Resident Evil 5 Gameplay Performance and IQ @ [H]

Resident Evil 5 Gameplay Performance and IQ - Greedy multinational biotech corporations have infected hordes of African citizens with an apocalyptic mind-controlling parasite, and it's up to you and your sexy sidekick to save the world! But before you get started, you better make sure your video card is up to the task. Check it out with us as we test the best video cards out today including all of the new Radeon HD 5000 series video cards!

Resident Evil 5 represents a compelling cinematic experience for PC gamers. Ultimately, Resident Evil 5 is a console game that was ported to the PC well after its original release. It shows its console heritage without shame, for better or worse. There are endless quick-time events to make sure you don’t move your hand too far from your keyboard, and you will want to make sure that you are prepared to address three possible key combinations for it.

For gamers looking to upgrade for those high-resolution monitors, the Radeon HD 5870 and GeForce GTX 285 are the best values in the high end. For more moderate budgets, the Radeon HD 5850 is a good value, while the GeForce GTS 250 is still supreme on the low end.

I'm kind of glad I still have my 285.

Hoping AMD gets better at driver releases. My patience for nVidia is growing thin.

Especially with nVidia at work. Today, I realized there are currently three separate nForce (motherboard) packages out there, depending on your chipset and (possibly) integrated GeForce graphics. UGH. And one of the packages (15.49) is suppose to be WHQL signed, but yet throws unsigned prompts at me with my automated Windows images... SERIOUSLY NVIDIA?!

Once AMD catches up with their drivers, I will be a happy camper once again.

Edit: Great work again Kyle :thumbsup:

295 FTW!
Good job with the review although the last paragraph's first statement was a bit odd.

Nice review. It's a shame drivers are hindering the 5870's performance this much in TWIMTBP titles. This is why I'm in no rush to replace my GTX275.

http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?im...5fOF8xX2wucG5n

I think we need some tessellation here.

Originally Posted by cannondale06

http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?im...5fOF8xX2wucG5n

I think we need some tessellation here.

haha...definitely..

i find that the 190.xx and 191.xx drivers have alot of issues. i also tried the game and hated the fact that you can't move and shoot.

Originally Posted by shaolin95

295 FTW!
Good job with the review although the last paragraph's first statement was a bit odd.

What I meant was, the game is supposed to be cinematic, and as a storytelling device, the game has succeeded. Beyond that, however....

Originally Posted by babygiorgio1

i find that the 190.xx and 191.xx drivers have alot of issues. i also tried the game and hated the fact that you can't move and shoot.

Yeah. The controls drove me completely insane throughout the entire game. I am pretty open minded when it comes to control schemes, but I just couldn't get used to it in any way, all the way through and past the end of the game. It all feels just completely wrong.

Originally Posted by x3sphere

Nice review. It's a shame drivers are hindering the 5870's performance this much in TWIMTBP titles. This is why I'm in no rush to replace my GTX275.

I think a lot of ATI's problems come down to this. Nvidia pays developers with TWIMTBP to fix issues during development on thier hardware and then ATI has to play catchup after the game is out.

Originally Posted by siliconnerd

I think a lot of ATI's problems come down to this. Nvidia pays developers with TWIMTBP to fix issues during development on thier hardware and then ATI has to play catchup after the game is out.

It also comes down to the fact that ATI does not do its due diligence with game testing, even after games are released. Brent brought the HDR bloom bug in RE5 to their attention several weeks after the game had already launched. They didn't know about a problem affecting their brand new hardware on a high-profile game that was already on the shelves.

Personally, I don't blame AMD/ATI for the bug. I think it is more likely the fault of the developer. But it IS AMD's fault for not being on the ball with these game releases, finding problems, and fixing them within a reasonable amount of time.

On our overclocked Core 2 Extreme QX9770, we saw an average load of 29% across all four cores with the second core (core 1) loaded the most heavily. Core 1 averaged 40% and peaked at about 83%. The other three cores were engaged by the game, but not as heavily as the second core.

its odd that the game doesnt even come close to utilizing 4 cores yet this game will have a decent increase in framerate when going to an i7. thats why it never makes sense when people say a game isnt fully using their cpu so they dont need a faster one. obviously how much cpu usage a game has doesnt really mean it cant be even faster with a cpu with more cores or a better architecture. also notice the Phenom 2 beating the Core 2 Quads. http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,6...ults/Practice/

"For gamers looking to upgrade for those high-resolution monitors, the Radeon HD 5870 and GeForce GTX 285 are the best values in the high end. For more moderate budgets, the Radeon HD 5850 is a good value, while the GeForce GTS 250 is still supreme on the low end."

Seeing that in most reviews the 5850 is indeed faster than a gtx285...I would say yes, it is a good value for a mid-range card.

