Palit NVIDIA GTX460 in Surround: 1GB vs. 2GB - Need For Speed: Shift

Article Type: 
Review

Genre: Racing
Surround Support: Excellent

Data was taken from a three lap race on Alpenal, with 9 opponents, starting from the last place on the grid. All settings at maximum, resolution and AA varied.

NFS: Shift

Here is an interesting situation that draws questions about how NVIDIA handle their bezel correction algorithm, and how it actually functions. Non-bezel corrected Surround is playable, while bezel corrected Surround is not. Any anti-aliasing at Surround resolutions results in a slideshow. The framerate impact of bezel correction is in the order of 20-25% of the fps, while the actual resolution increase is only 5%. Is this a situation similar to GRID, where bezel correction actually causes the game to crash on loading? Well, it’s obviously not causing a crash, but bezel correction is having an impact somewhere in the background that we can’t see.

NFS: Shift

With the 2GB cards, the bezel correction framerate impact is still evident, but framerates are actually playable. Even 6064x1200 4xAA was easy to race, although I would pick 0xAA myself for those extra few fps which might make a difference. If able to play without bezel correction in Need for Speed: Shift, do so as it saves a fair few frames per second from vanishing into the ether.

NFS: Shift

Another extremely VRAM hungry game at Surround resolutions…