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Performance Comparisons
With Novalogic's Comanche 4 |
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The
Performance Battlefield |
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We
used Novalogic's combat helicopter simulator Comanche 4
for our next batch of DirectX tests.
This benchmark uses DX8
class pixel and vertex shaders to produce some of the
realistic visuals used throughout the demo. Unlike the
previous tests, this benchmark is heavily influenced by
CPU and system memory performance, especially at lower
resolutions. However, when the resolution is raised and
AA and Anisotropic filtering are enabled, the current
crop of video cards tend to slow down quite a bit |
At 1024x768,
it seems that each card is very capable when handling
the DirectX8 class graphics of Comanche 4. Since
Comanche is quite CPU-limited, we're probably reaching the
maximum frame rate that the system can produce out before
applying AA. The 9600XT started out in the lead with
50.13 fps, but applying 4XAA dropped it behind the 5900XT.
Chaintech's AA5700U was a close third at 44.66, only a frame
less than the 9600XT. Anisotropic filtering was the
great divider here, affecting the 9600 XT much more than the
GeForce FX cards. We saw a similar decline with the
9600XT at 1600x1200, nearly crippling its output, although
the AA5700U was also slowed down a bit. Applying 4
samples of anti-aliasing cost the AA5700U close to 14
frames, in effect losing about a third of its performance.
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Benchmarking
With
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory |
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New
Game, Better Effects, Old Engine |
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We also ran through a
batch of timedemos with the OpenGL game Wolfenstein:
Enemy Territory.
Wolfenstein:
ET is a free, standalone multiplayer game that is based
on the original Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which was
released a few years back.
It uses a modified Quake3
core yet exhibits plenty of CPU scaling and platform
variation, which also makes it a good benchmarking tool.
We created a custom demo and used the built-in timedemo
feature to check each card's frame rate. The tests
below were run at 1024x768 and 1600x1200, with out
anti-aliasing, once with 4X AA, and then again with 4X AA and 8X
anisotropic filtering. |
Our last
benchmark was won, more or less, by the 5900XT and 5700
Ultra based cards. The 5900XT took a commanding
lead, but the AA5700U was no slouch either, hitting over 90
fps at 1024x768. It outperformed the 9600XT by just
over 16%, and maintained a healthy lead at 4XAA and 4XAA+AF
as well. While the 1600x1200 benchmarks started off in
the same fashion, the AA5700U and 9600XT flip-flopped when
enabling the driver optimizations. ATi's
implementation of AA and Anisotropic Filtering was simply
better at the higher resolution, as the 9600XT took much
smaller performance hits than that seen with the 5700 Ultra
or 5900XT.
Overclocking & The Conclusion
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