Going to test a new GPU

by Anand Lal Shimpi on 9/24/2003 8:05 PM EST
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  • rhinohide - Friday, September 26, 2003 - link

    Battlefield 1942 is a must.
    Nascar Racing 2003 would be a nice addition in an often overlooked (as far as benchmarks go) genre.
  • DG - Friday, September 26, 2003 - link

    OK I take it back at least partly, or think I might have to anyway :p. Just saw a news item at www.Bluesnews.com:

    'A new Final Fantasy XI Benchmark has been released offering the opportunity to test your system's mettle by way of the upcoming RPG. The benchmark also includes a demo mode that does not benchmark your system, but "allows you to look at selected event scenes of FINAL FANTASY XI has been added. It is totally different from bench mode. Please enjoy the dynamic and imposing images."'

    link -> http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/benchmark.html
  • Anonymous - Friday, September 26, 2003 - link

    mmorpg are very populars. I dont know if it's possible to bench them but if you find a way to bench with them it would be great.
    Actualy I play Dark Age of Camelot, and during a massive attack with 300+ players on the screen, my graphic card (radeon 8500) can't keep with the load (2-3 fps).
    I realy would apreciate to know if a recent graphic card could put out more fps.

    Thanks.

    Marco from Switzerland

    P.S. sorry for my poor English
  • DG - Thursday, September 25, 2003 - link

    "Anonymous", FPS type games are the mainstay of GPU benchmarks because they stress them far more. I know know any game that makes anything like the demands on a video card than newer games with first-person persectives. That has a dual effect of making them more suited for benchmarking while also making GPU relative performance more relevant - its more necessary, or useful anyway. to have a top end card for a new FPS game than it is for a new RPG.

    The bulk of 3D first-person games are first-person shooters. Further, FPS etc games tend to be more suitable, you dont really see frame counters etc on other types of games.

    OK so much of that doesnt apply so well to other types of game mentioned e.g. some 3D simulators etc. Actually though I thought Aquamark was third-person swim-about or something?
  • Anonymous - Thursday, September 25, 2003 - link

    Like #1, I'd rather you put in something other than more FPS benchmarks. Why do we need 10 different FPS benchmarks when theres only like 3 engines that are actually fundamentally different? Throw in some RTS, some RPG, some simulation and other things we don't usually see but are just as popular.
  • TB - Thursday, September 25, 2003 - link

    Call of Power would be better than ET for this purpose since its brand new, however its still stuck using the old Quake3 engine which isnt what i'd classify as state of the art. Mind you, its been heavily changed for the game and makes use of shaders so could be good as a stop gap measure till Doom3 is vailable.
  • DG - Thursday, September 25, 2003 - link

    There's the obvious standard of UT2003 and Quake 3. To add an OpenGL based game I'd consider Enemy Territory because its free, so many people can easily have a go at benching their own systems for the price of the download. Also it's a popular game and is more stressing on the GPU than Quake3 - though still seems primarily CPU bound, if not as much as Q3. ET I'd assume would be a fairly good indicator (at least relatively) for performance of Madal of Honor games. Call of Duty would be a welcome alternative, and is newer - so new I think it's not quite out yet unfortunately.

    Dx9 games should probably take the focus though, lets face it every new card can handle Dx8 games with ease. Myself, and I suspect most people considering a new purchase, are much more concerned about performance in upcoming games - to make guesses at how long the card will last them.

    Halo would be most welcome also. Personally I think it would be a sneaky decision to have a regular standard set of game benchmarks, plus a semi-random wider selection to make it harder to specifically optimise for.

