Please send all questions and comments related to this gallery to Danil Gridasov.

Testbed

Games are checked on a PC on Pentium 4 2.4GHz (533MHz FSB), ASUS P4GE-V (i845GE) and 512MB PC2700.

The checking is performed only under Windows XP Service Pack 1 (+ tens of Windows Updates from Service Pack 2) and DirectX 9b.

The following cards were used in making of this material:

• ATI Radeon 9000 Pro
• ATI Radeon 9600
• ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
• NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4600
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900

The latest changes are marked light-red.

Games are checked only with the latest reference drivers (53.03 for NVIDIA and 3.10 for ATI) coupled with the latest patches. When a bug is found, it's tested on the next reference betas. Exceptions prove the rule :-)

Attention! Some bugs that we noticed might occur only in our test configuration. If you do not have some of the mentioned bugs or, vice versa, you have one that we don't write us providing maximum details on your configuration (CPU, chipset, graphics card and drivers, OS, DirectX version, game version). Besides, you can send in a screenshot, but not more than 100Kb in size - we pay for our traffic :-)

News

• As you can see, we updated the cards list. We removed the Radeon 9700 Pro (as its results almost always duplicate the results of Radeon 9800 Pro), and added GeForce FX 5200 and 5700 Ultra.

• We removed from our gallery a number of bugs fixed in October 3Digest.

• The following drivers were released in December:
  ATI:
  • Catalyst 3.10 (6.14.10.6404), another reference driver from ATI.
  NVIDIA:
  • ForceWare 53.03, the reference driver leaked in beta state and returned optimizations for 3DMark03 build 340.

• The following updates were issued for games in our gallery:
  • Patch v1.02 for Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour;
  • Patch v1.031 for Halo: Combat Evolved;
  • Patch v1.1 for Homeworld 2;
  • Patch v1.3 for Need for Speed: Underground;
  • Patch v1.61 for Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide;
  • Patch v1.21 for IL-2 Shturmovik: Forgotten battles;
  • Patch v1.2 for Silent Storm.

Games

1. Battle Engine Aquila
2. BloodRayne
3. Colin McRae Rally 3 v1.1
4. Command & Conquer Generals v1.7
5. Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour v1.02
6. Delta Force: Black Hawk Down v1.3.0
7. Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind v1.6
8. Enclave
9. Halo: Combat Evolved v1.031
10. Homeworld 2 v1.1
11. Mafia v1.2
12. Midnight Club 2
13. Need for Speed: Hot Pusuit 2 v242
14. Need for Speed: Underground v1.3
15. Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide v1.61
16. Return to Castle Wolfenstein v1.41
17. Serious Sam: The Second Encounter v1.07
18. Silent Hill 2
19. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell v1.2.087
20. Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness v52
21. Unreal Tournament 2003 v2225
22. IL-2 Shturmovik: Forgotten Battles v1.21
23. Silent Storm v1.2

Battle Engine Aquila

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	All versions	Advanced graphical features menu item responsible for water shaders is disabled.	-
		The same bug as on Radeons below: the game doesn't recognize the GPU. Potentially occurs on all GeForce FX solutions, except 5800 and 5900 Ultra. Solution is the same: add absent DeviceIDs into the Vendor:10DE nVidia section of cardid.txt. DeviceIDs can be found in the drivers' INF files or with the help of utilities like RivaTuner. If you don't want to mess with files, download the updated file from us (2.6KB) and replace the original (don't forget to back it up).
Radeon 9000 Pro	All versions	Antialiasing can't be enabled from the ingame menu.	-
		Force it from drivers' control panel.
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	All versions	Earth textures are not drawn and pixel shader are disabled on the new Radeons. This is especially strange, as everything is OK on Radeon 9700 Pro.
		The game doesn't recognize new ATI GPUs. The problem can be fixed by editing Vendor:1002 ATI section in the cardid.txt file in the game folder. You must add corresponding DeviceIDs for Radeon 9600 and Radeon 9800 similar to already existing DeviceIDs. DeviceIDs can be found in driver's INF files of with the help of utilities like RivaTuner. E.g., for Radeon 9600 you must add: Device:4150 Radeon9600 Device:4170 Radeon9600 If you don't want to mess with files, download the updated file from us (2.6KB) and replace the original (don't forget to back it up). Catalyst 3.8 fixes earth textures bug, but you still have to edit cardid.txt to enable shaders.
Radeon 9000 Pro Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10	Tree textures are surrounded by some snow, if anisotropic filtering is forced.
		The only solution for now is to disable anisotropic filtering.

BloodRayne

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
All cards	All versions	If you press Esc or any other button to stop the intro, the game often crashes to Windows with a DirectX error message.
		An intro playback bug. This doesn't occur if the ingame resolution is the same as the desktop resolution. You can just watch 5-10 sec of intro and press Esc.

