Sapphire HD5850 Toxic 1GB Video Card Review

Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter game. It is the sequel to Valve Corporation's award-winning Left 4 Dead. The game launched on November 17, 2009, for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in the United States; it launched November 20 in Europe. It builds upon the cooperatively-focused gameplay of the original and uses Valve's proprietary Source engine, the same game engine used in Left 4 Dead. The game made its world premiere at E3 2009 with a trailer during the Microsoft press event.

In a similar fashion to the original, Left 4 Dead 2 is set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic, and focuses on four survivors fighting against hordes of the infected. The survivors must fight their way through levels, interspersed with safe houses that act as checkpoints, with the goal of reaching a rescue vehicle at the campaign's finale.

The gameplay is procedurally altered by an artificial intelligence engine dubbed the “Director” that monitors the players' performance and adjust the scenario to provide a dynamic challenge. Several new features have been introduced: new types of infected, melee weapons, and a story-arc that connects the game's five campaigns together.

We performed testing today at 2560×1600 with 8xAA and 16xAF – all other settings were pushed to the max.

With any of the cards on test today Left 4 Dead 2 is perfectly playable even at the highest resolution with all the eye candy set to full. The overclocked speeds of the Toxic however show the benefits when compared with the reference edition card.

The Toxic card never drops under 60fps which is an exceptional set of results, especially considering the resolution and configuration on test today.

Become a Patron!