Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Performance Analysis

Features
By Don Woligroski
published

Benchmarks: High Details, 4x MSAA

With 4x MSAA applied and a good boost in visual fidelity, can these cards still hack it?

The answer is a resounding yes. Only the Radeon HD 4650 has been rendered to the edge of playable, but it still sports a minimum frame rate of over 30 FPS. Once again, great news for the HTPC owner. Based on these results, the lower 720p resolution that is typical of a lot of flat-panel TVs would likely be a breeze for this class of card, even when coupled with 4xAA.

Every other card tested doesn’t really break a sweat with this combination of resolution and AA. Let’s amp up the resolution to 1920x1200:

The results still haven’t changed much from 1680x1050, with the GeForce 9600 GT and everything above it showing consistent 60 FPS averages. Think about it: 4xAA and 1080p is not an easy setting and this is a very highly-optimized 3D engine to allow these settings with reasonable hardware like the GeForce 9600 GT.

And now, for fun, let’s see what happens at 2560x1600:

We’re seeing some separation in the pack now, with the 9600 GT and Radeon HD 4830 showing signs of stress. However, with minimum frame rates well above 30 FPS, things are still playable, surprisingly. But the GeForce GTS 250, Radeon HD 4850, and GeForce GTX 260 are still charging away at full speed, hitting the 60 FPS vsync barrier.

Don Woligroski
78 Comments Comment from the forums
  • cruiseoveride
    Where is the people's champion? The HD4870?

    I felt the lighting looked a little more natural on the geforce. The colour on the radeon looked better though
    Reply
  • IzzyCraft
    I like the nvidia shadows more makes it less bland look imo a more definitive look which i like.

    I was wonding why no 4870 like above.

    SSAO on :) reminds me of ripping dvd's and messing with sharpness, debanding etc the telephone wire atleast.
    Reply
  • enterco
    Considering how 'hardware friendly' is this game, probably it will be very successful.
    Reply
  • SpadeM
    The first screen shot comparison is quite tricky :) on the first look you might think the geforce does not render the red car at all.
    Reply
  • ufo_warviper
    Nice article so far. I'm still reading the article, but I just wanted to point out that on page 7 of this review, I think the author somehow confused (a couple times) the 4830 with the 4850, and also the GTS 250 with the GTX 260 cards.

    With the resolution increased to 1920x1200, only the Radeon HD 4830 and GeForce GTS 250 barely pass the playable standard with over 30 FPS minimum frame rates.

    Clearly, he meant the other cards here.
    Reply
  • IzzyCraft
    SpadeMThe first screen shot comparison is quite tricky on the first look you might think the geforce does not render the red car at all.A roll over png or jpg would have probably done better then the color restrivie .gif that was used, Shame that IE8 doesn't support APNG like opera and ff does, it would def make the format much more popular.
    Reply
  • chyll2
    I really like the additional benchmark that imitates different number of cores and clocks. It gives us an idea of performance we would get on similar specs with our system.
    Reply
  • linaaslt
    Somehow i missed benches from hd4770 or 4870/4890 and gtx275. but maybe it's because this game doesn't require good GPU to be playable.
    Reply
  • zehpavora
    I think that, if you want to play this game with 8x MSAA, 8x AA, and High settings, a GTX 275 SLI will work. This game must be amazing at those settings! I like Race Games too, but NSF also lost me on Pro Street. I hope Burnout delivers what EA couldn't...
    Reply
  • DjEaZy
    Phenom 940 @ 3400 HD4870 core@790 GRAM512Mb@4400Mhz
    2x2GB 1066Mhz 5-5-5-15
    this all on 22"@1680x1050 all fx crankt up...
    50~100fps
    Reply