Benchmarks: Dirt 2, Far Cry 2
Dirt 2 has a fantastic benchmark tool built-in that measures actual gameplay performance very accurately. Therefore we put down Fraps for this title and used that instead. The game was run in the DirectX 11 mode with 4xAA enabled and the best visual quality settings.
The Inno3D GeForce GTX (768MB) impressed us in Dirt 2 delivering 18% better rates than the Radeon HD 5830 while performing within a frame of the Radeon HD 5850.
The Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum (1GB) was just as incredible averaging 84fps, faster than virtually every single GPU setup bar the GeForce GTX 480, and just as fast as the GeForce GTX 470.
The performance trends remained the same at 1920x1200 as the Inno3D GeForce GTX (768MB) dominated the Radeon HD 5830 and the Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum (1GB) easily put away the Radeon HD 5850.
Finally at 2560x1600 the limited bandwidth of the Inno3D GeForce GTX (768MB) started to hurt, though with 36fps on average it was still able to match the Radeon HD 5830. The Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum (1GB) remained strong despite losing ground to the Radeon HD 5870, it was still a match for both the GTX 470 and the Radeon HD 5850.
Far Cry 2 Benchmarks
For testing Far Cry 2 we used the "Action Scene" from the custom benchmark tool. We feel this is an excellent representation of real gameplay performance. For this DirectX 10 title maximum in-game quality settings were used along with 8xAA.
The Nvidia based graphics cards have a clear advantage in Far Cry 2 and as you can see even the Inno3D GeForce GTX (768MB) is able to match the Radeon HD 5870 at 1680x1050. When compared to the GeForce GTX 470, the Inno3D board was 22% slower. The Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum (1GB) on the other hand was able to match it.
Now at 1920x1200 the Inno3D GeForce GTX (768MB) starts to fall down the ladder with an average of 50fps, but it was still 5fps faster than the Radeon HD 5850 and 2fps slower than the Radeon HD 5870.
At 2560x1600 the limited frame buffer memory of the Inno3D GeForce GTX 460 (768MB) knocks it down to just 20fps on average making it a single frame faster than the Radeon HD 5770 and matching the Radeon HD 5830.
The Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum (1GB) kept on lightning fast and still able to match the GeForce GTX 470.