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ATI Radeon X1800 GTO 256MB
Need for Speed Most Wanted
 Need for Speed Most Wanted is the newest in a long series of NFS titles. This game is extremely taxing even on some of the highest-end hardware available today if you crank up the video settings. And of course, we do crank up the settings for benchmarking. Unfortunately this game does not support a demo recording feature that I am aware of and there is no built-in benchmarking utility. As such, I am forced to use FRAPS and run the same course multiple times for the various settings. For benchmarking I go to Quick Race > Custom Race > Circuit > Ironwood Estates > 2 laps, and I use the same car each time (a pimped out RX-8 if you're curious, but not too pimped out because I don't have the time to play and earn more upgrades). Each test is repeated 3 times, however, the weather changes every race (and during the race), so while the benchmark results are pretty reliable, they're not exactly scientific. To help keep the tests as consistent as possible, I run the same course every race, and I never use the nitrous (because it queues special effects which I can't reproduce precisely every race). All of the in-game video settings are maxed out and the only variables are AA, AF, and resolution. Since the AA and AF sliders represent different values on ATI and NVIDIA cards I just test AA and AF at their minimum and maximum respective settings at each resolution. Otherwise the comparisons lose their value. I should note that it appears from gameplay and screenshots I've taken that the minimum texture quality (AF) setting represents bilinear filtering. I would think they would at least make it trilinear since it's noticeably better quality and what I consider the standard 'minimum' AF setting - but that's neither NVIDIA nor ATI's fault. Silly EA. Patch 1.3 was used.
Need for Speed Most Wanted @ 1024 x 768
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Need for Speed Most Wanted @ 1600 x 1200
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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: The Card & Bundle Page 3: Test Setup Page 4: Benchmarks: Half-Life 2 Page 5: Benchmarks: Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Page 6: Benchmarks: Quake 4 Page 7: Benchmarks: X3 Reunion Demo Page 8: Benchmarks: Chronicles of Riddick Page 9: Benchmarks: F.E.A.R. Page 10: Benchmarks: Need for Speed Most Wanted Page 11: Benchmarks: Black & White 2 Page 12: Benchmarks: 3DMark '06 Page 13: Overclocking... and Unlocking? Page 14: Performance Summary Page 15: Conclusion 
Add Comment
5 User Comments 1 - Posted by
tobba007
on May 26, 2006 - 12:22 pm Excellent review there Kurtis - I needed a comparison of these 2 cards, with an unbiased slant, and that's what I've got! m 2 - Posted by
Kurtis
on May 26, 2006 - 1:39 pm i recommend reading my 7600 GT review as well. i found out some interesting information about the pricing while i was writing that review. the main thing you need to see is the conclusion: http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/276/XFX+GeFor... 3 - Posted by
mustafa
on July 10, 2006 - 9:29 am I really wanted to know if i failed in flashing the x1800 gto to x1800 xl would it be easy to restore the default bois of the gto or it is someting out of hands? by the way what is ur opinion in powercolor x1800 gto? thanks 4 - Posted by
Kurtis
on July 10, 2006 - 9:49 am i have no idea if you'd be able to recover from a failed BIOS flash... i haven't tried it, personally. as far as the different brands of video cards go, that's all up to you. my personal opinion is i don't care that much who's sticker is on the video card, what i car about is what the GPU is under the heatsink. the deciding factor for me would be the price, the bundle, and the warranty. 5 - Posted by
mustafa
on July 10, 2006 - 5:53 pm well what i think about the x1800 gto GPU is that it is has superior power (321 million trasistors and 256 bit memory interface),excellent support for HDR, AA and AF but when it comes to the 7600 gt it is cheaper, hell of a fast card, designed for specific game titles but unfortunately it only has 167 million transistors and 128 bit memory interface. i think i would choose the x1800 gto it's eyes looking for the future. now for my questions part: 1-would i be able to crossfire this 1800 gto using another 1800 gto on an intel 975 chipset based m.board 2-is this crossfire dongless or not? 3-i read that ATI will have several crrossfire layouts,2 GPUs,1GPU and 1physics card is that true? Add Comment To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields. |
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