I could care less what performance any card gets in this game. The game sucks balls, really its just a shitty arcade shooter with the name resident evil. Pretty much after this game I will never buy a console port, and it just proves that conolse gamers are mindless idiots that just want to shoot crap.
Yeah I didnt read the review when it came out so I guess I am the fool, I will never make that mistake again. All I looked at was the score and I thought 8.5 was high enough for my favorite series, and didnt want to read it before buying it for pc incase there were spoilers in the review.

Good article.

This error has been fixed. Thanks for the extra eyes. - Kyle

i tried reading through all the posts.. but did anyone notice the difference between the 5770/5750 with no AA on and the 5770/5750 with AA? with it off there was no frame rate drop.. with it on there was.. comes down to is it really the drivers that are the problem or is it the game? we all know there have been a lot of games that just plain refused to run AA on ATI cards.. and im wondering if this is another game with that same issue.. the only odd thing is that the cpu usage also drops.. so who knows..

though i wouldnt say it in as many words as SC3252 did.. id have to agree the game was pretty worthless.. it was just a weak version of L4D with better graphics.. nothing amazing though.. back to playing killing floor i go..

I think the game is a joy to play, and probably one of the most cinematic titles I've played in a long while. It also looks extremely good (the motion blur hides a lot of rough edges) and it has some of the best character animation I have ever seen in a game, something the review neglects to mention. It's true that the menus and such are mostly designed with a controller in mind, but it's still functional with a keyboard and mouse. I think the real problem is the clunky character movement controls, though, which just don't quite work on the keyboard.

If you go into this game knowing what to expect (i.e. a more action-heavy Resident Evil 4), I think you'll have a lot of fun with it, and a great overall gameplay experience regarding how the game looks and runs - my system gets a perfect 30 fps at all times with 4xAA on, and that's with an 8800 GT. In fact, I could recommend capping the framerate at 30 fps if you can't maintain a solid 60, because it has a very cinematic feel to it already, and that's enhanced by the consistent framerate, plus the fact that it's designed for 30 fps to begin with. I think it's too easy to say "oh, it's a console port" like it's a dirty word. Resident Evil 5 is a pretty great game no matter what you play it on (if you have a preference for the sort of game it is, anyway), and even if it's not built from the ground up with the PC in mind, it's certainly not what I'd call a sloppy, slapdash sort of job, and is in fact better than a large number of native PC titles.

Originally Posted by sear

I think the game is a joy to play, and probably one of the most cinematic titles I've played in a long while. It also looks extremely good (the motion blur hides a lot of rough edges) and it has some of the best character animation I have ever seen in a game, something the review neglects to mention. It's true that the menus and such are mostly designed with a controller in mind, but it's still functional with a keyboard and mouse. I think the real problem is the clunky character movement controls, though, which just don't quite work on the keyboard.

If you go into this game knowing what to expect (i.e. a more action-heavy Resident Evil 4), I think you'll have a lot of fun with it, and a great overall gameplay experience regarding how the game looks and runs - my system gets a perfect 30 fps at all times with 4xAA on, and that's with an 8800 GT. In fact, I could recommend capping the framerate at 30 fps if you can't maintain a solid 60, because it has a very cinematic feel to it already, and that's enhanced by the consistent framerate, plus the fact that it's designed for 30 fps to begin with. I think it's too easy to say "oh, it's a console port" like it's a dirty word. Resident Evil 5 is a pretty great game no matter what you play it on (if you have a preference for the sort of game it is, anyway), and even if it's not built from the ground up with the PC in mind, it's certainly not what I'd call a sloppy, slapdash sort of job, and is in fact better than a large number of native PC titles.

It might be a good game but its not really an RE game. they have completely removed the horror element which was still very much there in RE4. also this game needs at least a good dual core cpu if someone wants to fully push even an 8800gt.

now i understand why gtx 285 is on par with 5870 in Hardocp reviews that cinematic sections make them look identical without it according to graph there is 20 fps difference between both of em. don't know if its new nvidia trick or not lol but it looks fishy

Originally Posted by eric66

now i understand why gtx 285 is on par with 5870 in Hardocp reviews that cinematic sections make them look identical without it according to graph there is 20 fps difference between both of em. don't know if its new nvidia trick or not lol but it looks fishy

No, this is not an "NVIDIA Trick," this is an AMD driver issue that needs to be addressed. We are big fans of the 5800 series, but they are not without some problems and our readers need to see the good as well as the bad.

Originally Posted by Kyle_Bennett

No, this is not an "NVIDIA Trick," this is an AMD driver issue that needs to be addressed. We are big fans of the 5800 series, but they are not without some problems and our readers need to see the good as well as the bad.

kinda weird isn't in game engine used in those cinematics ? how can 5870 drop so much fps in same engine don't understand