Creative 3D Blaster 5 FX5900 Ultra Review - Page 6 Of 7
By Steve Angelly & Mike Chambers - September 11, 2003
NEVERWINTER NIGHTS
I'm going to switch gears now and cover two popular role-playing games (RPG). The first game is Bioware's Neverwinter Nights (NWN) which I had not played prior to this review. But after watching X-Play's review of the Shadows of Undrentide expansion pack on Tech TV, I'm definitely going to add the game to my collection. it. I did the next best thing for this review and played the demo.
Neverwinter Nights
Frame rates were taken using FRAPS with in-game menu graphics settings at maximum levels. The pre-determined path taken in all benches involved a starting point from a previously saved game. The starting point began in a large central room and proceeded through a total of two additional smaller rooms connected by a hallway and closed doors. Opening a third closed door allowed return to the starting point. Eight Bots, located in the same locations, were required to be defeated in each walk-through. Only minor changes in locations of the Bots within these rooms during each walk-through provided for consistency in the frame rate results. Each walk through took an average of four minutes to complete. Effects of enabling antialiasing (AA) can be seen in the table below.
Neverwinter Nights Gameplay Results
Noticing the results I obtained from the first few tests, I paid extra attention in order to reproduce the same sequence of events as close as possible to obtain reliable results using FRAPS. I ran the same test on multiple occasions and ended up with results similar to those shown in the benchmarks.
MORROWIND
I first played Morrowind on an Athlon XP 1800+ processor and Radeon 8500 graphics card, which required a number of tweaks just to eliminate stuttering effects during gameplay. Shortly thereafter, I upgraded my system to an Athlon XP 2100+ with an nForce2 motherboard and Radeon 9500 Pro. Gameplay was great as I could run Morrowind at 1024x768 with all settings maxed and average over 30 frames per second.
Morrowind
Testing Morrowind was done by following Mike's gameplay testing article, which is a walkthrough of the town of Sayda Need based on a pre-determined route. Frame rates were logged by FRAPS during each walkthrough, which included testing at resolutions of 1024x768, 1280x960 and 1600x1200. All in-game graphics settings were set to their maximum level with the exception of the view distance, which was set at 50%.
Morrowind Gameplay Results
There's no doubt that I've found a new favorite graphics card for playing Morrowind and the Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansion packs as the 3D Blaster 5 FX5900 Ultra exceeded my expectations. I also experienced good performance with the view distance set to 100% at 1024x768 and 1280x960 with 4X AA/8X AF.
