High Quality 1680x1050 Performance
BioShock 2 fails to provide much of a challenge for the Radeon HD 5870 when using the max settings, especially at a lower resolution like such as 1680x1050. The lowest recorded frame rate in our minute long walk through was 86fps, with a healthy average of 136fps. Throwing a second Radeon HD 5870 into the equation boosted the minimum frame rate by 44% to 124fps.
The Radeon HD 5850 was just as impressive and it matched the performance of the GeForce GTX 285. Neither card dipped below 70fps while the average was over 110fps. Ideally, for constant smooth gameplay we like a minimum frame rate of around 60fps and this was achieved by the GeForce GTX 260 and the other six graphics cards ranked about it on our graph.
That said, graphics cards producing minimum frame rates of 40fps will still deliver perfectly playable performance most of the time. The Radeon HD 4770 never dipped below 40fps, while it maintained an average of 68fps. Even the Radeon HD 4830 never dropped below 40fps.
The graphics cards we would not recommend using with high quality visual settings at 1680x1050 include the Radeon HD 5570 from AMD and the GeForce GT 240 and 9600 GT from Nvidia.