Professional StarCraft 2 WoL after beta GPU review

[Gradius]

First off, these benchmarks for SC2 are so far out of line with my own experiences it's hard to imagine where the numbers came from. Granted, I don't currently (and haven't for some time) have the money to test SC2 on several machines, but I ran benchmarks on client machines before I sent them out.

Put quite simply, in most cases the 768meg GeForce 460 can barely compete with the Radeon 5830, and in no cases have I seen it even coming close to a 5850. The 1gig 460 does better but still can't compete with a 5850.

Also, all this talk of SC2 having problems with ATi cards is just that: talk. I've been running SC2 constantly since beta on 4 different ATi cards, with 3 separate sets of drivers (including a legacy driver) and not only have I had maxed AA but I've had no graphical problems whatsoever. My 5870 has Ultra on everything and AA enabled, so I really have no idea what this article is talking about when it says AA isn't ready on ATi cards...

Quite frankly I have to seriously doubt whether these benchmarks are as unbiased as they'd like to say, because they don't even come close to matching the numbers I benched. Maybe the new nVidia drivers are what makes the difference, because that's the only thing I haven't tested since I currently don't have a client machine with an nVidia card in it.

In short, Fermi is still a massive mistake in terms of architecture. It is too hot and draws too much power for the numbers it puts out, and in a lot of cases it is still too expensive. The 460 is better designed than the 470, 480, and especially the 465, but it still suffers from the basic errors of the Fermi architecture and will never receive a recommendation from me.

Multiple benchmarks by multiple sites show how good the GTX 460 is for StarCraft II. Are you saying they're all flawed or biased? According to this benchmark, the 460 is the single most cost effective card out there for SC2 and the power usage is pretty good too:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...parison-7.html

Regardless of whether it gets a recommendation from you, I see zero compelling reasons to purchase anything else. Unless the 460 runs like a dog on other CPUs?

[TheEconomist]

@FoxSpirit: I know perfectly well what aliasing is. I'm a Computer Science/Business major. I'm no genius but I explain things to you; not the other way around.

@Gradius: GeForce is by far the best for StarCraft 2 at the moment. He's looking at other benchmarks where the GTX 460 isn't as clear of a winner.

[Xyvik]

Tychus is correct, although I still have to say my own personal benchmarks of SC2 showed far different numbers, so I'm assuming the latest drivers is what is making the difference. At start of beta the 470/480 stayed where they usually are in benchmarks.

In other words, right now nVidia's 4XX series has a driver advantage. But in my own personal benchmarks and plenty of others around the web the 460 has a hard time competing with the 5830 in other games.

I won't make a pure blanket statement, because right now the 460 looks extremely good. I do, however, think that once ATi releases a driver that includes full support for SC2 the numbers will return to normal and the 460 will once again be neck-to-neck with the 5830.

Of the Fermi architecture, the 460 is the one to get.

[dustinbrowder]

The GTX 460 1gb and 768mb seem very sweet and powerful.

I'm still going to wait to see the prices come down though and it might just happen this winter, when Nvidia starts pumping out lower-end chips. The price war is inevitable.

@Gradius: GeForce is by far the best for StarCraft 2 at the moment. He's looking at other benchmarks where the GTX 460 isn't as clear of a winner.

I've seen most reviews and it actually blows the HD 5830 out of the water and in most cases comes really close to the HD 5850.

When looking at factory overclocked GTX 460's, the ones above 750MHz it is actually better than the 5850 in many cases up to 2500x1600 resolution!

[TheEconomist]

Ironically, my Mom called me up today and told me to go to Best Buy with her to buy a PC. Eventually she realized that she had no monitor and wanted mine. There was a sale on a:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824005134

so I got me a nice new monitor for StarCraft 2. What a nice surprise

[dustinbrowder]

Ironically, my Mom called me up today and told me to go to Best Buy with her to buy a PC. Eventually she realized that she had no monitor and wanted mine. There was a sale on a:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824005134

so I got me a nice new monitor for StarCraft 2. What a nice surprise

Great monitor, but overly expensive for my tastes.

[TheEconomist]

It was 269$ for me. 40$ off. I had no choice either way though

[mikill]

Ok I am here. Stop harrassing others Tychus, it's me you want.

[TheEconomist]

You have two minutes. GO!

[mikill]

What two minutes, why two minutes?