Driver - San Francisco test GPU

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Year: 2011
Genre: Action / Racing (Cars) / 3D / 3rd Person
Developer & Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment
Developer: Ubisoft Reflections
Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment
Publisher in Russia: 1C-SoftClub

Driver: San Francisco is the fifth installment in the Driver series. It is an arcade-style driving video game developed by Ubisoft Reflections and published by Ubisoft. The game was officially unveiled at E3 2010 and was released in Australia on September 1, 2011, in Europe on September 2, and in North America on September 6, 2011, for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and OnLive, while the Microsoft version Windows was released on September 27, 2011.

 

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Review: Playability 

The action takes place several months after the events of Driv3r. The game is very similar to previous games in the series. The player controls John Tanner in various missions on the streets of San Francisco. The new “Shift” function introduced by the developers allows Tanner to move to another car and continue the mission. For the first time in the series, the game features over 120 fully destructible licensed cars, including the Dodge Challenger, Dodge Viper, Alfa Romeo, Ruf, Pagani Zonda and DeLorean DMC-12.

Due to the fact that according to the plot, the main character is bedridden by the power of thought, the ability to get out of the car, introduced in Driver 2, has been removed from Driver - San Francisco. Although it is not clear what prevents him from falling into the same pedestrian? Rather, the emphasis was more on racing and pursuit, and not on fighting with passers-by. Another feature was the complete invulnerability of passers-by, who bounced off an approaching car like tennis balls. You won’t be able to play pranks like in the GTA series games... The game has one of the largest gaming territories: 335 km of roads. For the first time, the game offers online play in nine different game modes.

We invite you to evaluate part of the game walkthrough of Driver - San Francisco in HD resolution, where you can see for yourself the quality of this product:

We can safely say that the game was a success for the developers. It's not as boring as expected, but, alas, not as spectacular as expected. In any case, both newcomers and old fans of the series will be pleased with the new game in the Driver series.

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Review: Graphics

Driver - San Francisco was developed on the studio's own engine, which was somewhat optimized and improved compared to its predecessors. But again, Ubisoft’s console-oriented policy makes itself felt, and PC users will receive only a slightly improved picture, enriched by a higher resolution and the presence of hardware anti-aliasing.

The most developed cars in the game are the cars, which, as you understand, is due to the racing focus of the project. The physical model of the cars and their visual component are very well organized, which is on par with other modern representatives of this genre.

The environment itself looks poorer, which, upon closer examination, looks very sparse. To a large extent, the open game world is hidden behind walking mannequins, which are pedestrians, and glass stops with scattered garbage barrels, which from time to time fall under our wheels...

As we see, there is nothing special to tell and we move directly to testing the processor and graphics dependencies.

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Review: Resource-intensive game

All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality using MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. The minimum and average frame size is taken as the performance indicator. Below is the configuration of our test systems.

Less powerful video cards up to the level of GeForce GTS 450 and Radeon HD 4870 are tested based on Core 2 Quad Q9550 and Phenom II X4 940 BE processors, depending on the resource intensity of the game, and more powerful ones are based on more powerful solutions. Overclocked versions of video cards presented by sponsors were equal to conventional analogues by reducing their clock speeds.

Our video cards were tested at a resolution of 1920x1080 with the maximum graphics quality settings allowed by the game. AMD Eyefinity is not supported by the game this time, but NVIDIA 3D Vision has a GOOD rating in the drivers. In this test, the minimum FPS for testing video cards was not taken. The game has an internal frame rate limit of 120 FPS.

 Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080

The minimum that is needed for comfortable gaming at FuLL HD resolution of 1920x1080 is a video card of the Radeon HD 3870 or GeForce 8800GT level. If you are buying a video card specifically for this game, then today the most preferable ones are the Radeon HD 5750 or GeForce GTS 450.

Testing using NVIDIA 3D Vision technology

In the 3D Vision Driver - San Francisco, the video driver has a GOOD rating and the 3D quality and depth of field itself are quite comfortable. Let us remind you that the 3D mode has an internal frame limit of 60 FPS.

Testing at maximum quality settings using NVIDIA 3D Vision technology 1920x1080

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With these settings, the minimum performance level is for video cards of the GeForce 9800 GTX level and higher. The most optimal solution for the most comfortable game should be considered a video card of the GeForce GTX 280 class and higher.

CPU dependency testing

We tested the processor dependence on 10 models of basic configurations, which are the most relevant today. The test was conducted in those places where the video card is of minimal importance for the game and its load was less than 99%, this time at a resolution of 1920x1080 with maximum quality settings.

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080

As we can see, Driver - San Francisco turned out to be quite playable on all of our tested processor models. The game responds well to increasing processor cores and shows excellent scalability.

	Driver - San Francisco is a very nice product. Many users will receive even a little more than they expected, namely a new game concept and a fascinating plot.
	The graphics in the game have a distinctly console-like feel, which characterizes the very poor graphical menu. But despite this, the picture is still very neat.
	Optimization, as one would expect, is quite up to par. Driver - San Francisco is not only loyal to modern computer hardware, but also does not ignore the configurations of past generations.

 

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We would like to express our gratitude to all manufacturing companies that were able to provide test equipment for our tests. GPU and we hope that in the future their number will increase significantly!

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