StarCraft 2 on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460

I've been given the opportunity to review one of the new mid class cards from NVIDIA, the GeForce GTX 460. These typically run around $200, which in the past would get you mediocre results at best. I can't quite say what has changed in the last few years, but I can say that the game is changing. To give some background for this, I've been gaming on a GTX 260 for quite a while, which ran me a little over $300 when I first bought it.

First, the rundown between the two:

• Same manufacturer (EVGA).
• DX11 and OpenGL 4.0 support.
• Faster and higher quality memory.

NVIDIA is really trying to show off the power of this new card, and they've done a pretty amazing job. I'm running the game on Ultra settings, and using NVIDIA's control panel to adjust the vertical sync and the anti aliasing. Right now I have it setup at 4x AA. This is on a dual monitored system, two 22" wide, but obviously running SC II on a single screen. Other than that, the system is a 7200 RPM disk, with a top of the line dual core, and 8 gigs of decent DDR2.

So for this review, I've mostly been playing the campaign. I played custom and ladder quite a bit during the beta, and a change was in order. I'm about 15% of the way through, on Hard, struggling to get the achievements. Overall I'm not only been extremely impressed with the campaign, but the fact that I've been able to play it on a nearly budget card without having to tweak the settings.

The campaign feels quite different than it did for StarCraft. The feelings seemed to be mixed on the story, but I never was a story guy. As for gameplay, well, so far it's been pretty amazing. I definitely enjoy the interactive pieces of the campaign with mission selection, researching upgrades, and hiring mercs. It adds a much appreciated dimension to the campaign. Oh, and best of all, the new units for campaign are tons of fun to play with. Would love to see some custom maps taking advantage of some if not all of these.

Blizzard also included a ton of interactive content just for fun. Players who enjoy the backstory will love these. As a brief example, you can click around four areas of your HQ: Bridge, Armory, Cantina, and Laboratory. Each of these has a purpose (Missions, Unit Upgrades, Mercs, and Research), as well as tons of random pieces of information that you can zoom in on for more detail. Most of these extras are obtained throughout mission, and end up showcased throughout.

For all you custom mappers, you probably remember the Lost Viking map that was demoed some time before release. You'll be happy to know it's made its way into the campaign mode as well! There's an arcade machine hiding in the back corner of the Cantina where you can play the game, and it's very well done. Shows off much of the amazing power capable within StarCraft II's mapping engine.

I'll be moving on to some more melee in my oh so amazing Bronze ranking here soon, and then back to my custom map domain. Been very impressed with the quality of some maps, and very disappointed with others.

Overall, for a decently priced graphics card, I've been very impressed. I'll definitely be keeping this one, and possibly buying a second to try out SLI. I've never had a need or a reason to before now, but when the cards are this cheap, it's not too bad. Highly recommend picking up one of these cards if you're in the market. See you in game!

For more information, check out the following resources:

• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB
• NVIDIA Official Blog
• Rule the Galaxy with GeForce GTX 460