Fall 2003 Video Card Roundup Part I - ATI's Radeon 9800 XT
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on October 1, 2003 3:02 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The New Test Suite
As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, we are introducing a brand new test suite with this review and we are also kicking off the first installment of a multipart series covering multiple aspects of current (and somewhat next) generation gaming performance.
By no means should you take the limited (yet extensive) tests we have here as all you will see from us, but rather something to whet your appetite for what is yet to come. The focus of this review is plain and simple – comparing the basic performance of the latest offerings from ATI and NVIDIA. In the future installments we will cover image quality, CPU scaling and other aspects of performance in greater detail. We will be making notes of noticeable visual differences between ATI and NVIDIA in this article, but a comparison with supporting images will be done in Part II of the series.
As far as the new test suite is concerned, here are the benchmarks that made it in:
AquaMark 3
Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour
F1 Challenge ’99-‘02
Final Fantasy XI Benchmark 2
Halo
Homeworld 2
Jedi Knight III: Jedi Academy
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004
Neverwinter Nights: The Shadows of the Undrentide
Simcity 4
Splinter Cell
Unreal Tournament 2003
X2
Warcraft III: Frozen Throne
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
We are working on expanding the suite even further, but for now this is what we have. If you’d like to see more games added please feel free to let us know either by sending an email or even better, leaving a comment through the system at the bottom of the page.
We used ATI’s publicly available Catalyst 3.7 drivers and in order to support the NV38 we used NVIDIA’s forthcoming 52.14 drivers. The 52.14 drivers apparently have issues in two games, neither of which are featured in our test suite (Half Life 2 & Gunmetal).
Our test bed was configured as follows:
2.8GHz Intel Processor Prescott
512MB DDR400
Intel 875P Motherboard
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Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
I would like to see you guys useStarwars Galaxies: An Empire divided
I'm not sure if there's a benchmark for this game but i think you can come up with something...
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
#69 I agree that those areas should have been explored further, perhaps not in situations where frames were dropping very low but indeed you make a good pointAnonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
Great work, however in the relentless march forward the benchmarks lack the cards to compare the previous generation.For instance I own a Nvidia Ti4600. I'd potentially want to buy something new but to make a decision I want to see how my card performs against the newer cards shown.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
I have just came here from [H]ardOCP to read this article and I noticed something so glaringly obvious im surprised no one has mentioned it.How many of you play games at 1024X768, I know I dont, I play em at 1280X1024 or higher and where has Nvidias biggest drawback been lately, yes thats right you increase the screen size and Nvidia jumps of a cliff whereas ATI walks down a step.
I been a gamer who doesnt use 1024X768 means this review is of no use to me, the drivers used are questionable, the image quality is inferior, the setup is poor, and the results DO NOT compare to other sites (ive checked 4 sites so far not including NV38 part), also after looking over this site I have seen not one advertisement for ATI yet I have seen a few concerning Nvidia.
Anandtech from what I remember used to be impartial this something I dont think they are anymore.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
which bench's did that occur #65? im too lazy to go sorting thru em ;)if that is the case, then that has dodgy drivers written all over it
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
I'm most interested in hearing about MMORPG performance. I know you included Final Fantasy XI in this suite, but I was hoping that you select an established, popular game. MMORPG DX9 titles like Starwars Galaxies or Asheron's Call 2. And MMORPG DX8 titles like Dark Age of Camelot or Anarchy Online. These games represent more closely were MMORPGs are headed in graphics engine development. Upcoming titles like, like Middle-Earth Online (Turbine), D&D Online (Turbine), Everquest 2 (Sony Entertainment), and Mythica (Microsoft).Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
hey i'm interested in the benchmark from simcity4.i find it akward that since i have a radeon 9800PRO in my rig running a athlon 2600+ with 1gb of ram, i usually get 15fps with the updated patches from EA for simcity4. I've been searching around the internet about this problem of why simcity 4 just plain sucks with radeon cards and everyone on the forums says that its EA's fault for the way how they programed it. Anyways, why is it that Anand's benchmark of his radeons are all the way up to 52fps when most of his system setup is close to my specs?....anand? what drivers and patches are you using?
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
How do some cards (mostly nVidia, most evident on the 5600 Ultra) speed up in some benchmarks when AA and AF were turned on? Doesn't that raise a flag immediately?Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
I know that this is all about the newer technology, but it would have been nice if you would have thrown a couple of the older cards in for comparisions sake (and for those without the cash to purchase new cards every 6 months) like the Geforce 4 TI 4600 or 4200 and the Radeon 8500.Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
Any news as to why HL 2 benchmark was not out on 30.09 as it was supposed to?