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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Tiamat - Thursday, July 7, 2005 - link
#6 that was what I was gonna ask :/also, 9800pro would be cool...
reactor - Thursday, July 7, 2005 - link
frallen, 6800 ultras in sli perform about the same as a single 7800, so take that as your benchmark. so either way it would be the same performance, but if you get the 7800 then you have the option to go sli later and get even better performance.nice article, hope to see it updated when ati releases their cards.
100proof - Thursday, July 7, 2005 - link
No X800XL benchmarks? =/Frallan - Thursday, July 7, 2005 - link
Since I went SLI and 1*6800 GT in the begining I would like to see how a 6800gt SLI or a 6800 U SLI setup does. The 6800U does 42.5 in 16*12 which is just about playable so how will a SLI setup do? (the question for me will be to either sell my 6800gt doing Ultra+ speeds and get a 7800 or get another 6800 gt).RobFDB - Thursday, July 7, 2005 - link
Think it's time for me to up the resolution. I've been playing on 4xAA and high settings @ 1024 on my rig. My 3500+ and x850 XT PE should be able to handle higher. Does anyone know how to run this time demo to benchmark their own system?Cavedweller - Thursday, July 7, 2005 - link
No test of Radeon 9700/9800? 8(DigitalDivine - Thursday, July 7, 2005 - link
i'm playing bf2 fine on my 1.6ghz duron and 512 mb of ram, with a 9200 non pro at low settings 800x600.at low settings, that game is still very damn playable. kudos to them.
btw, for those wanting their 9200s to run with bf2, set your agp speed to 4x. for some odd reason that works. *game freezing after the bink videos.
now back to playing with my also antiquated 2.8 p4 with 9800pro *sigh, only at medium settings.
R3MF - Thursday, July 7, 2005 - link
i could play the demo ok on my rig at 1164x896 (or some such random number), which is the highest resolution it permitted.however i understand the retail game still won't ship with support for 1680x1050, so i won't be buying it.