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Keeping along with the DirectX 8 vein, we have Novalogic's
impressive looking Military Copter Sim, Comanche 4.
The visuals this game engine paints are truly stunning and
the shoot 'em up action is tons of fun, with an arsenal
of weapons that the Comanche attack helicopter
carries to its targets.
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Comanche 4, Matrox Shark Mark, NVIDIA Chameleon
Mark and Winbench |
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Covering all
aspects of performance for the Parhelia |
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For sure this
benchmark is much more CPU dependant than it is GPU
intensive. Regardless, the Comanche 4 Benchmark Demo
utilizes actual game engine playback footage of heavy
combat with lots of explosions and action over
water etc. Once again, we wanted to see the Parhelia
really fly but it did not. The numbers don't lie and
a 40 - 45% delta is not a pretty picture. However,
when the Radeon 8500 was first launched, it too suffered
under the strain of this test. We are hopeful that
future driver revision for the Parhelia, will allow the
game engine to make more efficient use of its
architecture.
Matrox Shark
Mark:
Shark
Mark in Action
Click for viewing
Matrox's very
own Shark Mark, is a DirectX based benchmark that stresses
a GPU's Vertex Shaders. Specifically, there are 9
Sharks drawn and animated in this scene and it utilizes 90
Vertex Shader instructions. This test should
obviously favor the Parhelia, since it was coded by Matrox.
However, we'll run an NVIDIA based Direct X test next, to
show you things from another angle.
What did you
expect? Of course this test showcases the Parhelia's
Vertex Shader Array and is most likely heavily optimized
for the Parhelia 512 architecture, keeping the rendering
pipelines full. So, we decided to turn the table on
the Parhelia a bit and fire up something coded by NVIDIA.
The results may surprise you.
NVIDIA's
Chameleon Mark:
The Parhelia
shows serious muscle here in the completely hostile
environment of the NVIDIA Chameleon. This could
indeed be a sign of things to come with respect to next
generation game engines that utilize pixel and vertex
shaders in greater detail. The Radeon 8500 is simply
left in the dust here by both the Parhelia and the GeForce
4 Ti 4600. With only a single Vertex Shader at its
disposal, the Radeon just can't keep up.
2D Desktop
Re-Draw and Render Performance - Winbench:
The folks at
Matrox boast that they have the fastest 2D desktop
accelerator in the business. Perhaps this is less
than important for most folks in the Parhelia's target
market, since it is clearly a gaming card. However,
we decided to prove out the theory none the less.
Indeed, when
it comes to 2D Desktop Graphics, the Parhelia seems to
have a clear advantage over the competition.
However, we were left wondering just how much utility this
new found speed would provide for the average end user.
Well, so far
for the Matrox Parhelia, it has been a bit of a rough
road during our benchmark sessions. However, as you
recall, 16X FAA, from at least a visual perspective, was a
real plus for Matrox's new GPU. Let's see if the
numbers pan out that way as well.
Anti-Aliasing Tests Paint A Very Different Picture
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