The tessellation question: Unigine Heaven 2.0
Hardware-based tessellation is a cornerstone of DX11. The ability to efficiently generate massive geometry and then to apply what's known as a displacement map to it makes it a tasty technique for adding complexity and detail to a scene without a huge computational cost.
Unigine's Heaven 2.0 benchmark tests the ability of DX11 GPUs to provide varying levels of tessellation and extra in-benchmark detail.
Here's the standard benchmark run at 1,920x1,200 with 4x AA and 16x AF. Hover your mouse over the picture to see the difference between no tessellation and moderate tessellation.
We ran the DX11 cards through the benchmark/tessellation test at each setting.
Benchmarks
Sapphire's HD 5970 TOXIC 4GB is notably superior to a reference 5970 design at all levels, providing over a 25 per cent performance boost with moderate tessellation.
There's little in it when compared to dual Radeon HD 5870s in a CrossFire configuration, but Sapphire's HD 5970 TOXIC 4GB has enough under the hood to become the fastest single-card "tessellator" we've ever seen. Bring multiple cards into the frame, and a GeForce 400-series SLI configuration remains king.
