DX11: Unigine Heaven 2.2

The Unigine "Heaven 2.1" benchmark is a free publicly available tool that grants the power to unleash the graphics capabilities in DirectX-11 for Windows 7 or updated Vista Operating Systems. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode, emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming.

The distinguishing feature in the Unigine Heaven benchmark is a hardware tessellation that is a scalable technology aimed for automatic subdivision of polygons into smaller and finer pieces, so that developers can gain a more detailed look of their games almost free of charge in terms of performance. Thanks to this procedure, the elaboration of the rendered image finally approaches the boundary of veridical visual perception: the virtual reality transcends conjured by your hand. The "Heaven" benchmark excels at providing the following key features:

• Native support of OpenGL, DirectX 9, DirectX-10 and DirectX-11
• Comprehensive use of tessellation technology
• Advanced SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion)
• Volumetric cumulonimbus clouds generated by a physically accurate algorithm
• Dynamic simulation of changing environment with high physical fidelity
• Interactive experience with fly/walk-through modes
• ATI Eyefinity support

Cost Analysis: Unigine Heaven DX11 (1920x1080)

• $140 GeForce GTS 450 1GB (MSI Cyclone) = $9.15 per FPS
• $145 Radeon HD 5770 1GB (PowerColor 1GBD5-PPVG2) = $10.74 per FPS

Test Summary: The DX11 Unigine Heaven benchmark is another extremely demanding title that doesn't allow either of these cards playable frame rates at these settings. The Heaven benchmark differs from the Lost Planet 2 benchmark, however, and gives the advantage to the NVIDIA GPU. The MSI N450GTS Cyclone comes out ahead of the Radeon HD 5770 by 13% at 1920x1080 and by 9% at 1680x1050. Even with the advantage, the frame rates are within a couple of FPS between the two cards. The main advantage the MSI N450GTS Cyclone holds at this point is that is a few dollars less expensive.

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