Doom 3 - Performance
This game is not only intense its engine is also beautiful, a true test for a midrange graphics card. As you can see from the graph, 1024 outperforms our WS resolution which in turn outperforms 1280x1024. Although extremely close, the results show that playing WS does not affect game play as much as at least I would have thought.
Quake 4 SP - Performance
Just unwrapped and barely played, based on the Doom 3 Engine, Quake 4 is also visually stunning but brings a few issues at hand when trying to compare video cards. The included demo programs (yes there are 2) both have the issue of not playing everything back during a time demo. Therefore using it as a benchmark is irrelevant. We used Fraps and ran the MCC Landing portion of the Single Player giving us outside and inside play to hopefully bring to bear a relevant benchmark. Although using an edited Doom3 engine, the performance is not similar as one would expect. This is in part due to Quake 4 venturing outside more often where there is more to draw and it is much brighter. Especially when compared to the dank dungeons for the Doom3 test used. Using Fraps makes this a more real world scenario, and although I can not run through this portion exactly the same each time, I try to stay pretty close. Our widescreen resolution is pretty much the same in terms of performance as our highest non widescreen mode; our lower resolution however offers a better frame rate if you wish to add in some anti-aliasing. Remove the anti-alisaing and the Asus 6600GT Silencer card can play Quake 4 SP very well indeed.
Quake 4 SP - Image Quality
No AA/8AF Left, 4x AA/8xAF Right
Still brandy new, so it is hard not to be biased since I am a long time Quake series fan. Playing it with the Asus Silencer, I was more then impressed. At medium settings this card was fluid throughout with rarely a notice of a hiccup what so ever. All of you other 6600GT owners make note of 2 things very important to Quake 4 and my results. Number 1, this is a 256MB card and #2, I am pushing this with an AMD64 3200+; your results depending on GDDR and CPU will vary drastically (I have heard reports of very stuttery play on 6600GT's with 128MB ram being pushed by AMD XP 2200+). Enabling AA/AF only caused the games flow to be interrupted and the close match of the mouse movements to be off. If you must have AA/AF turned on, turn down the resolution from 1280x800.
Unreal Tournament 2004 - Performance
Although not really long in the tooth, you can see even midrange cards have caught up with this engine, and they paint it very well. The silencer does not disappoint. Once again the recurring theme, 1024 outperforms our WS resolution which in turn slightly outperforms 1280x1024. Interesting to note that even with AA/AF on, the WS resolution performs nicely on the Asus Silencer. And of course, since the silencer has no moving parts, it does it in silence too. Just right for some late night gaming.
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