Game Benchmarks

We used FRAPS to monitor and record frame rates, we took down average and minimum values and display them in the charts below. The games’ detail settings and resolution and anti-aliasing are also mentioned.

We decided to use recently released games to see how a previous generation mid-range card will perform; manual shoot through (STALKER/Rainbow 6) and drive through (Colin McRae) were repeated several times to make sure we had consistent results.

We start of with the most graphic intense game first, Colin McRae DIRT demo. This racing game is arguably the best looking one on the PC right now. It’s extremely demanding in the GFX department even with AA is not used. At 1280x1024 (0xAA) with in-game detail set to high (except for motion blur) we got these results:



Stunning results really, this game is very demanding, any advantage had from the faster GDDR4 memory goes to waste as the X1950 Pro core struggles to keep up; while ~24 fps is not a slide-show yet, it comes close, frame drops to 16fps were quite noticeable. Decreasing in-game detail to medium settings increase average FPS to ~35 something and minimum fps to 27, surely more pleasant to play, but less beautiful too.

Difference between GDDR3 and GDDR4 in Colin McRae DIRT: 1.21%

Onto our first FPS shooter, Rainbox Six Las Vegas uses the Unreal 3 engine to display very fine looking scenes; the FRAPS run was done landing on the Las Vegas strip and making our way to the hotel, at 1280x960 (0xAA) results were higher than expected:



Once you try 1600x1200 the game becomes unplayable (min:17 avg: 26) but at this reduced resolution it remained quite pleasant still. Tweaking the in-game details a bit will allow you to reach 40~50FPS. As it stands with high detail, both cards remain over 30fps avg with dips to 22~24fps.

Difference between GDDR3 and GDDR4 in Rainbow Six Las Vegas: 3.30%

Last game benchmark is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. an open ended FPS shooter game with high resolution textures and open environment, dynamic day/night cycles and smart AI enemies. We ran through a section of the woods where the automatic camera takes over and swoops over a fire fight between army and stalkers, afterwards we run towards the fight and fire of a few shots. In-game resolution set at 1280x1024 (0xAA) with high detail:



This went surprisingly smooth, with averages reaching ~60FPS the game was very playable at this resolution; eagerly we switched to 1600x1200 (0xAA) but that proved too much for these cards (min: 21 / avg: 28.9). Still at the settings shown in the chart the game was beautiful to look at running with high detail and smooth sailing with min. fps never under 40. The GDDR4 card had the possibility to help the X1950 Pro flex its mid-range muscles and difference was larger.

Difference between GDDR3 and GDDR4 in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: 9.69%


Power Usage, Noise and Conclusive Thoughts next ->