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
Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour
The recently released expansion to the very popular Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game Command & Conquer Generals seems to do a good job of living up to the standards set by its prestigious ancestry. RTS games usually get overlooked in GPU roundups and comparisons as they aren’t considered graphically intense. However, smoothness is very important to gameplay; goodness knows I’ve blamed plenty of lost armies on ill timed drops in framerate. For this benchmark, we created a multiplayer game consisting of 6 hard armies on one team with us, and one easy army. We then used the replay feature in conjunction with FRAPS to measure performance. This was done with and without 4xAA/8xAF.
In this first test we can see that all the ATI cards are huddled together at the top while the nvidia cards lag behind. Clearly this game favors the ATI architecture. One of NVIDIAs strong points, memory bandwidth, doesn't get a chance to shine in this game as its mostly small textures and low poly objects with some pretty cool particle effects. That kind of setup just doesn't tilt in NVIDIAs favor.
Even with AA and AF enabled neither camp is severely hampered; and the only card that really drops off significantly is the 9600 Pro. The fact that the FX 5900 and NV38 are neck and neck suggests that the reason for NVIDIAs performance in this benchmark has something to do with an aspect of the architecture that isn't directly (or significantly?) affected by GPU core clock or memory bus bandwidth/speed; more than likely we're talking about driver issues here.
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Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
I think I remember that Tron 2.0 asked me to install DX9 so it probably uses some DX9 functions and it's an existing game so why not try to build a benchmark on it? Anyway since we're dealing with unreleased Det50 drivers here... (I rather prefer the THG way of dealing with that)BTW, I think there's a massive misunderstanding on whether a game is DX8/8.1/9; it can be all at the same time. You can use DX8 pixel shaders and DX9 pixel shaders at the same time.
It's just that as soon as you start using DX9 functions you lose compatibility with DX8/8.1 compatible cards. It's up to the developer to replace these convenient DX9 specifics by DX8/8.1 compatible pixel shaders for instance. So DX9 is really an extension to DX8.1 and DX8.1 is an extension to DX8 and so on
Oh and Doom III is OpenGL for God's sake!!!!!!!!!
appu - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
It would be a good idea to include at least FIFA2003 (and if possible, NFS HP2 or PU) mainly for
the same reason why C&C was benched. These are
really popular games and people would like to know
how they "feel" running with these new cards and
drivers. Also, FIFA 2004 is reportedly coming up
with even more impressive graphic quality and AI
(the latter could be a reason to CPU bench it,
perhaps?).
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
#59 - halflife2 will be a very important benchmark, but its not out yet.. although a benchmarking tool was promised around this timeAnonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
Well done guys, defintely going down the right track, testing cards with REAL games that people actually play.Still needs a little refining - HL2 can't be ignored as a valid benchmark!
Keep up the good work.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
im in the same boat as you here #57, very excited about the 9600XT although i think that its more a case of not available than lack of want for a review on AT's part.Can't wait to see how they go =)
zxyth - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
I'm was hoping to see benchmarks for the 9600XT. $500 for a new card is rather high for someone on a budget. I've been interested in the 9600 Pro cards for a while and I'm disappointed none of the 9600's were shown. Not everyone can afford the high end cards and I for one would like to see more coverage of the cards that many more people are like to have or buy. It's great to see the flagship cards and what they can do, but don't forget some of us just can't go that route. And we'd like to see benchmarks for the cards that we have or want to purchase.Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
#52 I guess we are both whiners then. I keep whining about Anandtechs review and you about my comments. Peace, I'm getting tired.Evan Lieb - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
A 2.8GHz Prescott CPU was used. Anand probably didn't say anything just to tease you. ;)Take care,
Evan
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
Prescott will come out at 3.2 and 3.4 GHz later this year.Lower versions 3.0/2.8...will follow afterwards.
So its for sure no Prescott here.
And if, I wonder why there is no test/word at all about it.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
Correction, I meant #41.