Company of Heroes 2

Our second benchmark in our benchmark suite is Relic Games’ Company of Heroes 2, the developer’s World War II Eastern Front themed RTS. For Company of Heroes 2 Relic was kind enough to put together a very strenuous built-in benchmark that was captured from one of the most demanding, snow-bound maps in the game, giving us a great look at CoH2’s performance at its worst. Consequently if a card can do well here then it should have no trouble throughout the rest of the game.

Since Company of Heroes 2 is not an AFR friendly game, getting the best performance out of the game requires having the fastest GPU. While the GTX 780 Ti has a clear lead over the 290X across the average of our games, in this specific case it’s going to come up short, as AMD’s performance with this game is simply too high to be overcome without a significant performance advantage. Conversely this means that GTX 780 Ti and 290X are still close enough that NVIDIA won’t be able to sweep every game; in games where AMD still does exceptionally well, they’ll be able to close the gap and surpass the GTX 780 Ti.

Meanwhile, looking at a straight-up NVIDIA comparison, the GTX 780 Ti holds a slightly smaller than normal lead over its counterparts. At 5% faster than GTX Titan and 17% faster than GTX 780 it’s still the fastest of the cards, but it won’t pull ahead in this game by as much as it does elsewhere.

The minimum framerate story is largely the same. GTX 780 Ti is the fastest NVIDIA card, but it will trail the 290X by over 10% in both scenarios.

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  • Filiprino - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    And I have to add that with aftermarket coolers the 290X will get better performance, allowing to overclock even more.
    Here you have only compared the 290X without overclocking, only "Uber mode" which I is not the same as overclocking.
  • ludikraut - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    I'm not really on board with the R9 290X. Seems to me that the performance/overclocking of the 290X is a little sketchy, whereas the results for the 290 appear to be more consistent and for $150 less, much more attractive.
  • Skiddywinks - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    I think that sketchiness comes from the fact it gets throttled all the time. With the fan running on a temperature knife edge, the ambient temp and layout of your PC is going to have a massive effect on how well it is going to perform.

    The 290, as we should all know, had a fan speed boost to try and take on the 780 after the price drop, instead of the targeted 770. Once AMD get around to giving the 290X the same treatment (or, alternatively, we start seeing these after market coolers), I would be willing to bet the 290X will start looking much more promising. Probably still not enough to ruin the 290 as the go-to value high end product, but it will certainly not look as pointless as current reviews and benchmarks have it looking.
  • madwolfa - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    Crysis 3 section has BF3 part pasted in it.
  • ludikraut - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    What this review really needs is results for a CF R9 290. Seems to me that a pair of R9 290s will trounce a 780Ti for only $100 more. Actually looking at the overall results and how the R9 290 stacks up, I just don't see being able to justify a $300 premium for the 780ti.

    l8r)
  • smartypnt4 - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    This. 100% this. They'll do it eventually, but I doubt he had a 2nd R9 290 in time to put those results in.

    That said, the R9 290X crossfire results make me very, very hopeful for R9 290 performance. A pair of them for $800 would be a steal to get a level of 4K gaming that wasn't available at anything below $1300 previously (2x780), and the 2x290 should even beat dual 780s handily at 4K based on how the 290X does (unless they give a special 780 some of that 7GHz memory).
  • just4U - Friday, November 8, 2013 - link

    From what I've noticed thru the years..
    with a product launch of this nature Anandtech doesn't rain to much on the featured cards parade. It's the star of the show after all. They get some criticism for that but ah well. They do release updated information and head to head comparison articles after initial launches. Maybe it's just a time thing.
  • Vorl - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    I can't believe that the reviewer is allowed to be so blatantly biased.

    I suppose they assume most of their audience is too stupid to actually think.. but still. things like this are really making me start to lose respect for a site I have read for years now.

    It is so bad, it is almost to the point of leaving and recommending people I talk to/work with look for a less biased site.
  • nsiboro - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    I was initially worried about the wording/flow too but I think Ryan did the right thing.

    He was comparing 780ti to 780/Titan and only brought up R9-290/X when things mattered.

    The take away from this review is that R9-290/X with AIB custom cooler will beat 780-Ti and reclaim the crown for AMD.

    The R9-290 non-X with AIB custom cooler (when it gets released) will surely get an Editor's Award.
  • Vorl - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    I could see your point if he hadn't blatantly said "don't but the 290". Not "look forward to after marked cooling".

    They downplayed 4k, and the games that the 290 series did better in, and use much stronger words in the few areas that the Ti did better in.

    It's also funny how they downplay the price for a minimal improvement in speed. I remember in past reviews that a price difference like that would have made a huge difference in recommendation no matter things like noise levels.

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