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XFX GeForce 6600 DDR-2 |
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Redefining the Budget Market |
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By Josh Walrath |
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Fable: The Lost Chapters This brand new title is an improved port from the X-Box. Lionhead Studios took the original title and revamped the graphics engine and added more content. The end result is a cutting edge PC game which embraces features such as complex shadowing and HDR (bloom) effects. FRAPS was used to record the framerate of a manual run-through of the starting town. Highest quality settings were enabled and no AA and 8X AF.
Fable is a pretty rough program when it comes to graphics. Even at 1024x768 with no AA and 8X AF, the framerates are not exactly stratospheric. Depending on the part of town, and how complex the scene was, things could get a little choppy even at that resolution. Even though the DDR-2 OC had a lower average framerate, it did not chug as often as the 6600 GT OC, which is probably due to its extra memory. Battlefield 2 EA and Dice teamed up again to create the sequel to one of the most popular online war games of all time. No expense was spared when it came to engine development, and Battlefield 2 is seriously cutting edge. Making extensive use of high quality lighting, shaders, and high polygon models and maps, BF2 is a massive memory hog! For smooth gameplay 2 GB of system memory are required, and a 256 MB video card is almost the minimum. While the 6600 GT OC does more than hold its own, we can see the difference more memory makes. A manual run-through in the Mashtuur City map was done with FRAPS recording the framerates. High quality settings were enabled with no AA and 8X AF.
We can easily see that once the resolution was increased over 1024x768 the stock 256 MB DDR-2 card decreases the gap it runs with the 6600 GT OC. The DDR-2 OC card simply runs away from the faster 6600 GT OC. More memory is definitely better in this title. Quake 4 Due to the issues with demo playback in Quake 4, I also did a manual run-through in the beginning part of this title. Quake 4 leaves off from Quake 2, but it uses an advanced version of the Doom 3 engine. Shader effects, normal maps, and complex lighting highlight this title. High quality settings were enabled with no AA and 8X AF.
The stock card can handle this title very well at 1024x768, but anything above that and it gets pretty choppy in parts. Both the DDR-2 OC and GT OC were able to handle 1280x1024 without a problem, and very few slowdowns. 1600x1200 was simply far too choppy on all of them for enjoyable gameplay. Just as with Battlefield 2, the 256 MB OC card catches up to the faster 6600 GT OC once 1280x1024 and above are reached. F.E.A.R. Monolith has released many good titles in the past few years, but few have sold well. This looks to change with F.E.A.R. This game is heavy on advanced rendering techniques, and brings even the fastest systems to a crawl once resolution and AA are increased. I set everything to maximum, but left Soft Shadows disabled (which was too big of a performance hit for this level of card). No AA and 8X AF were enabled.
In terms of average FPS the overclocked DDR-2 keeps very close to the GT OC. This is probably the most strenuous benchmark in this review, and as such I was curious what the minimum FPS were for this title.
The standard DDR-2 drops down to 16 fps even at 1024x768, which makes things very jerky in the game. Both of the OC cards show about the same minimum frames, but it is very clear that users who hope to play this title at anything approaching fast rates will have to invest in a far beefier video card. 1280 and beyond are simply unplayable with these cards. Enabling soft shadows decreases framerates for these cards by around 50%. Smooth gameplay can really only be achieved by using 800 x 600. If a user wants to use any form of AA with these cards, then they may have to go down as low as 640x480.
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Copyright 1999-2005 PenStar Systems, LLC. |
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