1680x1050 - Gaming Performance
When gaming at 1680x1050 we found Hard Reset to be quite demanding when using the ultra-quality preset with 4xFSAA and 16xAF enabled. However it only took the GeForce GTX 560 Ti to average 60fps. It was interesting to note how slow the AMD based graphics cards were when using these quality settings. The Radeon HD 6950 was 1fps slower than the GeForce GTX 560 Ti for example.
The Radeon HD 6970 was also 2fps slower than the GeForce GTX 570 which averaged 66fps. In fact a pair of Radeon HD 6970 Crossfire graphics cards were just 5fps faster than a single GeForce GTX 580.
Further down the graph we find the GeForce GTX 460 and Radeon HD 6850 delivering the same performance with 43fps each. Below them we are getting into very unplayable territory as the Radeon HD 5830 managed just 38fps and the GeForce GTX 550 Ti just 33fps.
By ditching the 4xFSAA rendering mode for AMD's MLAA we found that the performance of all graphics cards increased significantly. The Radeon HD 6750 and GeForce GTX 550 Ti were both able to average 45fps. The Radeon HD 6770 and GeForce GTX 460 had no problems delivering 58fps on average.
The Radeon HD 5830 performance almost doubled with an average of 66fps. The high-end AMD graphics cards also came good as the Radeon HD 6950 was now able to easily outperform the GeForce GTX 570. The Radeon HD 6970 also performed well, matching the GeForce GTX 580.
While the GeForce GTX 580 SLI configuration delivered a blistering fast 103fps, the Radeon HD 6970 Crossfire cards had some glaring issues. It is strange how this wasn't an issue when using 4xFSAA.