Direct3D Game Tests

    DirectX has become a more popular method for game programmers for the past while.  One of the older DirectX based games is UT2004, based on the venerable Unreal engine which has been massively upgraded over the past few years.  This has produced very good looking graphics and a graphically demanding game, or at least it has been.  Lets see what the X700 can do in this test.

    In this test all but one card pass the 60fps average frame rate and that one is the Intel IGP.  The X700 becomes pretty CPU bound here as there is only 1fps difference between overclocked and not overclocking.  Overall this test is easy for the current generation of mid-range and higher cards.  So lets increase the settings.

    Here the current generation of cards show the differences between old and new.  Where the FX5750 was remotely close previously here the X700 beats it quite handily.  The nice thing is the difference between the two cards is the difference between playability and the game not being playable for most gamers.  Overclocking the card nets you a small increase in frame rate as even here the card is CPU limited.

    The ATi based card still shows that even at 1600*1200 it can easily reach above the 60fps mark.  Overclocking the card nets a larger increase of performance, 14%, much like that of the Doom 3 1024 AA test.  This means that this test isn't CPU limited at least not very much.  What happens when we add AA and ansiotropic filtering, can the X700 stay above 60fps on average?

    It comes very close, only 4fps on average below the 60fps mark.  However this does not mean that this card isn't playable at this resolution in this game.  Rather when overclocked it should satisfy all but the very demanding gamers who play this game.  Overclocking gives you a 12% increase of frame rate, much like the other video card limited tests.  Lets move to newer, DirectX 9 based games, first in Far Cry.

    Far Cry is a game that really caught quite a few people by surprise, as it came when many where waiting for Doom 3 and Half Life II.  But the graphics really are quite stunning, as it is set on a tropical island for the most part, which gives quite a different back drop from what we are used to.  Lets see what this graphically demanding game can do to this card.

     We see that in this test the X700 is definitely CPU limited as the two clock speeds score basically identically, so since this isn't VPU or video memory bound, it is CPU limited.  This however makes the game very playable, as I played it at these settings on a card that only gave about 30ish average fps throughout the game.  What if we bump up the quality settings?

    Here the X700 should still be playable as it keeps above the 30fps mark on average, and for the most part stays above 30fps throughout the demo run.  Overclocking does provide a large boost, about 13%, which shows that just by enabling AA and ansiotropic filtering we turned this CPU limited game into a GPU limited one.  What will we see at 1600*1200?

    Just like a 1024 with AA, this resolution gives almost identical results to that previous test.  Overclocking gives an even better improvement of 17% which is above that seen with the other tests so far.  Again for the most part these settings should provide a playable game experience for the most part.

    Here is where this card falters.  When we reach the highest settings we test with we see that this card can't quite make it to a playable frame rate on average.  Overclocking does yield a good 15% increase to take the average frame rate to over 20fps, but that isn't enough for most gamers to consider playable.  So we've seen two progressively more demanding DirectX games, lets look at the newest one, Half Life II.

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