Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends Performance
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends is a real time strategy (RTS) game similar to Warcraft and Command and Conquer. Our test for Rise of Legends is similar to our tests for other RTS games as well. We are able to save replays of entire games and play them back. We use FRAPS to benchmark the game, though we benchmark the game while playing it back at 4x normal speed. This is simply to save time benchmarking, and the results still allow us to report on in game experience.
The benchmark is a 2v2 internet battle. The battle is just over 20 minutes long, and we start our FRAPS benchmark at 8 minutes in when the action starts and stop the benchmark just before the end of the game. Rise of Legends is sensitive to CPU speed, so gamers with less powerful platforms shouldn't rely only on this data to determine final performance with Rise of Legends.
Frame rates of about 20 fps are acceptable as we don't need the consistency and smoothness of a higher framerate to enable effective gameplay. Framerate drops and slow downs are not as noticeable in games like this where quick movements aren't what it's all about.
The only reason the 6600 GT remains playable at this resolution is because the game prohibits the selection of the highest quality options due to the lack of 256MB of RAM. The X800 GTO and X1600 XT fall just under playable range, but some people may be able to live with a little bit of jerkiness here and there with their RTS games.
*This card features only 128mb RAM, limiting it to medium quality settings
The 7900 GT scales better than the X1900 GT and so closes the gap towards the higher resolutions, but still can't make the pass. Even with equal performance, the X1900 GT would still lead in terms of value. Our 7600 GT remains playable at 1920x1440, but once again just a little higher budget will get a great benefit with the X1900 GT with about 33% higher performance and the ability to enable AA and remain playable if necessary.
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rcc - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
For my past sins I did a brief stint at Fry's Electronics. Only 5% of customers send in rebates and follow up. The stores count on this.So, I think I'd ignore them too. Unless just to note that rebates may be available on some items, but that pretty much applies to anything at any time.
Josh7289 - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
On Page 5, Black and White 2 Performance, this is written:Obviously, "6800 GT" should be "6800 GS". ;)
DerekWilson - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
Obviously :-)Nelsieus - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
It was probably really hard making final conclusions as you noted (with price cuts and factory OCs, etc), but I think overall, you came up with some excellent choices. The review was very fair and balanced, indepth, and overall covered all the basis.Another great article, Derek. Thanks for keeping an eye out for us midrange buyers. :)
saiku - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
amen, thanks for remembering the guys in the "middle".DerekWilson - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
Thanks! We did want to do even more with it, but we were afraid if we worked any longer on it we'd have to deal with another price cut before it got published :-)Josh7289 - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
I have a question. When looking at performance for games at 1600x1200 no AA, could I compare that to what I would get with 1280x1024 with AA on? Thanks.Gigahertz19 - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
You overclock the 7900 GT and it gets a great boost in performance. I would like to know how well the X1900 XT overclocks?I think you should have overclocked the Top Midrange ATI X1900 XT and see how well it could outperfrom an overclocked 7900GT or a stock 7900 GTX....
or maybe compared an overclocked 7900 GT to a stock clock 7900 GTX then compare an overclocked ATI X1900 XT to a stock clock ATI X1900 XTX.
Nice article by the way, this comes at a perfect time when I'm about to build a new computer in a few weeks. Going to wait until September until Nvidia 590 chipsets for Conroe and see what else comes out by that time then buy :)
DerekWilson - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
There are no factory overclocked X1900 XT cards for sale. The clock speed difference between the X1900 XT and the X1900 XTX essentially means that an overclocked X1900 XT would *be* an X1900 XTX.We tested the NVIDIA cards at higher clock speeds because they are sold at higher clock speeds. We weren't trying to snub ATI; it's just that people can actually get this performance out of the box.
yacoub - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
Top of the Final Words page, first sentence:While this has been quite a lot of information to absorb, but we will do our best to sort it all out.
Remove the "While" and capitalize the 't' in "this", or remove "but". =)