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 - Sunday, October 5, 2003 - link
you're all idiotsAnonymous User - Saturday, October 4, 2003 - link
I think everyone knows that those FS2004 results wereAnonymous User - Saturday, October 4, 2003 - link
Bishot Mgdbottled here,I just wanna say Anad did a great Job!
Those FS2004 results are the truth, I get 100FPS no problem with my 9700P! while All the NV boys get is 20-30! Hah!
Thats why Anad will always be my top techie site!
ATI Rocks NVidia sucks! End of story! I here that Nvidia got dropped by Microsoft from any DX10 development participation!
Woohoo! Even MS knows what we all know, NV sucks!
Anonymous User - Saturday, October 4, 2003 - link
I would like to see a comparison with a game that uses the "meant to be played optimizations".That could be a real hoot.
Anonymous User - Saturday, October 4, 2003 - link
I still trust Anand more than HardOCP, I won't even give the H my hits anymore I detest them so much.This is definately one of the lowest quality and only review I can remember with such low integrety for Anandtech.
Sorry guys, please use don't insult our intellegence by posting articles like this.
Anonymous User - Saturday, October 4, 2003 - link
ATi is currently deciding who gets 9600XT samples while they wait for them to ship...Curley - Saturday, October 4, 2003 - link
Take a stand. No matter how many games you include or how long you make the reviews, the educated reader knows what you are doing.Intestinal fortitude is a hard thing to come by.
That is why HARD OCP is now my home page.
Anonymous User - Saturday, October 4, 2003 - link
Those Fs2004 results are great!What the H**l were you guys smoken?
Didn't you even think when you got those funny results?
No, I guess you did not.
Anad, I'm sorry but yer site has lost all credence.
So long.
Anonymous User - Saturday, October 4, 2003 - link
Stupid moron!Anonymous User - Saturday, October 4, 2003 - link
Mgdbottled here again,I see non of you NV dwarfs can speakup in behalf of your beloved nvidia! HA! Your card sucks so go home!
ATI 2xAA is better than anything FX cards can do! HA! AND THEY don't cheat!!!!
I swithched my trilien filter on by selecting performance mode and at 16anison this card just screams!
ATI F***ing rocks man!!!
OK, me an Bigshot are the same, I had to do that because someone was using my nick.