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As one of the first games to take advantage of DirectX 11, we've been using Dirt 2 to benchmark graphics cards since its arrival in late 2009. Although it's been a crucial part of our testbed, Dirt 2 isn't quite as taxing as it was when the first DX11 cards arrived. With Crysis 2 dissapointingly restricted to DX9 and few other knee-buckling games on the immediate horizon, we've been eagerly awaiting the next iteration of Codemaster's racing series.
The company answered our prayers last week, launching Dirt 3 for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Developed with the latest (v2.0) EGO game engine, Dirt 3 is a spectacular looking racing game with some surprisingly high, but also incredibly vague recommended system requirements.
Codemasters recommends that you play with an AMD Phenom II or Intel Core i7 processor and an AMD Radeon HD 6000 series graphics card, but fails to mention specific models or anything at all from Nvidia. Meanwhile, the minimum requirements say you can scrape by with a paltry Athlon 64/Pentium D and HD 2000/GeForce 8000 class graphics.
While it's nice that gamers with five year-old machines can play Dirt 3, we're more interested in knowing what it takes to experience the game with all its visual splendor. As usual we've compiled the performance of over 20 graphics cards, all DX11 capable, at several different resolutions.
User Comments: 33
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I thought as much. Looking forward to it.
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It would have been nice to see the performance of the Phenom II X3-720, this would unveil the true nature of how much of an impact an extra core has (and, if Dirt 3 uses the third core appropriately).
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I'm not sure what "unveil the true nature of how much of an impact an extra core has (and, if Dirt 3 uses the third core appropriately)." means , but it uses at least six cores, loads them evenly, and will everything your x3 720 has. (I played it on my x3 720 machine as well)
Dirt 3 on Phenom II x6:
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Just a note about quality presets - you said the game doesn't have them, but if you select "Choose Preset" a popup menu will appear with various choices.
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This game screams along in DX9.3 on default quality settings with just a Pentium Dual Core E5200@3.8Ghz, Nvidia GF250GTS @ 1600x1200 in WinXP. Comfortably above 60 fps all the time, no slow down, no jerkiness, so you really don't need the latest and greatest hardware for Dirt 3. Looks great as well.
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Had liked to see a DX10/10.1 card as well...Perhaps one that meets the minimum requirement or is somewhere in-between the minimum and recommended, people with eg a HD3870 has more to worry about than one with a 6770
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I've to disagree with the summary, i'm playing the game in Eyefinity with just one 6970 & i5 2500k 3.3 Ghz at 5760x1080 4xAA all settings high to very high with 50fps.
Second Pc with a 5750 & Phenom 2 X3 2.5 Ghz runs the game at 50fps with Full HD 1920x1080 and settings at high. 0.o
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i would definitely like to see core i3 performance in multithreaded latest games.
pls include core i3s in ur benchmarks.
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