Tropico 4 Demo – PC performance graphics benchmarks of Graphics Cards

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Year: 2011
Genre: Strategy (Manage/Busin./Real-time)/3D
Developer: Haemimont Games
Publisher: Kalypso Media
Publisher in Russia: Akella

Tropico 4 is a real-time economic strategy computer video game developed by the Bulgarian studio Haemimont Games and published by the German company Kalypso Media. As in the first and third parts, the game is concentrated on the main game unit – the so-called “El Presidente”, who is identified with the player, and on whose behalf all instructions are given during the game. “El Presidente” can be “customized” to your liking before the start of each level. You can also choose ready-made characters who are real historical figures, such as, for example, Ernesto Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.

The game is scheduled to be released on August 30, 2011.

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Review: Playability

Tropico 4 will go on sale on August 30 this year, and at the moment we can get acquainted with the demo version, which includes all the main aspects of the game. To tell the truth, the fourth part is not far from its predecessor and is more like a game add-on than a full-fledged part of the series.

We are the leader of a tropical island in Latin America during the Cold War period. By establishing diplomatic relations, we can enlist the support of one of the parties opposing at that time. The essence of the game is simple – we need to make a developed paradise out of a godforsaken banana island of the poor. We still have to develop the infrastructure, while not forgetting to provide a decent standard of living for our fellow citizens.

We invite you to evaluate part of the game walkthrough of Tropico 4 Demo in HD resolution, where you can see for yourself the quality of this product:

 

The game is quite atmospheric and very vividly conveys the spirit of a tropical island. Fans of the series should definitely like this project. Those who reacted coldly to the previous game in this series can limit themselves to only the demo version.

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Review: Graphics

Tropico 4 is in many ways similar to its predecessor Tropico 3. The graphic part is also no exception, and rather even adopted the visual component even more than the gameplay itself. But if two years ago the picture looked quite colorful and pretty, today the game is nothing outstanding in terms of graphics.

One of the advantages of the game is a very large number of graphic settings, thanks to which we can select optimal graphic variations not only for modern gaming systems, but even for average computers three or four years ago.

We won’t delve too deeply into graphical delights and will move directly to testing the visual component of Tropico 4 Demo.

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Review: Resource-intensive game

All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality using MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. The minimum and average frame size is taken as the performance indicator. Below is the configuration of our test systems.

Less productive video cards up to the level of GeForce GTS 450 and Radeon HD 4870 are tested on the basis of Core 2 Quad Q9550 and Phenom II X4 940 BE processors, depending on the resource intensity of the game, and more productive ones are based on more powerful solutions. Overclocked versions of video cards presented by sponsors were equal to conventional analogues by reducing their clock speeds.

Our video cards were tested at a resolution of 1920×1080 at the maximum quality settings allowed by the game. NVIDIA 3D Vision technologies are not supported, but AMD Eyefinity works, but artifacts arise during operation, as a result of which it was decided not to test any of these technologies. Cross Fire works without any problems, and its performance is limited by the CPU, but SLI this time again could not cope with scalability….

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080

At maximum quality settings, video cards of the Radeon HD 3870 or GeForce 9800 GT level will show an acceptable level of performance. The most optimal for this game should be considered video accelerators of the Radeon HD 5770 or GeForce GTS 450 level. Based on the purchase of video cards specifically for this game, then currently the Radeon HD 5770 or GeForce GTS 450 look most preferable.

CPU dependency testing

We tested processor dependence on 10 models of basic configurations, which are the most relevant today. The test was carried out in those places where the value of video cards for the game is minimal and its load was less than 99%, but this time at a resolution of 1024×768 with maximum graphics quality settings.

Testing at maximum quality settings 1024×768

As we can see, the game cannot use more than four processor cores and more of them leads to a loss of performance. However, two cores provide performance almost similar to four, which indicates little optimization for multi-threading. But don’t despair about this, because the game runs quite quickly on almost any dual-core model.

 

	Tropico 4 Demo looks more like an add-on to the third part than an independent project, but many innovations and large-scale companies will appeal to many players.
	The graphics in the game, again, are not much different from the previous part and are unlikely to gain support for the new-fangled DirectX 11 at the time of release.
	Optimization in Tropico 4 Demo did not disappoint and for maximum quality settings a gaming computer from two or three years ago will be quite sufficient.

 

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We express our gratitude to all the manufacturing companies that were able to provide test equipment for our GPU tests and we hope that in the future their number will increase significantly!

 

 

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