XFX HD5870 Black Edition Review

Napoleon: Total War is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics video game released for the PC, developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega. Napoleon was released in North America on 23 February 2010, and in Europe on 26 February. The game is the sixth stand-alone installment in the Total War series, and focuses on the politics and major military campaigns at the beginning of the 19th century. Players assume the role of Napoleon Bonaparte, or one of his major rivals, on a turn-based campaign map and engage in the subsequent battles in real-time. As with its predecessor, Empire: Total War, which included a special United States storyline, Napoleon features a separate campaign that follows the general's early career.

The game features several significant improvements compared to previous titles in the franchise. There is improved multi core support which helps improve overall performance and there is a new unit rendering algorithm in place which offers a wider range of individual personas. Particle effects also get a makeover with a 500% increase and post processing is taken to the next level in regards to weather effects.

Creative Assembly have also added features such as camera vignette to the lighting models and recoded some aspects of their SSAO which now can be used as a light attenuator as well as a full screen implementation device. Parallax mapped high terrain detail and heat haze are featuresets also recently added.

We performed testing with settings maxed at 1920×1200 with 2aa and 16 texture filtered applied.

Napoleon Total War is a game which brings even the most powerful gaming systems to their knees, especially at 2560×1600 with eye candy enabled. Surprisingly the XFX board is able to maintain positive framerates – in excess of 27fps, just above the danger zone. We will analyse this next.

There are a few times the XFX Black Edition card drops under 30fps but for the most part it maintains a positive figure over 30fps. More crucially however it never drops below the 25fps zone and is smooth throughout.

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