Fall 2003 Video Card Roundup Part I - ATI's Radeon 9800 XT
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on October 1, 2003 3:02 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Fantasy XI
The Final Fantasy series has always been popular, and will probably always be popular. I have a personal affinity towards the series, but I’m not so sure about the Massively Multiplayer Online style they are going for this time around. The benchmark is much more straightforward than the success of their future game: we set it to high-res benchmark mode (1024x768) and record the number of frames that get rendered (in the bottom right hand corner). Then we divide that by the length of time the benchmark runs to get an average frames per second.
The two most expensive ATI cards manage to nudge out the rest of the pack which are mostly tied. Again, the 9700 Pro does a good job of remaining competitive, and the 9600 Pro is still hanging on while doing a good job of clearly beating the 5600 Ultra. Unlike the Aquanox3 style of benchmark which has a set number of frames to render, this benchmark has a set time to move through a scene and render as many frames as possible while doing so. That makes image comparison a little more difficult. No matter what hardware this benchmark is run on, there seems to be a lot of motion blur and antialiasing is not an available option (and doesn't work even if its enabled at the driver level).
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Pete - Friday, October 3, 2003 - link
Why should they test at a higher res when the fastest cards have trouble breaking 60fps on most of these benchmarks?!Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
Who the hell is playing games at 1024 x 768 these days?!!! Go higher and see how all ATI cards kick butt!!!!!!Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
Anand is testing a card that is not out, with drivers that are not released (52.xx) , on a CPU that is not available ????At least he could benchmark DX9, wich is available.
Tomb Raider AOD.
Maybe not, because Nvidia sucks at DX9,
Maybe Nvidia had a clause( you get to test our new card and new (cheat) drivers, but you can not use any DX9 titles ???
We all know Nvidia sucks at DX9, but it should be included in the tests.
We all know Nvidia is good at UT and Quake, but you still had those games to the Bench suit ???
I have been reading Anand for years, this is the first time I have been really deceived.!
It is amazing what MONEY will make you do or say..
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
everyone can now rest peacefully not that bigshot has spoken! all hail the mighty bigshot and his useless rambling!!!we should all bow down to his infinite wisdom and wonderful use of childish phrases
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
#197, you mean the 9500 Pro, and it's not a third of the price, it's currently two thirds and was never less than a half.Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
I would've liked to see a Radeon 9500 and/or an OCSystems 9500 Radeon in the mix with these benchmarks. Even though the 9500 is discontinued it still performs on par with a 9700 card. Overclock it or flash new Bios onto it and it might perform right up with these cards; for a third of the price to.Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
I'd like to see my testicles running 2xAA. I have no doubt in my mind that ATi is even beter than Nvidia's best! I've noticed the lag on my genitals when playing multiplayer games, such as BF1952 & TF2. I personally cannot wait for Dx9.How about that HL2 source code leak? I have a good feelin about it. :-)
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
Sorry Bigshot here... I posted twice. I posted number #192 and number #193.I just wanted to say ATI Kicks NVida Butts!!!
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
Idiot!Anonymous User - Thursday, October 2, 2003 - link
Bigsot here again as I remembered what i forgot to say...The 2xAA of the ATI is even beter than nvidias best!
ATI cards are the bestest!
Nvidia card owners must be crying!
Not me! Cause I got me an ATI!!!