walterman
01-29-09, 04:09 PM
My 8800GTX VS GTX285 Review
Finally, after skipping the GTX280, due to my personal needs for bandwidth, i got my eVGA GTX 285 SSC.
In this personal review, i compare the performance of the GTX285 vs the 8800GTX, in some of my fav titles, using several AA modes.
Common configuration:
Intel Xeon 3350 @ 3.6 GHz (450x8)
ASUS Rampage Formula X48
4 x 1GB OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Reaper CL3 @ 900 MHz 3-4-4-15
2 x 750GB WD RE2 7500AYYS SATA2 16MB
Enermax 600W (dual 12V rails, 36A max combined)
Samsung SyncMaster 275T 27" 1920x1200
http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/1493/insidecaseew7.th.jpg (http://img509.imageshack.us/my.php?image=insidecaseew7.jpg)
Graphics cards used:
1 x eVGA GTX 285 SSC (702 / 1584 / 2646) -> 169 GB/s
1 x ASUS EN8800GTX (600 / 1500 / 2100) -> 100 GB/s
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4549/8800gtxs2sgtx285zm1.th.jpg (http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?image=8800gtxs2sgtx285zm1.jpg)
Games used:
Bioshock DX9
Bioshock DX10
BloodRayne 2
BloodRayne 2 HD
Cryostasis Tech Demo
Crysis DX10 VH
Crysis DX9 Custom
Dead Space
Devil May Cry 4 DX9
Devil May Cry 4 DX10
DooM III
Jericho
Tomb Raider Underworld
All the test were done at 1920x1200, with AF 16x, and using several AA modes. The tests were done under XP32 & Vista64.
Bioshock DX9
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8851/bioshockdx9gb4.jpg
This game uses the UE3, and it does not support AA directly from the engine. AA was forced from nHancer.
Without AA, the game runs a 13-15% faster under Vista64.
No AA: 79% / MSAA 4x: 105% / CSAA 16xQ: 144% / SSAA 2x: 111%
Bioshock DX10
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/362/bioshockdx10nh7.jpg
No AA: 96% / MSAA 4x: 102% / CSAA 16xQ: 158% / SSAA 2x: 111%
BloodRayne 2
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/345/bloodrayne2xs6.jpg
This game uses the Infernal Engine, which was developed by Terminal Reality. It uses DX8, and the shader programs used in the game are really simple. The engine uses a lot of rendering passes, and it seems to love memory bandwidth & ROP power.
Without AA, the game runs up to a 51% faster under XP32. Personally, i think that this manner is due to the DX 7/8/9 wrapper that Vista uses to run the old DX titles.
No AA: 67% / MSAA 4x: 100% / CSAA 16xQ: 105% / SSAA 2x: 100% / Combined 16xS: 151%
BloodRayne 2 HD
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/736/bloodrayne2hdzq9.jpg
The BloodRayne 2 HD project uses very high resolution textures. The minimum texture size is 1024x1024, the most important textures are 2048x2048, and the Rayne texture is 2048x4096.
The extra size of the textures, multiplies the bandwidth that you need to read your texture samples, between 2x & 16x times. Therefore, memory bandwidth is GOD in this game.
Without AA, the game runs only a 16% faster under XP32. Here the gfx card is the bottleneck, and the DX wrapper in Vista64 has less impact.
No AA: 59% / MSAA 4x: 84% / CSAA 16xQ: 98% / SSAA 2x: 85% / Combined 16xS: 440%
Excellent results here, so, i'm really happy with the purchase of the card.
Cryostasis Tech Demo
http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/2135/cryostasistechdemood6.jpg
This game makes a heavy use of PhysX, and the GTX285 really shows its muscles here. With 240SPs & 3 ops per SP, the GT200 is close to 3x times more powerful than the mighty G80 (theorically).
min: 100% / avg: 86% / max: 94%
Personally, i'm planning to buy a new PSU, to run my old 8800GTX as PhysX/CUDA only card. I'm also planning to port parts of my BR2 Patch to CUDA, to run the perlin noise effects on the dedicated CUDA GPU.
