Bioshock

Bioshock (DirectX 10)


An impressive FPS-based game with a great story, Bioshock impresses with both graphics and its ability to drag you along in the gameplay.  It has both DX9 and DX10 render paths and should make a great benchmark for graphics cards promising the best of both worlds. 


NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 247

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 248
Bioshock settings

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 249

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 250

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 251

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 252

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 253

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 254
 
In Bioshock the GTX 280 1GB card performs very well and is about as fast as the 9800 GX2 card that uses a pair of G92 cores for its processing compared to the single GT200 of the GTX 280.  I was expecting a bit more out of the card though since it does cost so much more than the GX2 card.  The GTX 280 has a beat out the top NVIDIA single GPU solution, the 9800 GTX by a noticeable amount: 42% or so.

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 255

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 256

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 257

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 258

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 259

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 260

The GTX 260 is a decent performer but can’t keep up with the 9800 GX2 or the HD 3870 X2.

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 261

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 262

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 263

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 264

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 265

NVIDIA GT200 Revealed - GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 Review - Graphics Cards 266

The best scaling we see here is at 2560×1600 where the second GTX 280 brings us a 45% better frame rate with only a slight bump in the minimum frame rate.  Even the three 9800 GTX cards can’t quite keep up.
 

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