Digital Storm ODE Level 4 System Review

Gaming: Far Cry 2, Just Cause 2, L4D2, and Lost Planet 2

FarCry 2
DX10 Gaming Performance


FarCry 2

Like the original, FarCry 2 is one of the more visually impressive games to be released on the PC to date. Courtesy of the Dunia game engine developed by Ubisoft, FarCry 2's game-play is enhanced by advanced environment physics, destructible terrain, high resolution textures, complex shaders, realistic dynamic lighting, and motion-captured animations. We benchmarked the graphics cards in this article with a fully patched version of FarCry 2, using one of the built-in demo runs recorded in the Ranch Map. The test results shown here were run at various resolutions and settings.


The ODE Level 4 should ship with a white glove to slap yourself with if you decide to play primarily older DirectX 10 titles like Far Cry 2. All that horsepower underneath is laid to waste if you're not playing more modern and demanding titles, but when you do take a trip down memory lane (or replay classics in anticipation of a new release, like the upcoming Far Cry 3 title), you can expect blistering fast performance.

Just Cause 2
DX10.1 Gaming Performance


Just Cause 2

Just Cause 2 was released in March '10, from developers Avalanche Studios and Eidos Interactive. The game makes use of the Avalanche Engine 2.0, an updated version of the similarly named original. It is set on the fictional island of Panau in southeast Asia, and you play the role of Rico Rodriquez. We benchmarked the graphics cards in this article using one of the built-in demo runs called Desert Sunrise. The test results shown here were run at various resolutions and settings. This game also supports a few CUDA-enabled features, but they were left disabled to keep the playing field level.

Just Cause 2 is a little more demanding than Far Cry 2, but not by much. Here again we see the ODE Level 4 cruise through the benchmark run.

Left 4 Dead 2
Gaming Performance

 
Left 4 Dead 2

In our Left 4 Dead 2 test, we use a custom Time Demo that involves plenty of fast action, some explosions, and plenty of people and objects on the screen at the same time.

Yet another mild benchmark, the only time the ODE Level 4 dipped below 300fps in Left 4 Dead 2 was at a 2560x1600 screen resolution with all the eye candy turned up. That doesn't mean you won't still turn into a zombie snack, but if you do get killed by the undead, you won't be able to blame it on dropped frames.

Lost Planet 2
DX11 Gaming Performance

 
Lost Planet 2

A follow-up to Capcom’s Lost Planet : Extreme Condition, Lost Planet 2 is a third person shooter that takes place again on E.D.N. III ten years after the story line of the first title. We ran the game’s DX11 mode which makes heavy use of DX11 Tessellation and Displacement mapping and soft shadows. There are also areas of the game that make use of DX11 DirectCompute for things like wave simulation in areas with water. This is one game engine that looks significantly different in DX11 mode when you compare certain environmental elements and character rendering in its DX9 mode versus DX11. We used the Test B option built into the benchmark tool and with all graphics options set to their High Quality values.


Lost Planet 2 is a DirectX 11 benchmark that makes lesser systems sweat, but even at 2560x1600 with all of the visual quality settings cranked to the max, Digital Storm's ODE Level 4 manages silky smooth framerates with plenty of room to spare. It's also interesting to note that there's not much of a performance hit from dialing down antialiasing from 8x to 4x.

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