Monthly drivers report and popular 3D
accelerators comparison

On March 10, 2004 the latest driver from from the 10th of March 2004 to the 10th of April 2004). As usual, there are many diagrams containing the information on changes in operation of videocards at change to last version drivers, and also summary diagrams of popular modern videocards performance. Traditionally we provide the best price/performance information for our 3Digest. Quality aspects are reviewed in the section dedicated to Windows XP.

April 2004

The community that had been looking forward to ATI R420 and NVIDIA NV40, had finally heard the announcements :)) This is the most important event of this issue. You can already read reviews of NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra and ATI RADEON X800 XT/Pro at Digit-Life. The battle for the 3D throne has started, so we'll be bringing you the latest from the front.

By the way, in this issue we offer you the test results of all the novelties! Read up ;)

It's our 47th issue of 3Digest.

CONTENTS

1. Testbed configurations and test software
2. Tested videocards list
3. What's new in 3Digest
4. Test summary diagrams and digest bottom line
5. 3D accelerator rating calculations for the end of the month
6. Anisotropic filtering examination
7. Examination of different antialiasing modes
8. Screenshot gallery
9. Games quality section

1. Testbed configuration

1.1. Pentium 4 3.2GHz-based system:

• Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz (L2=512K) CPU, Hyper-Threading enabled;
• ASUS P4C800 Deluxe motherboard on i875P chipset;
• 1 GB DDR SDRAM PC3200;
• Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB HDD;
• Quantum FB AS 20GB HDD.

1.2. System on Athlon 64 3200+:

• AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (L2=1024K);
• ASUS K8V SE Deluxe motherboard on VIA K8T800;
• 1 GB DDR SDRAM PC3200;
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB SATA HDD.

We also used Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1, DirectX 9.0b, 21" ViewSonic P810 monitor.

The list of benchmarks is here

2. Videocard list

Below is the list of graphics cards that we tested. Each corresponding page contains the brief card description. Besides, some pages are dedicated to the latest drivers for cards on given GPUs. In the summary diagrams you can also see the performance results obtained on overclocked graphics cards.

Drivers released by videocard manufacturers are not taken into account (unless written by GPU manufacturers) because there are very many of them and it's impossible to test them all.

You can find comments about reviewed drivers in the corresponding sections:

• ATI RADEON 9600 XT 128MB DDR 3.3ns (500/600 MHz)
• ATI RADEON 9800 XT 256MB DDR 2.5ns (412/730 MHz)
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra 128MB DDR2 2.2ns (475/900 MHz)
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra 256MB DDR 2.0ns (475/950 MHz)

3D graphics quality screenshots are provided in our monthly updated Screenshot Gallery.

Cards list:

1. ATI RADEON 9000 Pro 128MB DDR 3.6ns (275/550 MHz)
2. ATI RADEON 9200 128MB DDR 4ns (250/400 MHz)
3. ATI RADEON 9200 SE 128MB 64bit DDR 6ns (200/333 MHz)
4. ATI RADEON 9550 128MB DDR 4ns (250/400 MHz)
5. ATI RADEON 9600 128MB DDR 4ns (325/400 MHz)
6. ATI RADEON 9600 SE 128MB 64bit DDR 4ns (325/400 MHz)
7. ATI RADEON 9600 Pro 128MB DDR 2.8ns (400/600 MHz)
8. ATI RADEON 9600 256MB DDR 5ns (325/400 MHz)
9. ATI RADEON 9600 Pro 256MB DDR 5ns (400/400 MHz)
10. ATI RADEON 9600 XT 128MB DDR 3.3ns (500/600 MHz)
11. ATI RADEON 9600 XT 128MB DDR 2.8ns (525/650 MHz)
12. ATI RADEON 9800 SE 128MB 128bit DDR 3.3ns (325/540 MHz)
13. ATI RADEON 9800 SE 128MB DDR 2.8ns (360/680 MHz)
14. ATI RADEON 9800 128MB DDR 3.3ns (325/580 MHz)
15. ATI RADEON 9800 Pro 128MB DDR 2.8ns (380/680 MHz)
16. ATI RADEON 9800 Pro 256MB DDR 2.8ns (380/680 MHz)
17. ATI RADEON 9800 XT 256MB DDR 2.5ns (412/730 MHz)
18. ATI RADEON X800 Pro 256MB DDR3 2.0ns (475/890 MHz)
19. ATI RADEON X800 XT 256MB DDR3 1.6ns (525/1150 MHz)
20. NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8x 128MB DDR 4ns (250/513 MHz) *
21. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 128MB DDR 64bit 6ns (250/333 MHz)
22. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 128MB DDR 5ns (250/400 MHz)
23. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 128MB DDR 5ns (270/400 MHz)
24. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 128MB DDR 3.6ns (325/550 MHz)
25. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 XT 128MB 64bit DDR 4ns (235/400 MHz)
26. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 XT 128MB 128bit DDR 4ns (235/400 MHz)
27. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 256MB DDR 5ns (325/400 MHz)
28. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 LE 128MB DDR 5ns (250/400 MHz)
29. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 128MB DDR 3.6ns (425/550 MHz)
30. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 256MB DDR 3.6ns (425/500 MHz)
31. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 256MB DDR 3.3ns (425/600 MHz)
32. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra 128MB DDR2 2.2ns (475/900 MHz)
33. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra 128MB DDR3 2.0ns (475/950 MHz)
34. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 XT 128MB DDR 2.8ns (400/700 MHz)
35. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 128MB DDR 2.2ns (400/850 MHz)
36. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 256MB DDR 2.2ns (450/850 MHz)
37. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra 256MB DDR 2.0ns (475/950 MHz)
38. NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra 256MB DDR3 1.6ns (400/1100 MHz)
39. XGI Volari Duo V8 Ultra 256MB DDR2 2ns (330/900 MHz)

(*) - temporarily returned from the archive.

