Fall 2003 Video Card Roundup - Part 2: High End Shootout
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on October 7, 2003 5:30 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Fantasy XI Performance
We couldn't take any screenshots of Final Fantasy XI because the demo would quit if you hit any keys at all, thus preventing us from capturing any screenshots. Final Fantasy doesn't really show image quality differences, though, in my opinion, overall image quality could be greatly improved. The graphics are many times motion blurred, AA and AF can't be used, and it really does look like a playstation port to the PC. Of course, there are some very cool effects and the overall look is definitely on par with Square's previous work.
Again, we take the frame count provided by the benchmark and divide by its runtime (loosly 275 seconds). The actual number we divide by doesn't make a difference for comparison sake as its simply a scaling factor. Since this is the same number we used for the previous article, we can get a little taste of Final Fantasy CPU scaling.
As we can see, ATI is still ahead in this benchmark.
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Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
You need to look at the FSAA each card empolys...go back and look again at the screenies, this time looking at all the jaggis on each card....especially in F1, it doesn't even look like nVidia is using FSAA....while on the ATI, it's smooth ......I don't think it's a driver comparison, just the fact that ATI FSAA is far better at doing the job....At least I think that's what he's talking about..hard to tell any IQ differences when the full size screenies are not working, but poor FSAA kinda jumps out at you (If your'e used to smooth FSAA)Also worth noting, nVidia made great jumps in performance in DX9, but nothing that actually used PS2.0 shaders : (
Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
#14 Blurred? Are you not wearing your glasses or something? Nice and sharp for me...Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
of course you do, you're a fanATIc...Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
I like the way he discounts Tomb raider. Saying it is just not a good game. Thats a matter of opinion. It almost seems like he trys to undermine that game before revealing any benches.And the benches for that game are not done in FPS but on percentage lost on PS2.0.
On first inspection of the graphs it appears that Nvidia is leading in tombraider. But if you look at the blurred print on the graph it does say "lower is better" Very clever!
Why no FPS in that game?
Nice information in this review but it almost seems that he is going out of his way to excuse Nvidia.
I smell a rat in this review.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
#3, #7: If you take the screens into photoshop and observe the result of their 'difference', you'll see that there's a fairly significant difference between the 45's and 3.7's, but almost no difference whatsoever between the 52's and 3.7's. In most of those screenshots it's impossible to do this since the shots aren't neccessarily from the exact same position each time. Try the ut2k3 ones for example. Also these are jpeg's, so there'll be a little fuzz due to the differences in compression.Also, if I need to take two screenshots into photoshop to be able to discern any difference between them, that's really saying alot. And since we can't refer to a reference software shot, it could be ati's driver that's off for all we know.
In any event I'm pleasantly surprised with nvidia. Their IQ has definitely caught up, and their performance is quickly improving. Hopefully the cat3.8's will pull a similar stunt.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
No he's just a "fanny"AgaBooga - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
They must have a reason for choosing those drivers. Anandtech has been around long enough for that :)The reason is probably along the lines of when they started this benchmarking because they did soooo many games, resolutions, AA and AF levels, times the number of different cards, etc. That takes quite some time. Had they waited for the newer ATI drivers, it may have delayed this article one, or even two weeks till publishing. Also, they did mention they will do a followup articles with the new drivers, so patience is the key here.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
#8 seems like a fanboy himselfdvinnen - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
well #8, Nvidia was able to do it with the wonder driver, I dn't see why Ati can'tAnonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
LOL, the ATI fanboys are already coming out of the woodwork. Listen #3 and #7, it's a fact, there is no IQ difference at all between the 50 Dets and the 3.7 CATs. And if you honestly believe you're going to see much of a difference with the CAT 3.8's....you're just stupid.