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Gory Gaming: Bulletstorm Performance Analyzed

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Although the game had significant performance issues when it was released, Bulletstorm now benefits from the latest graphics drivers and a patch from its developers. Now is the perfect time to see what kind of hardware this game requires for smooth play.

Test System And Settings

We’re testing actual game play using Beepa's Fraps frame rate-measurement software for the first section of the expansive “The Hideout” map. This level tends to be slightly more demanding on the hardware than other areas that we’ve tested, perhaps due to the extensive viewing distance and detailed objects in the background.

Note that we used the latest 275.20 beta driver for all of the Nvidia cards except for the GeForce GT 240 and GT 430. Bulletstorm performance was optimized in this new driver, but it does not support those lower-end models. With those, we're forced to use the 270.61 WHQL driver.

While some of MSI's cards come armed with a factory overclock, we them to reference speeds in order to give you a reliable point of comparison to some of the products we don't have represented here.

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Test Hardware
ProcessorIntel Core i5-2500K (Sandy Bridge)Overclocked to 4 GHz, 6 MB L3 Cache, power-saving settings enabled, Turbo Boost disabled.
MotherboardMSI P67A-GD65, Intel P67 Chipset
MemoryOCZ PC3-16000, 2 x 2 GB, 1338 MT/s, CL 9-9-9-20-1T
Hard DriveWestern Digital Caviar Black 750 GB, 7200 RPM, 32 MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s
Graphics CardsGeForce GT 430GeForce GT 240 GDDR5GeForce GTS 450GeForce GTX 550 TiGeForce GTX 460 1 GBGeForce GTX 560 TiRadeon HD 5570Radeon HD 5670Radeon HD 5750Radeon HD 5770Radeon HD 6850Radeon HD 6870Radeon HD 6950Radeon HD 6970
Power SupplyePower EP-1200E10-T2 1200 W, ATX12V, EPS12V
CPU CoolerCooler Master Hyper TX 2
System Software And Drivers
Operating SystemMicrosoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64
DirectXDirectX 11
Graphics DriverGeForce GT 240 and GT 430: 270.61 WHQLAll other GeForce: 275.20 BETA
Row 11 - Cell 0 AMD Catalyst 11.4 WHQL
Games
BulletstormVersion 1.0.7157.0, The Hideout map, FRAPS runs
40 Comments Comment from the forums
  • JohnnyLucky
    The next time how about installing a game on a solid state drive and a hard disk drive so we can find out about any differences in game play.
    Reply
  • shubham1401
    mayankleoboy1i enjoy the game and i am not embarrassed to admit it on my 3.33ghz core 2 duo and gtx580, it stutters a lot during some areas and level loading. even a slight CPU use by another processes make this game unplayable.
    Didn't happen with me. I have a 2.66Ghz C2D and 9800GT. And I played the whole game with ~45Fps at 1600X900 medium settings.
    :)
    Reply
  • yyrkoon
    JohnnyLuckyThe next time how about installing a game on a solid state drive and a hard disk drive so we can find out about any differences in game play.
    Where have you been for the last decade? It would only effect level loading.
    Reply
  • haplo602
    why are the pictures and descriptions on the cards backwards ? I mean firs the image than the description ? since we are scrolling DOWN normaly, it's the wrong way around.
    Reply
  • Maziar
    Thanks for the review :)
    The good thing about Unreal engine is that the PC game powered by it are almost always optimized and that's what's lacking in most of todays' PC games.
    Reply
  • kevith
    Why this commercial disguised as an article?
    Reply
  • hannibal
    The thing that "Epic is serious about multithreading" is good thing to see! We have had so long time 4 to 6 core CPUs, that it has been a shame that those cores had not been supported in games so far. This is very promising indeed!
    Reply
  • nevertell
    You definitely have to do these more often.
    Reply
  • Formata
    I love this sort of article. Would be nice to see that same sort of comparison done with Witcher 2
    Reply
  • joshyboy82
    I had no interest in buying this game, but I read the review to see if it my change my mind. Sadly it won't. I already am into too many games and I just can't seem to beat CS:S, so when I've run out of Witcher sequels and Portals, I'll only have Battlefields and Diablos to conquer, before I become a full time farmer (as a in-game career) in Skyrim. Sorry about your luck.
    Reply