Remembering how abysmal performance had been on a 7900 GS, expectations were kept low again for these single-card tests. Considering how lush and detailed some of the textures are, I assumed that this would be another situation where more RAM would have a definitely impact on performance – at least at 2560x1600. The chart below outlines the settings used for testing.
Neverwinter Nights 2 Engine Settings
As the below graphs show, performance at 2560x1600 on the 320MB GTS was pretty terrible. Not that it was all that much better on the 640MB GTS, relatively speaking, the game was almost a slide show on the 320MB GTS. The demand put on the card by all the textures at that high of a resolution was just too much.
Neverwinter Nights 2 Average FPS
However, at 1920x1200 the 320MB GTS once again shines outright beating the 640MB GTS at both levels of clock speeds.
MINOR SPOILER: The area I tested was outdoors, right after picking up the druid Elenae. My party of four was traversing a wooded path (with a small pond to get the water effects into the equation) and provoked attacks by two packs of wolves.
Neverwinter Nights 2 In-Game Shot
Click Image to Enlarge - 2560x1600 (1.4MB)
The above image shows the area from which my benchmarking was completed. Each run-through was similar, but due to the random nature of the dice rolls and spell choice by NPCs, each run did differ slightly. The below graphs show each run through the game at 2560x1600 and 1920x1200.