Crysis DX10 Very High
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/8374/crysisdx10vhxe1.jpg
I took a savegame where my frame rate was really low, and i measured the FPS with both cards.
No AA: 93% / MSAA 4x: 80% / CSAA 16xQ: 120%
Crysis DX9 Custom
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/4196/crysisdx9customol9.jpg
Same benchmarking method, but, with one of those custom config files for max IQ.
No AA: 66% / MSAA 4x: 86% / CSAA 16xQ: 162%
The difference between DX10 VH & DX9 Custom is really small. Therefore, i will only play this game in DX10 VH.
Dead Space
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/4837/deadspacekf4.jpg
AA does not work in this game, and the in-game AA option is a blur edge filter.
I tried all the AA compatibility values in nHancer, under both XP32 & Vista64, but i was not able to make AA work.
At 1920x1200 with a digital 27" panel, the jaggies are very noticeable.
The GTX285 is a 59% faster than the 8800GTX in this game. I just guess that with AA, the difference would be higher.
Devil May Cry 4 DX9
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/7088/devilmaycry4dx9vo4.jpg
This game is a master piece of the game programming !!!
Proper multi core support, almost linear multi-gpu scaling, proper AA support, ... blazing fast speed !!!
And the game itself is a master piece of the fighting games.
My hat goes off to the CAPCOM guys who developed this title.
MSAA 4x: 71% / CSAA 16xQ: 116% / SSAA 2x: 105%
Devil May Cry 4 DX10
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/4011/devilmaycry4dx10uj1.jpg
I had several problems with the DX10 mode of this game: 1st, i used 1920x1080, because, there was a problem with my screen at 1920x1200 under DX10, and, 2nd, SSAA was not working. I suspect that this was a problem with the driver.
MSAA 4x: 81% / CSAA 16xQ: 107%
DooM III
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/6968/doomiiiqp9.jpg
I took this game because i love it, and because it's the only OpenGL game in the list.
MSAA 4x: 58% / CSAA 16xQ: 129% / Combined 16xS: 150%
Jericho
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3795/jerichozt1.jpg
Clive Barker's Jericho is an excellent horror-themed fps. It features a custom engine with excellent blooming & HDR effects. The atmosphere reminds me the early days of Undying.
MSAA 4x: 87% / CSAA 16xQ: 96% / SSAA 2x: 100%
Tomb Raider Underworld
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/1418/tombraiderunderworldjh5.jpg
The gfx quality in TRU is absolutely outstanding, the rendering speed is really nice, it features awesome bump mapping effects, and it has proper multi-core support.
MSAA 4x: 81% / CSAA 16xQ: 69% / SSAA 2x: 84%
Overall Resume
No AA: 75% / MSAA 4x: 85% / CSAA 16xQ: 118% / SSAA 2x: 99% / Combined 16xS: 247%
The Combined 16xS mode needs a larger frame buffer, thus, the GTX285 with 1GB has advantage over the 8800GTX with only 768MB.
With SSAA 2x the GTX285 is 2x times faster than the 8800GTX thanks to the 69% higher bandwidth, and the 55% higher ROP power.
The most notable advantage is at CSAA 16xQ. In this mode, you render much more fragments per pixel than in any other AA mode (except at 16xS), but, it is a multi sampling based AA mode, so, you save a lot of bandwidth & ROP usage, and the SPs in the chip keep working at its full theoric load.
Overclocking
I tried 750/1584/2800, and my frame rate raised from 87fps to 92fps in the BR2 HD test. (2800 / 2646) * 87 = 92fps exactly. Bandwidth linear with the FPS.
I played the game during half hour, and i did not see any artifact. The card was running at 75ºC with this OC. I was monitoring the temps with the eVGA precision tool in my G15 LCD.
About the shader OC, i tried 1800 MHz, and it worked, but, it did not raise my frame rate in BR2, so, i left it at the stock speed.
Final words
Overall, i'm really happy with my new gfx card. The card costed me 450E, but, i needed something to run my fav games at 1920x1200 SSAA 2x.
