| MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone-II OC Video Card |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Video Cards | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Steven Iglesias-Hearst | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 15 March 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Page 12 of 18
DX11: Tom Clancy's HAWX 2Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.2 has been optimized for DX11 enabled GPUs and has a number of enhancements to not only improve performance with DX11 enabled GPUs, but also greatly improve the visual experience while taking to the skies. The game uses a hardware terrain tessellation method that allows a high number of detailed triangles to be rendered entirely on the GPU when near the terrain in question. This allows for a very low memory footprint and relies on the GPU power alone to expand the low resolution data to highly realistic detail. The Tom Clancy's HAWX2 benchmark uses normal game content in the same conditions a player will find in the game, and allows users to evaluate the enhanced visuals that DirectX-11 tessellation adds into the game. The Tom Clancy's HAWX2 benchmark is built from exactly the same source code that's included with the retail version of the game. HAWX2's tessellation scheme uses a metric based on the length in pixels of the triangle edges. This value is currently set to 6 pixels per triangle edge, which provides an average triangle size of 18 pixels. The end result is perhaps the best tessellation implementation seen in a game yet, providing a dramatic improvement in image quality over the non-tessellated case, and running at playable frame rates across a wide range of graphics hardware.
Cost Analysis: HAWX 2 (1680x1050)Test Summary: HAWX 2 is a strange game in that you need to look very close to see the difference in quality settings, the main difference is in the terrain but this is easily overlooked as you are busy fighting with the controls just to fly in a straight line. The GTX550-Ti pummels on the GTS 450 and HD5770 beating them in both FPS performance and price per FPS but is still a way behind the GTX460. The landscapes are beautifully rendered making the game scenery pleasurable, now I just need to master the controls.
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