Need for Speed: Shift Patch 2 Boosts ATI Radeon Performance

In order to show the huge performance benefit for Radeon cards delivered by the patch, we race against 15 computer opponents on "Brands Hatch GP” in broad daylight. We record the framerate for 30 seconds. Without the patch a Radeon HD 5850 wasn't able to exceed 45 fps on average at 1280 x 1024 or 1680 x 1050 (each with 4x MSAA and 16:1 AF), but the update to version 1.02 the performance is increased by 60respectively 44 percent. At 2560 x 1600 the performance advantage of "only” 19 percent is, as expected, a little smaller. The Radeon HD 4000 cards also get a benefit from the patch. In our benchmarks a Radeon HD 4870 runs between 11 and 34 percent faster (depending on the settings). In matter of performance Geforce owners on the other hand don't necessarily need the patch since the game runs "only” 2 to 4 percent faster.