Also, i'm really surprised with my PSU. It is an old model from summer 2005, and it only features 36A max combined between the 12V rails (eVGA recommends 40A for this card), but, it is running my ultra overclocked quad, with my factory overclocked GTX 285, without any single issue yet. Prolly the PSU is running about its rated specs, but, i guess that this is what you get when you buy a PSU from a good brand.
About the future, there are some rumors about the 40nm GT212 for a summer launch, and some about the GT300 for the end of the year.
Personally, my plan is to use this card until the GT300 arrives.
If you are a 8800GTX user with a moderated budget, and you did not upgrade yet, i would not wait for the GT212. Why ? Because 6 months between the GT212 & GT300 is a short time for a card that will not feature DX11.
Time will tell.
I hope that you had a nice time reading my little review.
P.D.: The original post at: http://www.coopdb.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=13256
Finally, after skipping the GTX280, due to my personal needs for bandwidth, i got my eVGA GTX 285 SSC.
In this personal review, i compare the performance of the GTX285 vs the 8800GTX, in some of my fav titles, using several AA modes.
Common configuration:
Intel Xeon 3350 @ 3.6 GHz (450x8)
ASUS Rampage Formula X48
4 x 1GB OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Reaper CL3 @ 900 MHz 3-4-4-15
2 x 750GB WD RE2 7500AYYS SATA2 16MB
Enermax 600W (dual 12V rails, 36A max combined)
Samsung SyncMaster 275T 27" 1920x1200
http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/1493/insidecaseew7.th.jpg (http://img509.imageshack.us/my.php?image=insidecaseew7.jpg)
Graphics cards used:
1 x eVGA GTX 285 SSC (702 / 1584 / 2646) -> 169 GB/s
1 x ASUS EN8800GTX (600 / 1500 / 2100) -> 100 GB/s
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4549/8800gtxs2sgtx285zm1.th.jpg (http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?image=8800gtxs2sgtx285zm1.jpg)
Games used:
Bioshock DX9
Bioshock DX10
BloodRayne 2
BloodRayne 2 HD
Cryostasis Tech Demo
Crysis DX10 VH
Crysis DX9 Custom
Dead Space
Devil May Cry 4 DX9
Devil May Cry 4 DX10
DooM III
Jericho
Tomb Raider Underworld
All the test were done at 1920x1200, with AF 16x, and using several AA modes. The tests were done under XP32 & Vista64.
Bioshock DX9
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8851/bioshockdx9gb4.jpg
This game uses the UE3, and it does not support AA directly from the engine. AA was forced from nHancer.
Without AA, the game runs a 13-15% faster under Vista64.
No AA: 79% / MSAA 4x: 105% / CSAA 16xQ: 144% / SSAA 2x: 111%
Bioshock DX10
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/362/bioshockdx10nh7.jpg
No AA: 96% / MSAA 4x: 102% / CSAA 16xQ: 158% / SSAA 2x: 111%
BloodRayne 2
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/345/bloodrayne2xs6.jpg
This game uses the Infernal Engine, which was developed by Terminal Reality. It uses DX8, and the shader programs used in the game are really simple. The engine uses a lot of rendering passes, and it seems to love memory bandwidth & ROP power.
Without AA, the game runs up to a 51% faster under XP32. Personally, i think that this manner is due to the DX 7/8/9 wrapper that Vista uses to run the old DX titles.
No AA: 67% / MSAA 4x: 100% / CSAA 16xQ: 105% / SSAA 2x: 100% / Combined 16xS: 151%
BloodRayne 2 HD
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/736/bloodrayne2hdzq9.jpg
The BloodRayne 2 HD project uses very high resolution textures. The minimum texture size is 1024x1024, the most important textures are 2048x2048, and the Rayne texture is 2048x4096.
The extra size of the textures, multiplies the bandwidth that you need to read your texture samples, between 2x & 16x times. Therefore, memory bandwidth is GOD in this game.
Without AA, the game runs only a 16% faster under XP32. Here the gfx card is the bottleneck, and the DX wrapper in Vista64 has less impact.
