BIOSHOCK:

This latest game based on the Unreal 3 engine has been getting rave reviews for delivering an immersive first person shooter experience. As we don't have the full retail game yet, we used the demo to test the video cards. We skipped the first level and with the help of fraps, we logged the fps during the second level (starts when the elevator is attacked).



As we still use Windows for testing purposes, no DX10 features were enabled. The resolution was 1440x900, details highest possible. The more FPS, the better. Numbers are average.



The reference 8600GT is not capable of running the game fluently, whereas the higher clocked versions of Sparkle and Galaxy render the game good. Notice how the impact of the extra 190Mhz on the memory has little to no effect on Bioshock.

Colin McRae DIRT

The Colin McRae series has always been on the edge of technology, pushing graphics cards and CPUs to deliver astonishing graphics, the latest incarnation called DIRT takes racing games to the next level GFX wise. As this game is really hard for the 8600GT cards, we had to use lower resolutions for the first time!



We used 1024x768 along with details settings at higher and 4x multisampling. We used Fraps to log the fps in a quick crossover race in Canberra Park.



Again, the reference 8600GT has problems with rendering the game. Our overclocked Galaxy card is surprisingly good with a boost of 2fps.