Portal 2
Portal 2 was probably the most anticipated release of this year, apart from the upcoming Duke Nukem Forever (’bout damn time!). While it’s running Valves’ somewhat dated Source engine, it does have some stunning visuals and physics. For this test I used FRAPS, a simple frame counting program that runs in the background. I wanted to choose a demanding scene (no spoilers, though if you cared you probably beat it already) so I picked the beginning when Chell wakes up and the trailer she’s in is falling apart. For those of you who haven’t played, this scene is very physics intense and relatively demanding. I also measured the FPS in a random puzzle room with lasers.
Settings were set to max with Vertical Sync set to off at 1920×1200 resolution.
I wasn’t expecting this game to give a low score. With this card you are pretty much guaranteed at least 60fps. The engine is old, but rest assured, you shouldn’t have any problems running your source games on max settings.
Starcraft 2
Starcraft 2 doesn’t have a benchmarking tool, so I used FRAPS and a replay titled “One of the best zvp ever” that I downloaded from Gamereplays.org. I then went through and started the 60 second time when I saw both sides get at it, i.e. the most demanding parts of the game. This does allow for some serious variation so I ran a few tests.
Settings were set to ULTRA with V-Sync off and a resolution of 1920×1200.
On Ultra I was able to get a great set of averages ranging from 38FPS to 48FPS. These were all during intense action scenes and will vary. These numbers are fine for single player though I’d imagine those serious about multiplayer aspect of the game like to to run at at least 60fps.
Dirt 3
Dirt 3 is one of the few games I’ve seen that has a built-in benchmarking tool. Dirt 3 is probably one of the most demanding games out there, and really looks beautiful at max settings.
Settings are at their maximum at 1920×1200.
The Vapor-x scored 33fps on average which is perfectly playable single player. For multiplayer, you want to have a minimum of 30fps so decreasing some settings or even the resolution should help. 60fps is of course ideal for competitive play. This game is very demanding so I’m not to surprised with these results.
