Need For Speed: SHIFT: PC Performance Benchmarks for Graphics Cards and Processors

Released : 2009
Genres : Arcade / Racing (Cars) / Simulator / 3D
Developer : Slightly Mad Studios / EA Black Box
Publisher : Electronic Arts

System requirements for maximum rendering quality recommended by the gameGPU website :

Minimum

Operating system : Windows XP SP 3, Vista®, Windows 7 Processor : Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz RAM : 2 GB  Video card: DirectX®9 compatible video card with 256 MB RAM Radeon HD 4650 or GeForce 8600 GT DirectX: DirectX®9 Winchester: 8 GB free space

Effective

Operating system : Windows XP SP 3, Vista®, Windows 7 Processor : Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHz RAM : 2 GB Video card: DirectX®9 compatible video card with 512 MB RAM Radeon HD 4670 or GeForce 8800 GS DirectX: DirectX®9 Winchester: 8  GB free space

Optimal

Operating system : Windows XP SP 3, Vista®, Windows 7 Processor : Core 2 Quad 3.0 GHz RAM : 3 GB  Video card: DirectX®9 compatible video adapter with 512 MB RAM Radeon HD 4850 or GeForce 8800 GTX DirectX: DirectX®9 Winchester: 8  GB free space

Official description of the game

Need for Speed ​​SHIFT is the next evolution of the legendary Need for Speed ​​racing series. You have never seen such a "need for speed"! Illegal races through the streets of night cities are a thing of the past. Now you are waiting for a big serious motorsport, where serious passions flare up in the standings, and cars on the track reach speeds that are inaccessible to any sports car on city highways! Need for Speed ​​SHIFT focuses on spectacular and unprecedented realism. Here you not only see the car and the track, but feel every turn, every hill and every pebble under the wheel. Driving a car with a view from behind the wheel, you will get an unforgettable experience. The game perfectly conveys the feeling of the driver, who rushes at high speed along a winding track. You roll slightly on corners, toss up on hillocks and shake mercilessly,

Game features:
• The screen will turn into a windshield. The game conveys the feelings of the driver so accurately that the familiar environment disappears, and the screen turns into a windshield of a car rushing at insane speed. Looking at what is happening through the eyes of the driver, you will feel the influence of inertia and gravity, and also see with your own eyes how the world changes when the speedometer goes off scale. At high speed, vision is completely focused on the track, and all nearby objects seem to be blurred.
• Who you are? A specially crafted Driver Profile system tracks your evolution in the game and creates your unique driver profile. It takes into account many parameters, including driving style, the number of victories and the number of points scored for virtuoso corners and perfect overtaking. Driver Profile affects career development and even how new cars are unlocked.
• Unforgettable car accidents. Colliding with another car or a static obstacle, you really feel like you're in a serious accident. A complex combination of sound and visual effects creates a stunning illusion of presence. Is it easy for real racers to continue racing after a collision at high speed? Now you will find out for yourself!
• Comprehensive tuning! The car is yours, do whatever you want with it. Tuning is necessary for two tasks. Firstly, it allows you to get the behavior on the track that you need from the car. Secondly, it makes the car unique. You can experiment both with the appearance of the car and with interior design.
• Photorealistic cars and tracks. You can drive 70 cars meticulously copied from real-life cars. Among them are Pagani Zonda F, Audi RS4 and Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. The races take place both on real tracks, like Willow Springs and Laguna Seca, and on fictional routes, for example, in central London and Tokyo.
• Collective racing. In addition to a single career, the game features several collective online modes.
• From the creators of GT Legends and GTR 2. Together with the Black Box studio, the Slightly Mad Studios team, famous for its serious sports racing simulators GT Legends and GTR 2, worked on the game.

Overview: Playability

We expected the worst. The fact that the developers of the GTR did the game did not bode well for fans of arcade racing. There was an impression that the game will repeat the history of the tedious Pro Street. But fortunately for us this did not happen. Although the game was positioned as a simulator, there is something arcade in it, something that you don’t see, but you feel...........From the very beginning of the gameplay, the game adjusts to our driving level and allows you to drive strongly straining the nervous system. Although some associate the game as a parody of GRID, this is not so - the game has its own peculiarity that is unique to it.

The tracks are varied, the races too, there are a huge number of cars - what else is missing for a full-fledged drive? Of course, crazy races at night crossroads with constant skirmishes with law enforcement agencies. We hope that EA publisher will have mercy on gamers and in the near future will treat them to high-quality arcade racing games.

Review: Game Graphics

As for the game graphics, everything is in perfect order: the cars amaze with their detail, the tracks are made very high quality, the physical model is up to par. Of course, the environment falls short of the integral component, but it is also performed at a very high level.

If NFS Undercover, released last year, had a similar level of graphics, it would undoubtedly become a hit.

Review: Game resource intensive

As for the performance of video cards, it turned out to be on top - almost all the participants did an excellent job at their resolution with the maximum graphics quality settings. The only exception is the budget class, where more than half of the subjects were outsiders.

The Achilles' heel of this game can be CPU performance, and it is clear that the game gives more preference to those with more cache and cores. We recommend using a Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHz processor to avoid FPS drops in the game.

Testing at maximum Low End quality settings at a resolution of 1024x768

Half of the lower class turned out to be outsiders, however, as always...

Testing at the maximum Midle End quality settings at a resolution of 1280x1024

The middle class, with the exception of one video card, looks quite decent.


Testing at maximum High End quality settings at a resolution of 1680x1050

Well, at the top, as always, everything is smooth with FPS and the owner of these video cards has no cause for concern. In general, it is quite comfortable to play on most video cards from both manufacturers, but it is clear that the game gives preference to NVIDIA video cards.

Conclusion: This game is clearly a pleasure for hardcore simulators and just those who like to drive. The game has a decent graphic component. In general, 29% of the tested video cards could not cope with their task.