High End Performance Tests
And now, we come to the extreme tests. Unfortunately, we couldn't push our tests beyond 2048x1536 this time around, so the 7800 GTX SLI setup is still not stretching its legs to its full potential (which is extremely impressive). For our 1920x1440 test (a little larger than HDTV's 1080p), the trend continues from the previous tests. This time around, we see that the SLI setup is steadily becoming less CPU bound under our AA/AF test. Without turning these features on, we do still bump into the CPU limit, however.
And our current highest end test, 2048x1536 still shows an incredible frame rate under the 7800 GTX SLI. Increasing AA/AF settings still can't hurt it too much, and even the single 7800 GTX is playable with all the options on at the highest resolution test that we ran. The 6800 Ultra and X850 XT are only playable at this resolution without AA enabled (though, the ATI part comes closer to being playable). It should go without saying that the mid-range cards are unplayable here.
For high end cards paired with a monitor that can handle it, 1920x1440 offers good AA performance. If the investment in a 7800 GTX seems worth it, nothing looks better than 2048x1536 with 4xAA/AF. Oddly enough, we can still see the difference between aliased and antialiased game play at these huge resolutions. Of course, the problem is only obvious on near vertical or near horizontal lines and is much less of an issue at huge resolutions than at, say, 1024x768.
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yanman - Sunday, July 10, 2005 - link
When I tried out BF 1.0 with 77.72 drivers and 2 Galaxy 6600GTs in SLI i had major issues in 1920x1200. I had to revert to 1600x1200 or another square res to fix this. Any idea why I'd have these problems? (basically the image was skewing everywhere at half-way point so obviously a SLI issue)xtknight - Saturday, July 9, 2005 - link
And I almost forgot to mention...great little review/test here.xtknight - Saturday, July 9, 2005 - link
I would have liked to see some 6800 Non-Ultra benchmarks...the AGP version of this card is a much hotter deal then the 6600GT...I saw one for $156 the other day.DanDaMan315 - Saturday, July 9, 2005 - link
Honestly this is the most incomplete GPU preformance test review I have ever seen out of AT. I am disappointed.bobsmith1492 - Friday, July 8, 2005 - link
What I get out of this is that ATI cards struggle at higher resolutions, but thrive with AA; Nvidia is the opposite.It makes sense for ATI to go for the AA since most people have smaller monitors, although higher resolution is really better all around.
dornick - Friday, July 8, 2005 - link
Thumbs up for updating with x800xl and 6800gtPastuch - Friday, July 8, 2005 - link
Canadian Graphics Card Pricing:
ATI x800xl: $329 AGP (www.canadacomputers.com) $379 PCIE (NCIX)
6800gt: $379 at NCiX if you can catch a sale.
$400 PCIE (NCIX) Basically if you want a 6800gt you have to spend $400.
X850XT: $499 (Bestbuy Sale - It just started today and until now this card cost $650)
Asus 7800GTX: $669 (NCIX sale)
ss284 - Friday, July 8, 2005 - link
BTW, x850xt's are hitting closer to the 375-400 price mark now. The 7800 is still 550-600.yacoub - Friday, July 8, 2005 - link
"...it has been a constant struggle to ... properly render resolutions above 1600x1200 on analog monitors."Everyone should be running LCDs for high resolutions these days anyway. Much easier on the eyes and weigh maybe a tenth as much as some giant friggin' CRT.
Thanks for adding the X800XL and 6800GT to the comparisons, they were much desired. Now if only the tests were done on more common systems so we could actually expect to get the same FPS results as your tests (FX-55).
tgjp - Friday, July 8, 2005 - link
Just like to say, I've bought a system with 7800GTX in SLi and I am very excited about using this machine, and perhaps playing battlefield2.