Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed: PC Performance Benchmarks for Graphics Cards and Processors
{mp3}Need for Speed Shift 2{/mp3}
Year of release: 2011
Genre: Racing (Cars) / Simulator / 3D
Developer: Slightly Mad Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Shift 2: Unleashed (or Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed) is a racing video game developed by Slightly Mad Studios and published by Electronic Arts in 2011. Shift 2: Unleashed is a direct
sequel to the critically acclaimed Need for Speed: Shift and expands on the gameplay and functionality introduced in the original. Shift 2 will also include the Autolog feature found in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Shift 2: Unleashed features 148 vehicles from 36 manufacturers and 35 different tracks where players can compete in multiple race types.
Review: Playability (Lexington )
Hello. There is probably no such lover of interactive entertainment who has not heard of the Need for Speed series. The series has almost two dozen games of varying quality and genre offshoots. Over its long history, this franchise has managed to visit an arcade, a simulator, and an online race. And probably, each of you at least once played at least one part of this famous series.
Shift 2: Unleashed (or Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed) is a racing video game developed by Slightly Mad Studios and published by Electronic Arts in 2011. The decision is rather strange, because just recently Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2010 appeared on the shelves, and it was logical to assume that the next NFS should be expected by next fall, but EA unexpectedly announces that the game will appear in March.
Shift 2 is the sequel to one of the most controversial parts of the series. Need fo Speed: Shift is positioned as a thoroughbred simulator, but in reality it turns out that the game is far from both the simulator and the arcade. The physical model never ceases to amaze with the unpredictability of the car's behavior, and perfect cornering is comparable to a feat. But at the same time, the game also had pluses: excellent graphics for that time, quite an impressive fleet of vehicles and real tracks. In order to play at least somehow comfortably, it was necessary to play with a high-quality steering wheel, or, at worst, with a gamepad. The game was quite warmly received by the players.
What awaits us in Shift 2? Career changes are minimal. We still start as an inexperienced beginner, who was noticed by a seasoned rider. He gives you a chance to prove yourself. After the first time trial, we are offered to choose the difficulty of the game and control. I’ll make a reservation right away that the most adequate and pleasant, if not strange, is the most difficult control mode. Having figured out the settings and having passed the first race, we buy our first car with the money earned in the race. And then championships, money, cars and cups.
Of the main innovations, it is worth noting Autolog support, which showed itself well in NFS Hot Pursuit 2010, night racing also appeared in the game and one of the most interesting innovations is a camera from the driver's eyes. In this mode, the view of the helmet frame is slightly reduced, and when cornering, the camera smoothly turns in the direction of the turn. It takes some getting used to playing this way, but with this camera mode, the effect of presence is doubled.
The fleet includes more than a hundred cars, from budget Ford Focus options to heavy-duty Pagani Huayra sports cars. By tradition, the game has ample opportunities for tuning cars, both in appearance and performance. Even now, for each car, having upgraded it to the desired level, you can purchase a factory revision that turns an ordinary car into a jet racing car. The game has almost 2 times more racing tracks compared to NFS:SHIFT (both real and fictional), and given the change of day and night, this number can be doubled. The standard set of modes includes: circuit racing, drifting, time trials and pilot battles.
As I said above, the most enjoyable game mode is the hardest one. At lower levels, the game is haunted by the same affliction of the first Shift - inadequate physics. Let it be finalized and improved, but keeping the car on the road is still unreasonably difficult. Also, the constantly shaking camera has not gone anywhere, which, apart from inconvenience, does not bring anything else to the gameplay. The game looks very good, only car models cause criticism (this does not apply to the study of the interior), but only the most sophisticated racers who played the console masterpieces Forza Motorsport 3 or Gran Turismo 5 will be able to notice this shortcoming.
In general, Need for speed: Shift 2 - Unleashed is a good and high-quality game, of course, not without flaws, but it is quite pleasant to play it, and you can pass another week.
Overview: Graphics
Graphically, Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed is a little far removed from its predecessor, Need for Speed Shift. As previously stated, the developers focused not so much on the visual component, but on a more advanced physical model, which was really worked out and improved, conveying a more realistic behavior of cars on the track.
One of the main distinguishing features of the game was the view from the camera mounted on the driver's helmet, and it is from this angle that we have the most attractive picture. Models of cars and textures of the environment are at an acceptable level, although today it is already possible to implement a more powerful graphical component.
Next, we go directly to the gaming testing itself and find out which system requirements are most relevant for Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed.
Review: Game resource intensive
All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality by MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. Below is the configuration of our test systems.
