Left4Dead GTX-280 SLI vs 4870 1GB Crossfire

Left 4 Dead Evga GTX-280 SLI, Diamond 4870 1GB CF Performance Review

Left 4 Dead, a revival of the FPS Horror Genre, was released on November 18th 2008, published by Valve and much to our surprise, was a DX9 game. The single player game consists of four levels where you're trying to reach a destination and get rescued. Each of the four levels has its own rescue point. While making your way to the rescue points you'll encounter hordes of Zombies, the occasional Boomer, solitary Hunters, occasional Zombie Witches, choking Smokers, and the dreaded Tank. Each has its own strategy, and their AI allows them to attack in different ways. While Zombie AI is what you'd expect from the recently dead returned to life, Boomers and Hunters have a more refined AI that allows for some strategy.

Boomers in particular are particularly annoying if you shoot one too close to you. They spew a green slime that covers you and attracts "The Horde". When The Horde is attracted you're literally swamped with masses of Zombies trying to do what they do best, kill you and eat your brains.

Tanks are hard to kill. They're Boss type creatures that dwarf the normal Zombies (if there is such a thing as normal Zombies). The best strategy we've found for those is a running retreat while laying down massive firepower at the Tank. Standing your ground and trying to defeat one is liable to end in massive loss of hit points.

Witches seem to lurk about crying, and then when you disturb them, they jump up and run at you but die rather easily. So far, we haven't seen that they have any special powers, though we have had limited time for straight game play.

Hunters are a more intelligent Zombie that move faster and actively hunts your team. Their speed and hunting ability make them a little harder to target.

Smokers have the ability to shoot out their tongues and constrict you from long distances. While constricted by a Smoker or pinned by a Hunter your teammates will need to rescue you. If you're really fast, occasionally, you can kill a Smoker when he first constricts you.

Ordinary Zombies just kind of hang out, letting you methodically kill them until, once in a while, they make a mad dash for you. The real fun comes when you're splashed by Boomer slime, or you're at a critical junction in the game and you have to fight The Horde.

Weapons and ammo don't seem to be in short supply if you're willing to do a little searching, and they are available in every safe house we've encountered along the way.

Single Player and MMORPG gaming is particularly engaging and good for the occasional Adrenalin rush. There's nothing like burning a hundred rounds while dealing death to the dreaded undead hordes.

It doesn't hurt to remember that the only good Zombie is a dead (re-dead) Zombie, and that they will kill you and eat your brain, so do unto them before they eat your brain.

Since we have a Core i7 platform available that will run CrossFire and SLI on demand we decided to strap a couple of Diamond 4870 1GB on and run them in CrossFire, and a couple of EVGA GTX-280 in SLI and see how sweet the graphics are in Left 4 Dead. With it being a DirectX 9 title you can believe that FPS with single GPU, and Crossfire and SLI are fantastic.

With four of the most powerful GPU's available today, two in Crossfire and Two in SLI, frames per second got way up there.

Just how far they got, well, you'll have to hang around and see because there's no way to describe this graphics goodness without charts, and sorry, but this isn't the chart page.

Notice the nice shadows the older guy on the right throws in the picture, and of course, the Zombie rushing up from the rear. When playing the single player game your team's AI is actually quite good. You'll find them protecting you, covering different angles, and actually helping you move to the rescue point and safe houses. Unlike a lot of game AI, they follow your lead and manage to stay with you pretty good instead of wandering off or chasing a single Zombie while the horde is attacking. More often than not they form a defensive formation and methodically pick off Zombies, or form a floating formation and move while picking off the Horde.