    Of course what everyone wants to see benched up is HL2 or D3... :p
  • Goose - Thursday, September 25, 2003 - link

    What about Battlefield 1942 and Rise of Nations. Both are giving my AIW8500DV a hard time, so im looking to upgrade soon. So, since you cant bench HL2, these are the games im interested in and play now!
  • TB - Thursday, September 25, 2003 - link

    Although CS is popular, its engine is way old and seriously out of date. If your gfx card isnt doing like 100fps+ in it, its time to sell the Virge64. It would be a pointless review piece.
  • BDawg - Thursday, September 25, 2003 - link

    How about Star Wars Galaxies. That seems to be a real video hog. Then again, performing consistent tests is going to be hard with an MMORPG. Maybe the devs could set you up with a test package?
  • Hybr1S - Thursday, September 25, 2003 - link

    Hi Anand!

    Just wanna thank u for the great work through the years. Even up here in Sweden you're famous for your hard work and dedication to providing the community with the best reviews and insights of the industry. Nice to see this weblog, it's great. I've had a feeling of late that you weren't as in touch with the audience for the last year as you used to be... this is a great decision and heightens the feeling of feedback u can get from a true guru as yourself for the little man.

    I don't know what engine LOTR: return of the king uses, but it brought my system down, and it looked awesome...

    Far Cry, STALKER, HALO and such would be nice to see, when they get available.

    I've had a thought for a long time but never had the guts to spill it, cause Ï know I'll get flamed! =) But here goes nothin'...

    Since Halflife had such a tremendous impact on the game community, and counterstrike beeing the most played game on the net, why not include a small benchmark of it in the GPU reviews, not to show of the new features of the new boards, but to provide a insight on how it works with an old engine. I hardly play Halflife/Counterstrike any more, but there seems to be thousands that do, and it's the number 1 game featured at the CPL. Since CS 1.6 came out, I can't get decent fps with my Radeon 9700 Pro in OpenGL or D3D. I think it would bring thousands of more readers to your page if they saw how a new GPU would run an old game like halflife/counterstrike. I just thought it like a great idea to bring more readers to your page and at the same time provide the community that obviously plays this game with a gift. Well my idea probably sucks, and I'm gonna get flamed, but at least I've aired it know...

    Thx for all your great work, it's a plesure to visit anandtech everyday and read your great reviews.

    /Mike
  • Morten - Thursday, September 25, 2003 - link

    I agree with #8. Or if Quake3 is still being used, atleast use a different demo that doesn't get 400-500fps, like firingsquad did. With a hectic match in Q3, the Athlon64FX actually beat a P4 3.2GHz.

    On a different note, cool that you're doing a weblog. I like it. Keep up the good work :)
  • TB - Thursday, September 25, 2003 - link

    I would like to see more advanced OpenGL based tests used. Quake3 simply does not cut it these days.
  • Luagsch - Thursday, September 25, 2003 - link

    just tried to play a little quake1 with the tenebrae engine and hq textures and it completly destroyed my rig with everything turned on. sure the good old quake1 is way outdated but maybe the tenebrae engine may be interesting.
  • UlricT - Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - link

    hmmmm.... could this be the Volaris chip you are testing Anand?
  • Dannyboy - Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - link

    Id be interested in seeing a benchmark done in regards to the medal of honor series of games (Alliead Assualt, Spearhead etc).

    Prob not gunna happen but perhaps you could bump one in ;)

    Thanks
    Dan
  • GTaudiophile - Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - link

    R360/RADEON 9800XT IN DA HOUSE!

    Of course, we've seen pics of NV38, so I hope they're both IN DA HOUSE! Please provide plenty of DX9 benches with both CAT 3.8 and DET 50.XX drivers if at all possible!

    Thanks,

    -resident fanATIc
  • UlricT - Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - link

    Hey Anand,

    You mentioned an 8AM class. Those are really bad! I gotta take one this sem :(. How far are you along in college? Its great that you can get time off to dedicate to this site, and now, this blog too... :)
  • karmapunk - Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - link

    I'd say its important that you guys start doin DX9 games. Obviously those aren't too many out yet, but homeworld 2 is. I think that should be a good graphics card stresser with the huge poly counts in big battles, the realtime lighting and shading, etc.
  • Jason - Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - link

    I'd like to see some simulator games in the benchmarks (F1 car racing espescially) but this probably isn't very mainstream so I will not hold my breath.

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