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.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
263 Comments
View All Comments
Pete - Friday, October 3, 2003 - link
Why should they test at a higher res when the fastest cards have trouble breaking 60fps on most of these benchmarks?!Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
Who the hell is playing games at 1024 x 768 these days?!!! Go higher and see how all ATI cards kick butt!!!!!!Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
Anand is testing a card that is not out, with drivers that are not released (52.xx) , on a CPU that is not available ????At least he could benchmark DX9, wich is available.
Tomb Raider AOD.
Maybe not, because Nvidia sucks at DX9,
Maybe Nvidia had a clause( you get to test our new card and new (cheat) drivers, but you can not use any DX9 titles ???
We all know Nvidia sucks at DX9, but it should be included in the tests.
We all know Nvidia is good at UT and Quake, but you still had those games to the Bench suit ???
I have been reading Anand for years, this is the first time I have been really deceived.!
It is amazing what MONEY will make you do or say..
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
everyone can now rest peacefully not that bigshot has spoken! all hail the mighty bigshot and his useless rambling!!!we should all bow down to his infinite wisdom and wonderful use of childish phrases
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
#197, you mean the 9500 Pro, and it's not a third of the price, it's currently two thirds and was never less than a half.Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
I would've liked to see a Radeon 9500 and/or an OCSystems 9500 Radeon in the mix with these benchmarks. Even though the 9500 is discontinued it still performs on par with a 9700 card. Overclock it or flash new Bios onto it and it might perform right up with these cards; for a third of the price to.Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
I'd like to see my testicles running 2xAA. I have no doubt in my mind that ATi is even beter than Nvidia's best! I've noticed the lag on my genitals when playing multiplayer games, such as BF1952 & TF2. I personally cannot wait for Dx9.How about that HL2 source code leak? I have a good feelin about it. :-)
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
Sorry Bigshot here... I posted twice. I posted number #192 and number #193.I just wanted to say ATI Kicks NVida Butts!!!
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
Idiot!Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
Bigsot here again as I remembered what i forgot to say...The 2xAA of the ATI is even beter than nvidias best!
ATI cards are the bestest!
Nvidia card owners must be crying!
Not me! Cause I got me an ATI!!!