Performance in First-Person 3D Shooters

Battlefield 2142

This game doesn't support display resolutions of 16:10 format, so we use a resolution of 1920x1440 pixels (4:3 format) instead of 1920x1200 for it.

It is neither a triumph nor a failure for the new card. The Radeon HD 3870 X2 copes with the load successfully being almost as fast as the GeForce 8800 GTX and 8800 GTS 512MB in terms of average performance. It delivers a somewhat lower minimum speed, probably due to the specifics of CrossFire technology, yet this speed is never lower than 40fps which is quite a comfortable level.

BioShock

BioShock doesn't support FSAA when running in Windows Vista's DirectX 10 environment. That's why we benchmarked the cards without FSAA.

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 shows a very good speed in this one of the most beautiful games of 2007. It is only slower than the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB at 1280x1024, a resolution that is used but seldom with top-end graphics cards. At 1600x1200 the new card has roughly the same average and a better minimum speed. At 1920x1200 it goes ahead, increasing its advantage over the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB to 25% almost.