Date:
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Author:
Mark Warner
Editor:
Brent Justice
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DiRT 2 Gameplay Performance and Image Quality

Have we go a treat for you; a detailed evaluation of real-world gameplay performance and image quality in the first newly shipped DX11 capable game title, DiRT 2. Does DX11 take a nose dive in performance compared to DX9 and does it provide real-world gameplay benefits? The results may surprise you.

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Test System Setup

For our test system platform we are using an ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution motherboard with an Intel Core i7 920 overclocked to 3.6GHz, and 6GB of Corsair DDR3-1600. For the power supply, we will be using a CoolerMaster Real Power Pro 1250W .

While it might be a bit "overkill," we use the 3.6GHz overclocked quad-core processor to mitigate any CPU-based bottlenecking that we may encounter by using a slower or less powerful CPU.

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Driver Setup

With both the NVIDIA and AMD video cards we will be using the latest drivers. For the NVIDIA video cards, we are using the ForceWare 195.81 BETA driver. For the AMD/ATI video cards, we are using the Catalyst 9.12 Hotfix Beta RC1 driver. All drivers are designated for use with Windows 7 64-bit.

Evaluation Method

We evaluate what each video card configuration can supply us in terms of a playable gaming experience while supplying the best culmination of resolution and "eye candy" graphical settings. We focus on quality and immersion of the gameplay experience rather than how many frames per second the card can get in a canned benchmark or prerecorded timedemo situation that often do not represent real gameplay like you would experience at home. Then we will follow with apples-to-apples testing based on real gameplay as well.