Archive (videocards, which info is no longer updated)

3. April 2004 news and matters

• 3.1. The following drivers were released from March 10, 2004 to April 10, 2004:
  
  
  • NVIDIA ForceWare for all NVIDIA cards:
    
    
    • Windows XP: 56.64, 56.72, 56.82, 60.72;

    
    

  • ATI Catalyst for all ATI cards:
    
    
    • Windows XP: 6.436;
      

  
  These and other drivers are available for download at drivers.ixbt.com, riva.ixbt.com
  
  

• 3.2. In this issue we used NVIDIA 60.72 drivers and ATI 6.436 drivers (6.444 drivers for RADEON X800) for summary charts.
  

4. Summary graphics card performance charts for the latest drivers available at the moment of testing in April 2004

Due to some technical reasons ATI RADEON X800 XT results are charted for AMD Athlon 64 3200+ testbed only.

• 4.1. Call of Duty
  • Windows XP
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200

  • Windows XP, AntiAliasing+Anisotropy
    • 1024x768, AntiAliasing+Anisotropy

  
  
  

• 4.2. FarCry
  • Windows XP
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200

  • Windows XP, AntiAliasing+Anisotropy
    • 1024x768, AntiAliasing+Anisotropy

  
  
  

• 4.3. Unreal 2: The Awakening
  • Windows XP
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200

  • Windows XP, AntiAliasing+Anisotropy
    • 1024x768, AntiAliasing+Anisotropy

  
  
  

• 4.4. Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness
  • Windows XP
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200

  • Windows XP, AntiAliasing+Anisotropy
    • 1024x768, AntiAliasing+Anisotropy

  
  
  

• 4.5. RightMark 3D
  • Windows XP
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200

  • Windows XP, AntiAliasing+Anisotropy
    • 1024x768, AntiAliasing+Anisotropy

  
  
  

• 4.6. Half Life 2 beta
  • Windows XP
    • 1024x768, Anisotropy
    • 1280x1024, Anisotropy
    • 1600x1200, Anisotropy

  • Windows XP, AntiAliasing+Anisotropy
    • 1024x768, AntiAliasing+Anisotropy

  
  
  

• 4.7. Archive (information from the previous 3Digests absent in this issue)
  
  
• 4.8. Notes on graphics cards performance with the latest drivers:
  
  
  • If a particular card is not in the summary, it means the given benchmark didn't work or worked incorrectly with it.

  
  

  • RADEON 9200 showed periodical performance drop to nearly 0 level in Half Life 2 beta.
    
    
  • Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness doesn't work on GeForce4.
    
    
  • XGI Volari refuses to work in high resolutions with the new drivers. Only 800x600 and 1024x768 are available. A very nice way to increase card performance, don't you think? ;) Besides, rendering quality is traditionally awful. Multiple bugs show up in FarCry.
    

We recommend you visit either product support websites if you come across any "peculiarities".

I guess no more comments needed, readers will easily understand what is what themselves. :)

5. 3D accelerator ratings calculations for the end of the month

Anyone who wants to conduct his own rating calculations with his own values may download this Excel table (Office'3-'0) in RAR 3.0 and ZIP format.

In this issue we calculated prospect and usability ratings based on AMD Athlon 64 3200+ testbed results.

The method of rating calculation is described here.

Calculations were conducted considering the following assumptions:

1. Windows XP is used;
2. Percentage of performance and quality demand ratio:
   • Performance priority - 60%
   • Quality priority - 40%

3. ONLY 1600x1200@32bpp resolution was used for the prospect rating;
4. Usability ratings are separated into the three sections: High-End, Middle-End, and Low-End. Each rating features its own expenses for system upgrade. All this is considered in APG parameter that is 100 for Low-End, 250 for Middle-End, and 151 for High-End. We believe that if a user wants to purchase a very expensive and powerful accelerator, he understands the inanity of installing it into a Low-End PC. So we separated the usability rating for different PC levels.

Usability rating (rating from the previous 3Digest is in parentheses):

Usability rating: card price + $500

Usability rating: card price + $250

Usability rating: card price + $100

Prospect rating (previous rating is in parenthesis):

Games quality section

6. Anisotropic filtering examination

Anisotropic filtering examination on the example of Call Of Duty (OpenGL) and Unreal 2: The Awakening (Direct3D), (Windows XP)

7. Antialiasing examination

Antialiasing examination in Serious Sam:The Second Encounter (OpenGL), and Unreal 2: The Awakening (Direct3D), (Windows XP)

8. Games screenshot gallery

All test screenshots are compiled into a gallery where you can qualify the work of a chosen videocard and compare it to the reference images taken on ATI Radeon 9500. All shots were taken at the same 1024x768 resolution at the maximum quality. Screenshot gallery

9. Games artefacts gallery

Games quality section