AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition & HD 7850 Review - Total War: Shogun 2

Benchmark that is included in Total War: Shogun 2. This is the one instance we are not running at full "max" settings with 4xAA/16xAF. The benchmark simply will not run at these settings in Eyefinity on any 1GB card. To enable a consistent benchmark across all cards I've used these settings: "Very High" preset, 2xAA, and all the DX11 options turned on.

The Shogun 2 benchmark has a unique feature in that it will not let you overrun the frame buffer. If it finds your graphics card doesn't have enough VRAM, then it simply fails to run and makes suggestions on what settings you can reduce. Running the game at these settings at 1080p, the benchmark tool reports back that you've over spent the graphics card VRAM by 1MB. So, at "close to" maximum visual fidelity, this is our first benchmark that needs 2GB for 1080p gameplay. We have plenty of games that require 2GB to play Eyefinity at 1080p, but this is the first time we've seen a 2GB requirement for single screen.

The title showcases a number of scenes - both broad views of large scale battles (with large numbers of units), and highlighting the detail in marching columns of soldiers.

The Radeon HD 7870 pulls well ahead of the HD 6970, due to it's faster core clock speed. The HD 7850 performs on par with the HD 6950, and 2GB of VRAM is the entry point into playing Shogun 2 at 1080p with 2xAA.