Benchmark Results: Left 4 Dead
It’s nearly pointless to spend time analyzing performance in Left 4 Dead without anti-aliasing enabled. Our 4 GHz CPU opens up tons of headroom, but there’s still a definite ceiling that the single- and dual-Radeon HD 5870 setups run into, in addition to the GeForce GTX 295 and SLI’d GeForce GTX 285s.
The worst performer, ATI’s Radeon HD 4870 1GB, delivers in excess of 60 frames per second at 2560x1600, so let’s just move on to our AA- and AF-based numbers.
Everything here is playable enough at 1680x1050 and 1920x1200, so let’s focus on 2560x1600 for a second. The Radeon HD 4870, 4890, and GeForce GTX 285 all dip below 60 frames in this fast-paced shooter. A single Radeon HD 5870 is able to outpace a Radeon HD 4870 X2 and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 295, but is bested by a pair of GTX 285s. Not to worry, though, a pair of Radeon HD 5870s sails past the SLI’d Nvidia cards and pegs out our 4 GHz processor at two of the tested resolutions.
