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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, shaders set to very high and all others set to high.
Valve’s source engine doesn’t prove a challenge on our 24 inch panel at native resolution even with 8AA and all settings maxed. We will now try one of the higher AA modes the nVidia boards support.
The huge overclocks on the Zotac board mean it can hold onto the GTX465, only dropping a few frames per second during a specific section. Very impressive results indeed.
ah very nice indeed, seems like a good performance indeed.
Cant be bad to the pricing really, only $20 more than the reference 1GB version? like it
Seems like a good deal all round really considering – seems a bit hotter than most.
GTX460 is hard to beat right now, cheaper than HD5850 and close in performance 🙂
Very good card, and the pricing is excellent, was expecting it to be at least 50 bucks more.
I was pleasanty surprised to see the results. but the 460s are really good, I am sure they are selling tons of these now.
I like the colours, which sounds gay, but the orange fan and blackish PCB look well together. Good board, but There are so many video card reviews on tech sites now, they are all much of a bleh to me 🙂 the three screen sapphire one was cool last week.
The 460 deserves to sell well, they are good cards. they are a little power happy now though I see – around 190 watts. thats a lot of juice.
these would be great in SLI.
When are they available ? would be good to know release dates.
I would say this will sell well, considering the pricing on it. thats a hell of an overclock.
Has to be the fastest 460 on the market, without question.
wonder when the 450 is out, that should be good if they use similar technology.
Good review. amazing what you can buy in 2010 compared to 2007, for the same money. I think I paid teh same for my crappy GTS250.
Zardon, this must have been hard to write you are such an ati fanboy 🙂
Cant believe how small these cards are compared to the power they put out.
Well my comment seemed to vanish weirdly, but ill try again. (hate this code system for entering responses btw!).
Good review, but my main worry is with ATI releasing a new line soon this will be quickly outdated.
Good review, enjoyed it. one question. how hot does it get?
SkyDiver there is a page on temperatures near the end, have a look properly and see 🙂
I think the MSI card you reviewed last week looks nicer. this is quite an ugly looking card.
We need new cards im bored of all these already ! ATi get the new series out !
We need new ATI boards. the GTX460 is a great card but its really quite boring, we need new tech 🙂 480/470/465/460 —- snore.
Seems to be a really solid performer especially with such high overclocks. I wonder why they offer lifetime warranty in USA but only years in europe ?
Just wanted to pop on and say nice site, found it today, bookmarked.
Very good card from zotac, the fan looks very like the reference one.
Here is the fastest GTX460 card out there:
http://www.fudzilla.com/reviews/reviews/reviews/tgts-magic-makes-povs-gtx-460-the-fastest-gtx-u460-around
if they got the card down to 200 inc vat it would dominate sales.
the biggest issue i have with zotac is supply. they are always very poor in the regions around me. need to order them in internationally.
Good photos, the card is very attractive looking, not often we see manufacturers making good looking cards. I like the sapphire hd5670 ultimate, something really impressive looking about it.
The last card I bought from zotac died and it took me 2 months to get it replaced. no thanks.
well balanced and quiet by design, seems like a good combination. temps look a bit high to me.