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Hardware configuration |
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Processors |
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T BE 3.33@4 GHz product provided by AMD AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE 3.0@3.7 GHz products provided by AMD AMD Athlon II X4 620 2.6 GHz products provided by AMD Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550@ 4.25 GHz Intel® Core™ i7-930@4.2 GHz Intel Core i5-760 2.8@4.2 GHz |
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motherboards |
Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H products provided by AMD Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H products provided by AMD Maximus II Formula socket LGA775 product provided by Asus MSI X58 Eclipse Plus socket LGA1366 product provided by MSI MSI P55-GD55 socket LGA1156 product provided by MSI MSI 790FX-GD70 socket AM3product provided by MSI |
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Memory |
GOODRAM PLAY 1600MHz (8-8-8-24) product provided by GOODRAM GOODRAM Pro 2000MHz (8-8-8-29) product provided by GOODRAM |
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Video cards |
GeForce 8800 GTS 640 mb |
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multimedia equipment |
3D monitor LG W2363D Monitor LG E2750 3D Vision Kit product provided by Nvidia |
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Power supplies |
4xSeaSonic S12D 850 Silver 850 W product provided by Syntex |
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System software and drivers |
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operating system |
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition x64 |
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DirectX |
DirectX 11 |
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Platform driver |
Intel INF Chipset Update Utility 9.1.0.1012 |
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Graphics driver |
Nvidia GeForce/ION Driver Release 270.51 AMD Catalyst 11.3 |
Less efficient video cards up to the level of GeForce GTS 250 and Radeon HD 4830 are tested based on Core 2 Quad Q9550 and Phenom II X4 940 BE processors, while more efficient ones are based on more powerful solutions. Overclocked versions of video cards presented by sponsors were equated to conventional counterparts by reducing their clock speeds.
Our video cards were tested at two resolutions in normal mode and at 3840x1080 for AMD Eyefinity with and without full-screen anti-aliasing enabled. NVIDIA 3D Vision has not been tested as the video driver is currently rated Not Recommended. Our charts show you how your graphics card performs against other modern solutions in almost all modern visual modes. As you can see below, the game is very dependent on the central processor, so the video cards were tested in a less processor-dependent place. The performance of our overclocked Core i 7 4.2 GHz in this case hit 62 frames at the minimum and 81 frames at the average.
Testing at maximum quality settings 1280x1024 no AA
At a resolution of 1280x1024 at maximum settings, without activating full-screen anti-aliasing, video cards of the Radeon HD 3870 or GeForce 9600 GT level will be required. Comfortable performance can be provided by graphics cards like Radeon HD 5770 or GeForce 9800 GTX.
Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 no AA
At a resolution of 1920x1080, video cards of the Radeon HD 4750 or GeForce 9800 GTX level will show an acceptable level of performance. Video accelerators of the Radeon HD 6850 or GeForce GTX 460SE level should be considered the most optimal for these settings.
Testing at maximum quality settings 1280x1024 AA
When full-screen anti-aliasing is activated, the performance of Radeon cards drops significantly, which is most likely due to an unfinished version of the drivers. At a resolution of 1280x1024 at maximum settings, with full-screen anti-aliasing activated at the maximum level, video cards of the Radeon HD 4860 or GeForce 8800 GTX level will be required. Comfortable performance can be provided by video cards of the level Radeon HD 4870 or GeForce GTX 260.
Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 AA
And finally, at Full HD resolution of 1920x1080, with activated AA, video cards of the Radeon HD 6850 or GeForce GTX 460 SE level will show an acceptable level of performance. Video accelerators of the Radeon HD 6950 or GeForce GTX 280 level should be considered the most optimal for this game. Based on the purchase of a video card specifically for this game, the Radeon HD 6950 or GeForce GTX 460 currently look the most preferable.
Testing with AMD Eyefinity Technology
All our video cards were tested at maximum quality settings on two Full HD monitors combined thanks to Eyefinity technology at a resolution of 3840x1080. As always, the inclusion of this mode did not cause any problems, and you can safely enjoy an open wide panorama.
Testing at maximum quality settings using AMD Eyefinity technology on two monitors at a resolution of 3840x1080 no AA
Testing at maximum quality settings using AMD Eyefinity technology on two monitors at a resolution of 3840x1080 AA
With the use of Eyefinity technology, the performance of cards is reduced within 30-45% of the standard mode, depending on the model of the video card. The minimum required for a comfortable game at 3840x1080 resolution is a video card of the Radeon HD 5830 level in the mode with full-screen anti-aliasing disabled and the Radeon HD 5870 with it activated. For comfortable playability, we recommend the Radeon HD 6990 or higher.
Processor dependency testing
We tested processor dependence on 9 models of basic configurations, which are the most relevant today. The test was carried out in those places where the value of the video card for the game is minimal and its load was less than 99%, but this time at a resolution of 1024x768 at maximum quality settings. For this purpose, a quick game with 15 cars was chosen.
Testing processor dependence at maximum quality settings 1024x768
As we can see, Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed sets a difficult task for modern processors. There is an effect of multi-core, but it is not as significant as we expected. With incomplete loading of all cores, the game manages to slow down. Hyper-Threading is not supported. An acceptable performance level will be shown by AMD Athlon II X4 620 or Core 2 Duo 8400 processors. Phenom II X4 940 and Core i 5 760 and higher processors will provide more comfortable performance. We advise our readers to resort to a little overclocking to increase a comfortable FPS in the game.
Conclusion on system requirements
Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed is a decent racing game with quite nice graphics that requires a fast processor and a modern graphics accelerator. We think that a patch that will fix the drop in performance on multi-core configurations and a new AMD driver that increases performance when full-screen anti-aliasing is enabled is indispensable.