Colin McRae Rally 3 v1.1

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600	All versions	FSAA can't be enabled from in-game menu. It seems it's a feature, not a bug. Maybe developers think that GF4Ti and older can't offer suitable frame rate in CMR2 with FSAA.	-
		FSAA can be easily forced in drivers.
GeForce FX 5700 Ultra	53.03	Average fps drops significantly in some seconds after race start. Judging by RivaTuner, GPU clock speeds drop and are restored at this moment.	-
		The fps restores after game restart, but the bug repeats on all CMR3 tracks. The bug occurs only if you enable FSAA 4x ingame. When FSAA 4x is forced from the driver, this doesn't show up. If you select FSAA 2x ingame, the screen blinks black without performance drop. Seems like drivers bug.
Radeon 9000 Pro	All versions	The same as on GF4MX/Ti: FSAA can't be enabled in-game.	-
		If you remember, FSAA can be easily forced in drivers.
All cards	All versions	A "ghost" car shadow appears on some vertical planes very close to the road. Seems like a game engine bug.
		Patch v1.1 doesn't help.	-

Command & Conquer Generals v1.7

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.8	Some textures flicker and disappear.
		Fixed in Catalyst 3.9.	-

Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour v1.02

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.10	Heat Effects can't be enabled. If you try to change desktop resolution after you exit game, you get the BSOD.	-
		Hasn't been fixed yet.
GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900 Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	52.16 53.03 3.9 3.10	When you force AA from driver and enable Heat Effects ingame, the screen goes black (except for some bitmaps) when these effects are used (e.g. during production at Microwave Tank).
		Disable Heat Effects ingame. Don't force AA.	-

Delta Force: Black Hawk Down v1.3.0

Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind v1.6
(with Tribunal and Bloodmoon)

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	51.75 52.16	Water shader bug.
		Fixed in 53.03.
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10	Messed up water shader (see screenshots).
		None solutions so far. Each graphics card actually draws this long-suffering shader in its own way :-) But if the error isn't so noticeable on some cards, it immediately draws the attention on R9000Pro. (R9800Pro screenshots to the right).
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.8	Either Morrowind is flooded, or this beta periodically hides parts of the landscape on Radeon 9000 Pro.
		Fixed in Catalyst 3.9.	-

Enclave

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	51.75 52.16	Corrupted main menu. A previously played movie frame drawn instead of the Enclave world map.
		Fixed in ForceWare 53.03.
GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	52.16 53.03	Pixel shaders look very strange.
		Rollback to 45.23 or 45.33.
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10	Shader problems. The bug occasionally disappears to appear again next run. The source of it is unknown.
		It periodically disappears to occur next time the game is run. Even when this doesn't occur, it seems the water shader is "overpixelated". Hard to say whose fault it is...

Halo: Combat Evolved v1.031

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	52.16	Some light sources are missing.
		Fixed in ForceWare 53.03.
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.9 3.10	Shader bugs.
		None solutions so far.	-
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	All versions	Radeon's "selective" trilinear filtering shows up again. It works on all texture layers, when anisotropic filtering is selected by application. But it's disabled on some layers, when aniso is forced from the control panel. Note there's almost no difference between Perfomance and Quality AF, but MIP levels are clearly seen even when AF 16 is forced.
		None solutions so far.	-
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.9	Incorrect sniper scope visualization in night mode.
		Switch pixel shaders from 2.0 to 1.4 by running the game with '-use14' option. Fixed in Catalyst 3.10.

Homeworld 2 v1.1

Mafia v1.2

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	51.75 52.16 53.03	Only 4x or even 2x are forced when trying to force 8x anisotropic filtering. New Detonator 50 "optimizations" coupled with Mafia rendering traits. New NVIDIA drivers clearly reduce the anisotropic filtering on all levels, except the first and Mafia performs main rendering on levels higher than the first, so the primary textures are filtered less then it should be.
		The only way to get normal anisotropic filtering on GeForce FX for now is to use the previous 45.23 or 45.33.
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	All versions	Trilinear filtering is disabled when any anisotropic filtering level is forced (be it Perfomance, or Quality). Such a trait or ATI drivers coupled with Mafia texturing peculiarities. When Quality anisotropy is forced, Catalyst enables trilinear filtering for the first level only to perform main texturing. But in Mafia primary textures are processed on the next levels disabling trilinear filtering.
		None solutions so far.	-

Midnight Club 2

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600 GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	52.16 53.03	AA can't be forced. It seems the game doesn't support it.	-
		Hasn't been fixed yet.
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.8 3.9 3.10	Forcing AA: 1) distorts main menu rendering; 2) leaves the loading picture, when the race is already started.
		Just don't force antialiasing.	-
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.8 3.9 3.10	Antialiasing can't be forced.	-
		None solutions so far.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 v242

Need for Speed: Underground v1.3

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600 GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	53.03	When AA is forced and Light Trails and/or Motion Blur are enabled the screen goes littered.
		It seems these effects are still incompatible with AA.	-
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	53.03	Headlights give "discrete" light switching from darker to lighter (on fencing and houses). This doesn't occur on other maps.
		It seems the headlights are made using a pixel shader that causes problems on FX cards (funny, but FX5200 doesn't have this bug).	-
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.10	When AA is forced and Light Trails and/or Motion Blur are enabled the screen goes littered.
		It seems these effects are still incompatible with AA.	-
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.10	Headlights don't work.
		None solutions so far. Screenshots from Radeon 9800 Pro are to the right.
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.10	Screen goes black, when AA is forced and Light Trails and/or Motion Blur are enabled.	-
		This didn't occur in v1.0, where AA just couldn't be forced with these effects enabled.

Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide v1.61

An FSAA ingame "feature": the slider is designed for NVIDIA offering the maximum of "Nice 4 Sample Antialiasing". On GeForce 3+ this means FSAA 4x 9 tap. As there's no such FSAA mode on Radeon 9500+, FSAA just disables. "4 Sample Antialiasing" setting provides usual 4x FSAA on Radeon.

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	52.16 53.03	Perhaps, after drivers controls had been changed, AA 4x 9-tap aka Nice 4 sample antialiasing became disabled in-game. AA is just disabled, when you try this mode.	-
		Hasn't been fixed yet.
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.8	Some HUD and level textures flicker.
		Fixed in drivers 3.9.	-
Radeon 9000 Pro	All versions	Impossible to enable FSAA ingame.	-
		Force it in the drivers.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein v1.41

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	51.75 52.16	Depending on camera position entire level becomes light-struck. Seems to be a lightmap bug. Seems to occur in the multiplayer part only.
		Fixed in ForceWare 53.03.
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra	52.16 53.03	Already familiar AA experiments: image shakes, samples change positions in a frame. This happens, when you try to force AA 4x Performance. It still produces correct screenshots, so you have to check it on your monitor personally.	-
		Hasn't been fixed yet. Use Quality setting or rollback to the previous drivers.

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter v1.07

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600	All versions	The oldest bug of Z buffer initialization: by default SSTSE asks for 32-bit Z-Buffer and sets the minimum of 16-bit. Meanwhile the game runs in 32-bit color mode.
		Fixed manually. In the console type: gap_iDepthBits=24; ApplyVideoMode()

Silent Hill 2

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600 GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	All versions	Banding naturally squares the fog. As there's much fog, it becomes annoying very fast.
		None solutions so far. Radeon 9600 Pro screenshots are to the right.
Radeon 9000 Pro	All versions	About the same, as GeForce produces, but even worse.
		None solutions so far. Radeon 9600 Pro screenshots are to the right.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell v1.2b

You should remember that for NVIDIA GF3+ the game utilizes shadow mapping for increased shadow details. On GF4 MX and all RADEON cards it utilizes projected textures of considerably lower resolution. The difference is clearly seen on screenshots. . But what's the most interesting, SC's shadow mapping causes GF3+ cards to increase ingame "light amount". On the same screenshots you can see the different light meter values.

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600 GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	44.03 45.23 45.33 52.16 53.03	FSAA can't be forced. According to NVIDIA, this what game developers asked for to avoid rendering errors (see below about Radeon).	-
		Not a bug, but a feature. This feature can be bypassed by renaming SplinterCell.exe into, say, SplinterCel.exe. This enabled FSAA, but might also produce bugs similar to those observed on Radeons. For the sake of justice we must say we haven't seen any errors (just the deepest fps drop).
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10	FSAA forcing problems again.
		Just don't force AA.
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9	Forced FSAA causes overbrighting when enabling/disabling nightvision.
		Just don't force AA. Can't force AA in Catalyst 3.10. Renaming the EXE file doesn't help.

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness v52

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600	45.23 45.33 52.16 53.03	Some Louvre guards lack textures.
		No sources of this have been found so far.	-
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10	Some Louvre guards lack textures.
		No sources of this have been found so far.	-

Unreal Tournament 2003 v2225

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	44.03 45.23 45.33 52.16	High-level anisotropy is disabled on some textures. Drivers 52.16 introduced some new "features" into Detonators' oldest "bug". Textures, on which AF level is reduced, have changed (compare screenshots obtainted with 45.23 and 52.16). And if you enable AF via INI file, 52.16 drivers provide normal AF without any optimizations. This naturally causes a considerable performance drop.
		UT2003-specific aniso optimizations. None solutions so far. GeForce4 Ti4600 screenshot is to the right.

IL-2 Shturmovik: Forgotten Battles v1.21

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600	52.16 53.03	When shaders are enabled ("Excellent" detal level) the game crashes, when you try to load a level.	-
		Rollback to 45.23 or 45.33.
Radeon 9000 Pro Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.4 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9	Water shaders occasionally turn acid green. These used to turn sky blue in 1.0r version. Isn't it the progress? :-)
		Disable water shaders by reducing landscape detal level. The bug doesn't occur if text output is enabled. Fixed in Patch v1.21.
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.10	When 1C fixed pixel shaders bug, ATI managed to spoil something in Catalyst again. When "excellent" landscape detail level is enabled, the game locks up, when the 100% of loading is complete.	-
		Roll back to the previous drivers.

Silent Storm v1.2

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10	Serious texturing problems.
		This doesn't occur, if you reduce quality down to "Low" or "Average" ingame. To the right - screenshots from GeForce4 MX.

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