Zotac GTX 465 Review: Full-on, affordable Fermi?

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 tested on our 24 inch monitor at native resolution (1920×1200) with 8x MSAA, 16x AF, shader set to very high and all others set to high.

Valve's Source engine proves no issue for any of the cards on test today even with 8xAA. It would be remiss of our however to not try one of the 16x AA modes the GTX 465 supports.

If you want maximum quality – then 16x Q CSAA is also perfectly playable on the GTX465, even with our ‘worst case scenario' test environment which throws literally hundreds of undead into the mix.

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