For our testbed we did have to substitute the nVidia 7900GTX for an ATI Radeon 3850 due to availability. We felt that the quality of the 3850 was a perfect competitor to the nvidia 7900GTX in all around gaming performance.

AoC Recommended Configuration (1280X960, most features on)
OS: Windows Vista Service Pack 1
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz
RAM: 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7900GTX or equivalent (ATI Radeon 3850 256MB)
DVD-Rom: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-Rom Drive
Hard Drive Space: 32GB

Graphical Settings:
Resolution: 1280X960
Quality Settings: High Preset


Our test on the beaches of Tortage yielded not only a gorgeous view, but for the most part, very smooth gameplay. We had a few hiccups when faced with an overwhelming number of foes, but for the most part was not especially disruptive. With an all around average of 31FPS, aside from the occasional dip, gaming with this configuration was excellent.


Tarantia, as noted in the above graph, tends to jump around a lot. High quality textures are everywhere, and with so many different people doing different things, getting a stable framerate is impossible. Even the best PC is bound to get enormous dips. In the city, the system pulled out an average of 23FPS, but there were times we found ourselves wading through a slow motion slideshow. Definitely not a pleasant experience; at the same time, one does not spend as much time in the city as they do outside so it would be manageable and the recommended settings are about right.

In light of these results, with a resolution of 1280X960, anything widescreen or above a 19inch monitor is going to look terrible and stretched. It is by no means an ideal gaming resolution and falls below the typical 1280X1024. So you achieve high quality visual settings but at the price of a low resolution. With many gamers going to larger 20’+ widescreens it seems a little silly that the developers would expect users with a system such as the recommended, to be using a 17inch CRT.