Testing Notes & Methodology
Our performance review is comprised of 22 graphics card configurations from AMD and Nvidia across all price ranges. The latest drivers were used for all cards and we overclocked the Intel Core i7-920 to 3.70GHz in an attempt to remove any CPU bottlenecks.
We used Fraps to measure frame rates during a minute of gameplay from the campaign mode right as the game kicks off from the first level. Here you talk to Dr. Megan Reed who takes you through a scripted walkthrough of the lab. During this time your character will follow a predetermined path while some of the game's plot is revealed.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution was tested at three resolutions: 1680x1050, 1920x1200 and 2560x1600. We used the highest possible in game quality settings with the MLAA (Morphological Filtering) and then again with the FXAA (Fast Approximate) anti-aliasing rendering method enabled.
Additionally the texture filter level was set to 16x Anisotropic while the shadows were set to soft, SSAO was set to high and DOF was set to high. Other rendering features such as Tessellation, Post-Processing and Triple Buffering were all enabled.
We'll be looking for an average of 60fps for stutter-free gameplay.
Test System Specs
- Intel Core i7-920 (Overclocked @ 3.70GHz)
- x3 2GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 8-8-8-20)
- Asus P6T Deluxe (Intel X58)
- OCZ ZX Series 1250w
- Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB (SATA 6Gb/s)
- GeForce GTX 590 (3072MB)
- GeForce GTX 580 (1536MB) SLI
- GeForce GTX 580 (1536MB)
- GeForce GTX 570 (1280MB)
- GeForce GTX 560 Ti (1024MB)
- GeForce GTX 550 Ti (1024MB)
- GeForce GTX 480 (1536MB)
- GeForce GTX 470 (1280MB)
- GeForce GTX 460 (1024MB)
- Radeon HD 6990 (4096MB)
- Radeon HD 6970 (2048MB) Crossfire
- Radeon HD 6970 (2048MB)
- Radeon HD 6950 (2048MB)
- Radeon HD 6870 (1024MB)
- Radeon HD 6850 (1024MB)
- Radeon HD 5870 (2048MB)
- Radeon HD 5830 (1024MB)
- Radeon HD 6790 (1024MB)
- Radeon HD 6770 (1024MB)
- Radeon HD 6750 (1024MB)
- Radeon HD 6670 (1024MB)
- Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
- Nvidia Forceware 280.26
- ATI Catalyst 11.8