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Battle of
ATI RADEON X800 XT and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra
- Fragment Two:
450 MHz NV40 and New Tests of Both Cards







CONTENTS

  1. Introduction
  2. Features of the videocards
  3. Configurations of testbeds, test tools
  4. Synthetic tests in D3D RightMark
  5. Test results: Quake3 ARENA
  6. Test results: Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
  7. Test results: Return to Castle Wolfenstein
  8. Test results: Code Creatures DEMO
  9. Test results: Unreal Tournament 2003
  10. Test results: Unreal II: The Awakening
  11. Test results: RightMark 3D
  12. Test results: TRAOD
  13. Test results: FarCry (performance and quality)
  14. Test results: Call Of Duty
  15. Test results: HALO: Combat Evolved
  16. Test results: Half-Life2(beta)
  17. Test results: Splinter Cell
  18. Test results: Colin Mcrae Rally04 (performance and quality)
  19. Test results: Max Payne-2 (performance and quality)
  20. Test results: Painkiller (performance and quality)
  21. Test results: Need For Speed: Underground (performance and quality)
  22. Test results: Pirates of the Carribean (quality)
  23. Test results: Vietcong (quality)
  24. Test results: 3DMark03-Game1
  25. Test results: 3DMark03-Game2
  26. Test results: 3DMark03-Game3
  27. Test results: 3DMark03-Game4
  28. Test results: 3DMark03-MARKS
  29. Test results: AquaMark3
  30. Driver NVIDIA version 61.11
  31. Conclusions



Test results: performance (and sometimes quality)

Note that all the readings of the game tests were taken on an Athlon64-based PC.

We used the followign tools:

  • Return to Castle Wolfenstein (MultiPlayer) (id Software/Activision) — OpenGL, multitexturing, ixbt0703-demo, test settings are all maximal, S3TC OFF, the configurations can be downloaded here

  • Serious Sam: The Second Encounter v.1.05 (Croteam/GodGames) — OpenGL, multi, ixbt0703-demo, test settings: quality, S3TC OFF

  • Quake3 Arena v.1.17 (id Software/Activision) — OpenGL, multitexturing, ixbt0703-demo, test settings are all maximal: detalisation level High, texture detalisation level #4, S3TC OFF, uneven surfaces were made much smoother with the help of variables r_subdivisions «1» and r_lodCurveError «30000» (not that r_lodCurveError «250» is set by default), the configurations can be downloaded here

  • Unreal Tournament 2003 v.2225 (Digital Extreme/Epic Games) — Direct3D, Vertex Shaders, Hardware T&L, Dot3, cube texturing, default quality

  • Code Creatures Benchmark Pro (CodeCult) — game test that demonstrates the board's capabilities in DirectX 8.1, Shaders, HW T&L

  • Unreal II: The Awakening (Legend Ent./Epic Games) — Direct3D, Vertex Shaders, Hardware T&L, Dot3, cube texturing, default quality

  • RightMark 3D v.0.4 (one of the game scenes) — DirectX 8.1, Dot3, cube texturing, shadow buffers, vertex and pixel shaders (1.1, 1.4)

  • Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness v.49 (Core Design/Eldos Software) — DirectX 9.0, Paris5_4 demo. Testing was carried out at the maximal quality with only Depth of Fields PS20 disabled

  • HALO: Combat Evolved (Microsoft) — Direct3D, Vertex/Pixel Shaders 1.1/2.0, Hardware T&L, maximal quality

  • Half-Life2 (Valve/Sierra) — DirectX 9.0, demo (ixbt07. Testing was carried out with anisotropic filtering enabled, and also in the heavy mode (AA, anisotropy)

  • Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell v.1.2b (UbiSoft) — Direct3D, Vertex/Pixel Shaders 1.1/2.0, Hardware T&L, maximal quality (Very High); demo 1_1_2_Tbilisi

  • Call of Duty (MultiPlayer) (Infinity Ward/Activision) — OpenGL, multitexturing, ixbt0104demo, test settings are all maximal, S3TC ON

  • Fac Cry v.1.1 (Crytek/UbiSoft), DirectX 9.0, multitexturing, demo01 (start with the -DEVMODE option), test settings are all Very High

  • Colin McRay Rally04 (Codemasters) — DirectX 9.0, multitexturing, test settings are all maximal (FRAPS utility was used)

  • Max Payne-2 (Remedy/Rockstar Games) — DirectX 8.1, multitexturing, test settings are all maximal (FRAPS utility was used)

  • Need For Speed: Underground (Electronic Arts) — DirectX 8.1, multitexturing, test settings are all maximal (FRAPS utility was used)

  • Painkiller (People Can Fly/Dreamcatcher) — DirectX 9.0, multitexturing, test settings are all maximal (FRAPS utility was used)

  • 3DMark03 v.3.40 (FutureMark) — DirectX 9.0, multitexturing, test settings are all maximal

  • AquaMark3 (Massive Development) — DirectX 9.0, multitexturing, test settings are all maximal

If you want to get demo benchmarks, send me an e-mail.

Considering the power of modern accelerators, I decided to exclude modes with either AA or AF. Thus, only a pure mode and the one with a full AA+AF load are represented here.

Quake3 Arena









The lightest mode (no AA or anisotropy): R420 loses to its rival (we've seen it before)

The heaviest mode (both AA and anisotropy): the same thing

Thus:

  • NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra 450MHz vs. ATI RADEON X800 XT: the former wins.
  • NVIDIA version 61.11 vs. 60.72: no differences.



Serious Sam: The Second Encounter









The lightest mode (no AA or anisotropy): NV40 hammers its rival

The heaviest mode (both AA and anisotropy): the same thing

Thus:

  • NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra 450MHz vs. ATI RADEON X800 XT: the former wins.
  • NVIDIA version 61.11 vs. 60.72: no differences.



Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Multiplayer)









The lightest mode (no AA or anisotropy): NV40 (OpenGL!) has a slim victory

The heaviest mode (both AA and anisotropy): a similar thing, only a more solid victory

Thus:

  • NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra 450MHz vs. ATI RADEON X800 XT: the former wins.
  • NVIDIA version 61.11 vs. 60.72: no differences.



Code Creatures









The lightest mode (no AA or anisotropy): a sort of a parity (in the case of 400 MHz NV40), a slim victory of the 450MHz card.

The heaviest mode (both AA and anisotropy): a clear-cut victory of X800 XT, even 450 MHz can't save NV40.

Thus:

  • NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra 450MHz vs. ATI RADEON X800 XT: the latter wins (taking into account heavy modes)
  • NVIDIA version 61.11 vs. 60.72: no changes.



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Andrey Vorobiev (anvakams@ixbt.com)
Alexander Medvedev (unclesam@ixbt.com)

28.04.2004


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