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Sapphire X800 XL Ultimate

Silent but Deadly

by Josh Walrath

UT 2004

            I utilized the DM-Antalus map with 12 bots for this test.  Settings were at high quality, and 4X AA and 8X AF were enabled.

            At the lowest resolution we see the 6800 GT have a small lead over the X800 XL.  This changes once higher resolutions are achieved.  I think the main reason we see this type of behavior is due to the more advanced multi-sampling unit in the ATI card.  The X800 XL Overclocked simply destroys everything else, especially at 1600x1200.

Doom 3

            This game has been the domain of NVIDIA since its release, and the 6800 series have always shown a pretty hefty advantage at every setting.  Settings were put at High Quality, with 4X AA and 8X AF enabled.  Demo1 was used.

            At least with the Catalyst 5.4 drivers the X800 XL, even when overclocked, cannot keep up with the 6800 GT.  Not totally unexpected, but it is nice to see the overclocked version get somewhat close.  Supposedly the Catalyst 5.6 drivers and above will give the ATI cards a lot better performance in OpenGL apps.

The back of the card doesn't reveal much, but it is nice to see the ramsinks installed properly.

Quake 3

            While this benchmark is now getting a little long in the tooth, it still serves as a solid performance standard.  Many, many games are based on the Quake 3 engine, so it is still a valid measurement.  Settings were at high quality, with 4X AA and 8X AF enabled.  I used the special NV15 level, which is a very complex level for Quake 3.  The custom PSS1a demo was used.

            Here again we see the 6800 GT take the lead in this OpenGL game.  While this level and demo are more CPU bound than other demos, once higher resolutions are hit we start to see the competitors drift from one another.  The X800 XL overclocked gets pretty close to matching the 6800 GT, but once 1600x1200 is reached the standard clocked X800 XL starts to really fall behind.  Still, getting nearly 100 fps on this demo and level is nothing to scoff at. 

Half-Life 2

            This shader intensive title is very ATI friendly, and it is pretty rare that the corresponding NVIDIA based card will overcome the performance advantages of the X800 series.  Just as Doom 3 is the purview of the 6800 series, so is HL2 to ATI’s series of cards.  I used a custom recorded demo with high quality settings and 4X AA and 8X AF enabled.

            Just as expected, the X800 series takes a significant lead over the 6800 GT at all resolutions.  Valve worked very closely with ATI to develop HL2, and at high quality settings the title uses essentially all SM 2.0 effects (no SM 3.0 content is currently offered for HL2).  Lower shader model effects are also used where applicable.

Far Cry

            Far Cry was one of the first games to utilize a large amount of SM 2.0 shader effects, and was one of the first games to introduce SM 3.0 code in a later update.  This expansive and visually stunning title will give even the fastest video card an extreme workout.  The SM 3.0 path was used for the GeForce 6800 GT, while the high quality SM 2.0 path was used for the X800 cards.  The Regulator demo was utilized for this test.  4X AA and 8X AF are enabled.

            Even though the GeForce 6800 GT should have a slight advantage by using SM 3.0 code, the X800 series are shown to be faster here.  SM 3.0 does not enable any more visually stunning effects over SM 2.0 with this title, but supposedly the code is meant to be more efficient.  The X800 XL Ultimate takes the win here, especially once the resolution is set to 1600x1200.

Next: Even More Results

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