STALKER: Call of Pripyat

The third game in the STALKER series continues to build on GSC Game World’s X-Ray Engine by adding DX11 support, tessellation, and more. This also makes it another one of the highly demanding games in our benchmark suite.

STALKER is another game where the GTX 570 and GTX 480 spend some quality time together in our charts, quickly running in to each other once we’re at 1920 at 2560. Similarly at these resolutions the GTX 570 enjoys a roughly 26% lead over the GTX 470, and even the Radeon 5870 isn’t much of a threat. As expected the SLI and CF configurations do pull ahead, but in the case of the GTX 460 SLI this is only a minor lead at best, while the 6850 CF enjoys its usual 20% lead.

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  • xxtypersxx - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link

    If this thing can hit 900mhz it changes the price/performance picture entirely, why no overclock coverage in such a comprehensive review?

    Otherwise great write up as always!
  • Bhairava - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link

    Yes good point.
  • vol7ron - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link

    Why do graphics cards cost more than cpu+mobo these days?

    I know there's a different design process and maybe there isn't as much an economy of scale, but I'm just thinking about the days when it was reverse.
  • Klinky1984 - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link

    Well you're essentially buying a computer on a card with a CPU these days. High performance GPU w/ high performance, pricey ram, all of which needs high quality power components to run. GPUs are now computers inside of computers.
  • lowlymarine - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link

    I think it's simply that GPUs can't get cheaper to the extent that CPUs have, since the die sizes are so much larger. I certainly wouldn't say they're getting MORE expensive - I paid $370 for my 8800GTS back in early 2007, and $400 for a 6800 in early 2005 before that.
  • DanNeely - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link

    High end GPU chips are much larger than high end CPUchips nowdays. The GF110 has 3bn transistors. For comparison a quadcore i7 only has 700m, and a 6 core athlon 900m, so you get 3 or 4 times as many CPUs from a wafer as you can GPUs. The quad core Itanic and octo core I7 are both around 2bn transistors but cost more than most gaming rigs for just the chip.

    GDDR3/5 are also significantly more expensive than the much slower DDR3 used by the rest of the computer.
  • ET - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link

    They don't. A Core i7-975 costs way more than any graphics card. A GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD9 motherboard costs $600 at Newegg.
  • ET - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - link

    Sorry, was short on time. I'll add that you forgot to consider the price of the very fast memory on high end graphics cards.

    I do agree, though, that a combination of mid-range CPU and board and high end graphics card is cost effective.
  • mpschan - Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - link

    Don't forget that in a graphics card you're getting a larger chip with more processing power, a board for it to run on, AND memory. 1GB+ of ultra fast memory and the tech to get it to work with the GPU is not cheap.

    So your question needs to factory in cpu+mobo+memory, and even then it does not have the capabilities to process graphics at the needed rate.

    Generic processing that is slower at certain tasks will always be cheaper than specialized, faster processing that excels at said task.
  • slagar - Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - link

    High end graphics cards were always very expensive. They're for enthusiasts, not the majority of the market.
    I think prices have come down for the majority of consumers. Mostly thanks to AMDs moves, budget cards are now highly competitive, and offer acceptable performance in most games with acceptable quality. I think the high end cards just aren't as necessary as they were 'back in the day', but then, maybe I just don't play games as much as I used to. To me, it was always the case that you'd be paying an arm and a leg to have an upper tier card, and that hasn't changed.

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