Conclusion
What has our Dead Space performance analysis taught us?
First, Dead Space is heavily dependent on the graphics system, while CPU performance is less important. Even a dual-core CPU at 1.6 GHz should be more than the game needs to perform admirably, but if you want to play above 1280x1024 you should look for at least a GeForce 9600 or Radeon HD 4770.
Second, the game prefers Nvidia's GeForce architecture over ATI's Radeon cards. Even a GeForce 9600 GT can handle the game at 2560x1600 using its High Detail settings. Having said that, a Radeon HD 4770 or higher will also be able to demonstrate playable 2560x1600 performance. The only real handicap is with lower-tier Radeons, like the Radeon HD 4650 and below, which can still muster playable performance if the resolution is lowered to 1680x1050 or below.
Thirdly, this gave us a chance to play with Nvidia's AO feature in the 185.85 GeForce drivers. What's the conclusion? Well, the effect is positive, but subtle. It's something we will definitely turn on when we play the game with Nvidia hardware as long as the graphics card can handle it. However, if we're using a slower GeForce card we'll probably turn it off in favor of a higher resolution, since the AO option causes a pretty huge performance hit. Is it a reason to buy a GeForce over a Radeon? Probably not for what it delivers in this specific title, but it's a nice bonus, and Nvidia deserves kudos for its efforts. We look forward to gaming with Nvidia's implementation of AO in the future and it just might be possible that it could be a must-have feature in a title we have not yet tested.
As for us, the most important thing we learned is that Dead Space is a pretty entertaining survival horror title in a nifty sci-fi universe. We're looking forward to a sequel, and we really hope that the developers will code compatibility with hardware AA next time around.
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"Mushkin PC3-10700
3x 2,048 MB, DDR3-1066, CL 8-8-8-19
at 1.8 V"
This is a mistake, right?
Interesting article.
Deadspace does seem like a decent game, but it was too much for me.
Tried sitting down to play it a few times, but I just couldn't take it.
And yeah, the game can play on some junk hardware.
800x600 res, minimum settings.
First time I saw one of those creatures, I just wasted ammo. WTF WAS THAT!?!?!
Pentium D 2.8GHz, 1GB DDR2 533, Nvidia 7500LE 256MB.
It played. Average framerate was bad, but the minimums were kinda bad, yet still possible.
Nice to see what I may be able to crank it up to now with my 4670, though a couple gigs of ddr2 800 will be a nice bonus if I find the will to spend my rent money...
It can play fairly well even on a E6300@1.86Ghz with 1GB DDR2 667 and Nvidia 7600GT but I never finished it.
im ashamed to say this but i jumped when one of those things came at me out of nowhere...
One of the few games that sucked me in. I do NOT recommend playing it at 3am, the dreams I had....
9600gt plays this game great
awesome game regardless tho. everything is very well done, its easy to tell that the developers took great time in perfecting every portion in the levels and environment. as from what i remember it defiantly lived up to its hype. i still haven't beaten it either along with being super cool its also pretty difficult but totally worth the money; a true gaming experience.
so in the end AO = bad. Unless u got to much fps .
I don't blame you for being scared to try this game out...its really something else ^_^ Very well made game in my opinion
I was thinking of trying it. Is it really that scary? I mean, if you turn down the volume, it shouldn't be as scary.
It was the soundscape in the game that got me, I'm used to the monsters and such, but the ambience really got to me - so I never really got far. Perhaps I should summon the courage up for it again.
So you have your nvidia optimized game reviewed now (and of course not showing ATI driver version used, which is probably old). Fine. Next time you could put directx 10.1 exclusive game and show how badly nvidia performs there. And no old drivers trick this time!
Thank you for the article. Reading it and following your links, I found my favorite game of all time supports this! And I am glad I have Nvidia graphic cards! Tonight - updating the drivers and taking the game for a testdrive! Thanks!!!!
cinergy, I don't disagree with you on the Nvidia bias or DX10.1 .
Being an AMD/ATI fan myself, you are inherently favor one vendor (Nvidia) over another (ATI) when you have exclusives on features that not all vendors support. Still, it was informative to me and it is not the reviewer's fault that not all vendor support said feature.
As far as I know, this site is not among the few that had an in-depth look at Assassin's Creed and DX10.1 mess. Now with DX11 looming, maybe we'll finally see a DX10.1 review in form DX11 preview?
I guess you can call the selection of which features to cover and which not to cover clear favoring Nvidia at the moment...
It's nice to do performance analysis for games, but it'll be nicer if its done soon after their release, I finished this game twice (one @1280x1024 and the other @1920x1080) before this article!
Nevertheless, keep up the good work.
considering that the game was released back in october.....
I think this is a great article. I would LOVE to see an article done like this for more major game releases closer to their actual release date! Maybe even a few days before the game gets officially released? That would be awesome.
Poor little 4650. I played this game on high with one 3850 at 1680x1050. Anyway this article is a little late, but better late than never. Dead space is an awesome game. It seems like NVIDIAs new AO option doesn't really do much for it.
considering that the game was released back in october.....
Aha, but in October Nvidia's new AO feature wasn't here, now was it? Read the first page of the article.
As far as thwe next game, I'm gunning for Red Faction: Guerilla
cinergy, I don't disagree with you on the Nvidia bias or DX10.1 . Being an AMD/ATI fan myself, you are inherently favor one vendor (Nvidia) over another (ATI) when you have exclusives on features that not all vendors support.
See, I *do* disagree with you guys. There is no Nvidia BIAS here, I simply wanted to see what their new feature can do. And if it turned out to be good, it's exposure and reviews like this that can spurn AMD to looking at including such a feature themselves.
Also guys - if there was a bias, wouldn't I have been screaming from the rooftops that it was the best thing sincle sliced bread? I'm pretty sure I let folks know the feature was best left off unless you happened to have a graphics card that could handle it easily.
DirectX 10.1... now, that's a great feature, but I'm waiting for a new, killer title to exploit it. Tom Clancy's HAWX shows a great improvement with Dx10.1, the visuals are awesome. The problem is that the game sucks, so I'm not going to waste time on an in-depth analysis of something I wouldn't recommend. Assasin's Creed, well, I missed the boat on that one because this series is relatively new, but I'm hoping Assasin's Creed II will give give us another chance.
Similarly, Nvidia is trying to tell everyone how great PhysX is, and I keep reminding everyone it's a useless feature in 99% of the games it's been included in. Mirror's Edge would be the closest thing to a must-have title for that feature, but with PhysX looking to be included in future DirectX APIs when physis becomes more mainstream, I'm not sure Nvidia will have any lasting advantage there. Too far ahead of the curve.
As for CUDA... mreh. Still haven't seen anything that makes me say "wow".