Now I've got a question for you all; one of the requests I've seen was for us to include Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness in our benchmarking suite. Controversy aside, I'd like to know if you all are actually concerned with the performance of TRAOD or if it is more of a "hey the game says it's DX9 and there's controversy surrounding the benchmark" kind of thing. Personally, I think the game looks like a DX7 title (even using PS2.0 shaders) and the only place that has given it a good review is Maxim Magazine (go figure). With this new benchmarking suite I wanted to focus on games that people actually played or care about (Aquamark3 is the exception), and I'd rather include another game that people are going to play if TRAOD isn't something you have installed on your system.
So let me know; I want honest opinions here, do you own the game? Do you care about how it runs? Should we include it (and why)? We already own a copy of the game (given to us by NVIDIA actually, there's one for the conspiracy theorists) so running the benchmark is no big deal. It's an issue of time more than anything else, if you guys would like to see it we'll include it but if you think something else is more important we'll do that.
We want to include FIFA in our benchmarking suite but we're going to wait for the new version of the game to be released (due out at the end of this month I beleive). The new version of FIFA will be based on EA's Eagle engine which is a DX9 engine, so we figure it makes sense to wait for that.
Derek is working on benchmarking Tron 2 as well as some other new titles we have, while I snagged a Radeon 9800 Pro and a GeForce FX 5900 Ultra from the lab last night to play around with at the house. I'll be focusing on gameplay experience with the two cards/drivers and will be looking for any visual artifacts or other random issues during gameplay. We're working hard at this and we are shooting for a quick turnaround on Part II (hopefully very early next week if I can have my way), but I'll keep you posted.
After I hand Part II off to Derek completely I'm going to begin work on the new version of Windows XP Media Center Edition. If there's anything you'd like to see/know about for inclusion in this forthcoming review, let me know.
For now it's time to heat up some leftovers for lunch (made nacho cheese turkey burgers and hushpuppies last night, or I could heat up the enchiladas from two nights ago...hmm...decisions). Enjoy your Friday and have a great weekend, I'll be around here all weekend working so you'll definitely hear from me.
Take care.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
50 Comments
View All Comments
GoGiants - Saturday, October 4, 2003 - link
I would like to see Madden 2004 used as a benchmark. It looks fantastic and can really stress a video card when 6x AA and 16x Aniso are used in conjunction with the highest detail settings and resolutions above 1024x768.Anonymous - Saturday, October 4, 2003 - link
Any idea if ATi can send you the CAT 3.8s a few days ahead of time, or will you wait until the 8th to get them? I think everyone is anxious to see OverDrive in action.aNom - Saturday, October 4, 2003 - link
I would like to see shadermark in as well. Again with both sets of drivers and with anticheat on and off. I think this is one of the only really fair benches.Many that you and other sites use are known nVidia driver enhanced benches (read games). Even if you do use custom inhouse demos you would be applauded if you did the 'rename game.exe' and then see if there was a difference. This applies to both companies.
I really think that in this latest round all the measures should be taken to ensure that we the buyers get the real overall idea of what the best card is and what drivers are doing to the games that we play.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, October 3, 2003 - link
Thanks for the responses guys, here's an update:1) We are working on including BF1942 as a benchmark; it didn't make it into Part I because we weren't happy with the benchmark (it wasn't stressful enough) but worst case scenario we can just do what THG did although I'd like to have something more stressful. Any suggestions?
2) You've spoken and your voices do not go unheard, TRAOD will make it into Part II. I have no reservations about including the game other than I didn't think many people played it. You all want it, you'll get it, that's how it works :)
3) For Part II we are benchmarking with both 52.14 and the publicly available WHQL drivers. The NV38 will only work under 52.14 but we will have a 5900 Ultra for comparison with the currently available and upcoming drivers.
4) This review will focus on the high end only, so you'll only see three cards - the XT, the 5900U and the NV38. We are testing at 12x10 as well as 16x12, with and without AA/AF. We are focusing heavily on IQ and will provide full screenshot disclosures for everything.
5) So far we haven't identified any driver "cheats" (looks like the Aquamark stuff is fixed too in 52.14) although both ATI and NVIDIA have problems in a handful of games. We will identify all problems we see and provide full IQ disclosures for you all to verify yourself.
6) We had to use the unreleased drivers in order to provide NV38 support for the article (we also had to use unreleased drivers for 9800XT support, but they were still cat3.7s). As I mentioned above, you will see old and new drivers in Part II.
I think that should answer most questions, let me know if I missed anything.
Thanks again for the great feedback, keep it coming guys.
Anonymous - Friday, October 3, 2003 - link
you can't even buy an NV38 yet ... why are you arguing about drivers?its an unreleased card. we cant touch it. this is different than say that we could have this performance now if we wanted and then keeping it from us. this is a card that will come out with new drivers based on the ones anand tested with. get over and and get on with your life
Anonymous - Friday, October 3, 2003 - link
Hindsight being 20/20, we made a promise to ourselves that we would not allow any further performance enhancing drivers to be used in our video card reviews unless we could make the drivers publicly available to our readers immediately.WOW ...so anand said this !!!!!!!!!
interesting
Anonymous - Friday, October 3, 2003 - link
and who are you you piece of shit to tell me what to do........Use facts you moron before you reply!
Anonymous - Friday, October 3, 2003 - link
Get a life you pathetic excuse for a human being and stop posting.Anonymous - Friday, October 3, 2003 - link
Anand Lal Shimpi wrote:NVIDIA clearly spoiled the preliminary introduction of the Radeon 8500 back in August with the release of their Detonator 4/XP drivers. We were told by NVIDIA that these new drivers would not only improve performance, but that they would be made publicly available the very same week we tested with them. Obviously, that didn't happen, and it ended up taking another month before the drivers were released. The performance gains were tangible, but the drivers weren't fit for release when NVIDIA provided them to the press and honestly shouldn't have been used. Hindsight being 20/20, we made a promise to ourselves that we would not allow any further performance enhancing drivers to be used in our video card reviews unless we could make the drivers publicly available to our readers immediately.
and you DARE to use the cheatonators 5x.xx for your reviews. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOW YOU KISS NVIDIA'S ASS, that's why ;)
HOW PATHETIC !!!!!!!!!
Anonymous - Friday, October 3, 2003 - link
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTI5LDQ=Another proof;)