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Testing StarCraft II; The System, Cards, Drivers & More Testing StarCraft II; The System, Cards, Drivers, Options & MoreActually benchmarking StarCraft II is actually pretty straightforward: simply take a replay of a multiplayer match and play it back using the in-game tool. Together with three friends we set up a multiplayer match on the Scorched Haven map and went wild building units before free-for-all combat commenced. With each player having upwards of 30 units, this may not exactly be the most realistic gameplay experience (I find most multiplayer matches are over in under 15 minutes with most players having under 20 units) but it does show a “worst case” scenario. All tests are based off of the latest version of the multiplayer beta which we are told accurately reflects the options and graphics of the final retail product. We will be following this up shortly with a true in-game benchmark once the retail version is released. In-Game Settings  Since we’re benchmarking newer graphics cards which all retail for above $100, the choice was made to go with the highest in-game settings possible as well as using the 4xAA override in the NVIDIA control panel for certain tests. Naturally, as you decrease the settings, performance will improve but this is very much keeping with our “worst case” mentality. This means any card that can show us playable framerates at these settings will only see its performance improve as image quality is decreased. $ per FPS Chart Info In order to calculate value, we took the lowest 15 PRE REBATE prices for each card found on Froogle and found the average price. The prices (in USD) are as follows:  Watts per FPS Chart Info In order to calculate watts per FPS we used the WHOLE SYSTEM power consumption as measured by a UPM energy meter plugged into a Tripp Lite 1800W line conditioner in order to ensure a constant 120V is delivered to the system. The wattages used were as follows:  Test System Processor: Intel Core i7 920(ES) @ 4.0Ghz (Turbo Mode Enabled) Memory: Corsair 3x2GB Dominator DDR3 1600Mhz Motherboard: Gigabyte EX58-UD5 Cooling: CoolIT Boreas mTEC + Scythe Fan Controller (Off for Power Consuption tests) Disk Drive: Pioneer DVD Writer Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB Power Supply: Corsair HX1000W Monitor: Samsung 305T 30” widescreen LCD OS: Windows 7 Ultimate N x64 SP1 Drivers: NVIDIA 258.96 Beta ATI 10.6 WHQL + Catalyst App Profiles | ||||
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