is only the beginning for ATI.
Even if ATI doesn’t improve their performance in Far Cry 2, the Radeon 4830 is still an excellent overall performer, besting GeForce 9800 GT in Crysis and drawing even in STALKER: Clear Sky. Its superior 8xAA performance is icing on the cake, putting it over the top if you crave the crispest visuals. NVIDIA still doesn’t have an answer to this particular problem, even with their latest Big Bang II beta driver. This is ATI’s chief advantage over NVIDIA this generation.
Elemental: Fallen Enchantress Preview Elemental: Fallen Enchantress is a standalone expansion pack and follow-up to developer Stardock's previous game in the series, subtitled War of Magic. That 4X strategy game was highly-anticipated and slated to compete with games such as Sid Meier's Civilization V for your turn-based strategy play-time, but was released in an incredibly broken and unfinished state that it never fully recovered from. Lead designer Brad Wardell apologized profusely to fans and set out with his team to go back to the drawing board and try again.
Almost two years later, the result of that proverbial mulligan is currently undergoing closed beta testing. In today's article, Will reports his thoughts on how Fallen Enchantress is shaping up, and will tell you whether or not you should be keeping an eye on it as it nears release later this year.
The Elder Scrolls Online Details Leak - Should Fans Be Excited? The Elder Scrolls Online, long rumored to be in development, was officially announced yesterday. Still in development at Zenimax Online Studios, this MMO aims to combine traditional genre mechanics with the spirit and sensibilities, not to mention setting and lore, of the immensely popular series of single-player RPGs. Though the game is set for a full unveiling in the next issue of Game Informer magazine, what appears to be the entire cover story article has been leaked to the interwebs already. In today's article, you'll find summary and analysis of all the alleged details, as well as feast your eyes on the very first screenshots and concept art from the game. Of course, the burning question now is, should you be excited?
ANNO 2070 Review
The year is 2070. The majority of life on Earth was devastated when global sea levels surged after the melting of the polar ice caps. Swaths of previously habitable land are now deep underwater, and sovereign nations are a relic of the past. But there is still hope...
This city-building RTS/simulation game from Ubisoft tasks you with re-colonizing what little land areas are left on the planet following a global warming apocalypse. Does it have what it takes to be worthy of your time and money, or should it be cast out to sea with the rest of civilization? Find out in today's review!
Hear that? It's the sound of the largest computer chip manufacturer in the world churning out new processors to power your gaming rig. This week, Intel is launching their next generation of Core CPUs, code-named Ivy Bridge. Like last year's Sandy Bridge chips, they're low-power, quad-core powerhouses that also feature integrated graphics processors. Want to find out more? Maybe check out a whole bunch of performance benchmarks on both the CPU and graphics sides of things? Well you can, in today's review!
Intel Z77 Chipset & DZ77GA-70K Motherboard Overview
Looking forward to those new Ivy Bridge CPUs? In anticipation of their release later this month, Intel has already unveiled the new Series 7 chipsets designed especially to take advantage of what will be the 3rd-generation of Core processors. In today's article, we take a look at the architecture of the enthusiast variant, the Z77, and how it's used in the Intel Desktop Extreme DZ77GA-70K motherboard. Even if you're not particularly interested in the motherboard itself, you'll probably want to see some of the new features that come along with it, so read on!
Mass Effect 3 PC Review
This latest release from EA/BioWare is the final entry in their trilogy of sci-fi action RPGs, putting you in a dire situation: rally the troops to save Earth at all costs. There was a lot of hype surrounding the final act of what has been a vast and highly-customizable story-telling experience, and the reception among many hardcore fans has been less than stellar. Even people that haven't played the game have probably heard about all the nerd rage going on over Mass Effect 3's ending...
If you want to cut through all the crap and find out whether or not the rest of ME3 is worth playing, come check out Will's spoiler-free take on the first blockbuster game release of 2012.
Batman: Arkham City PC Review Batman: Arkham City is the sequel to 2009’s smash-hit action game Batman: Arkham Asylum. As the name suggests, you will be reprising your role as the Caped Crusader and going against an even larger 'prison' filled with Gotham's criminals and villains. A textbook example on how to do a proper sequel, Arkham City takes what worked in the original, excised or improved upon what didn’t, and elevated everything to an even greater scope. The PC version suffered from a few months of delay, but in that time, Rocksteady worked closely to NVIDIA to implement some familiar technologies from the last game, such as PhysX and 3D Vision, along with new DirectX 11 optimizations. But how well was the whole package executed? Read on to find out!
Saints Row: The Third PC Review Saints Row is one of most unique series of games to build upon the open-world action template forged by Grand Theft Auto, and has met with plenty of critical and commercial success since it began on consoles back in 2006. This latest iteration, titled Saints Row: The Third promises the most outlandish fun and freedom of customization of them all, and in a much more PC-friendly package than its predecessor. Does it live up to those expectations and, more importantly, is it worth the price of admission? Find out in Will's latest review!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim PC Review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Bethesda Softworks’ latest offering in their series of epic fantasy RPGs, as well as one of the most highly-anticipated PC titles of 2011. As the Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn, prepare to take the fight to the mythical beasts that have returned to the realm after centuries of slumber, all the while exploring a huge and highly-detailed open world.
The PC version of the game promises enhanced graphical fidelity, standard RPG trimmings such as hotkeys and quick-save, as well as unbridled mod support, something we’ll all be thankful for once they release that SDK. Skyrim has already sold millions of copies and set records for play-time on Steam... Find out why in today's review, which happens to be one of the biggest and most in-depth articles on the subject out there!
L.A. Noire Complete Edition PC Review L.A. Noire, as the name clearly states, is a video game built on the tropes of one of the greatest periods of American cinema: film noir. Developed by the now defunct Australian developer Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games, this title has been out on consoles for a full six months before finally making its way to the PC. This “Complete Edition” of the game features improved graphics, keyboard/mouse controls, and every bit of previously-released DLC for free. But was it truly worth the wait? Read on and find out!
Overclocking
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
SU
furl