No AA: 59% / MSAA 4x: 84% / CSAA 16xQ: 98% / SSAA 2x: 85% / Combined 16xS: 440%
Excellent results here, so, i'm really happy with the purchase of the card.
Cryostasis Tech Demo
http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/2135/cryostasistechdemood6.jpg
This game makes a heavy use of PhysX, and the GTX285 really shows its muscles here. With 240SPs & 3 ops per SP, the GT200 is close to 3x times more powerful than the mighty G80 (theorically).
min: 100% / avg: 86% / max: 94%
Personally, i'm planning to buy a new PSU, to run my old 8800GTX as PhysX/CUDA only card. I'm also planning to port parts of my BR2 Patch to CUDA, to run the perlin noise effects on the dedicated CUDA GPU.
Crysis DX10 Very High
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/8374/crysisdx10vhxe1.jpg
I took a savegame where my frame rate was really low, and i measured the FPS with both cards.
No AA: 93% / MSAA 4x: 80% / CSAA 16xQ: 120%
Crysis DX9 Custom
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/4196/crysisdx9customol9.jpg
Same benchmarking method, but, with one of those custom config files for max IQ.
No AA: 66% / MSAA 4x: 86% / CSAA 16xQ: 162%
The difference between DX10 VH & DX9 Custom is really small. Therefore, i will only play this game in DX10 VH.
Dead Space
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/4837/deadspacekf4.jpg
AA does not work in this game, and the in-game AA option is a blur edge filter.
I tried all the AA compatibility values in nHancer, under both XP32 & Vista64, but i was not able to make AA work.
At 1920x1200 with a digital 27" panel, the jaggies are very noticeable.
The GTX285 is a 59% faster than the 8800GTX in this game. I just guess that with AA, the difference would be higher.
Devil May Cry 4 DX9
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/7088/devilmaycry4dx9vo4.jpg
This game is a master piece of the game programming !!!
Proper multi core support, almost linear multi-gpu scaling, proper AA support, ... blazing fast speed !!!
And the game itself is a master piece of the fighting games.
My hat goes off to the CAPCOM guys who developed this title.
MSAA 4x: 71% / CSAA 16xQ: 116% / SSAA 2x: 105%
Devil May Cry 4 DX10
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/4011/devilmaycry4dx10uj1.jpg
I had several problems with the DX10 mode of this game: 1st, i used 1920x1080, because, there was a problem with my screen at 1920x1200 under DX10, and, 2nd, SSAA was not working. I suspect that this was a problem with the driver.
MSAA 4x: 81% / CSAA 16xQ: 107%
DooM III
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/6968/doomiiiqp9.jpg
I took this game because i love it, and because it's the only OpenGL game in the list.
MSAA 4x: 58% / CSAA 16xQ: 129% / Combined 16xS: 150%
Jericho
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3795/jerichozt1.jpg
Clive Barker's Jericho is an excellent horror-themed fps. It features a custom engine with excellent blooming & HDR effects. The atmosphere reminds me the early days of Undying.
MSAA 4x: 87% / CSAA 16xQ: 96% / SSAA 2x: 100%
Tomb Raider Underworld
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/1418/tombraiderunderworldjh5.jpg
The gfx quality in TRU is absolutely outstanding, the rendering speed is really nice, it features awesome bump mapping effects, and it has proper multi-core support.
MSAA 4x: 81% / CSAA 16xQ: 69% / SSAA 2x: 84%
Overall Resume
No AA: 75% / MSAA 4x: 85% / CSAA 16xQ: 118% / SSAA 2x: 99% / Combined 16xS: 247%
The Combined 16xS mode needs a larger frame buffer, thus, the GTX285 with 1GB has advantage over the 8800GTX with only 768MB.
With SSAA 2x the GTX285 is 2x times faster than the 8800GTX thanks to the 69% higher bandwidth, and the 55% higher ROP power.
The most notable advantage is at CSAA 16xQ. In this mode, you render much more fragments per pixel than in any other AA mode (except at 16xS), but, it is a multi sampling based AA mode, so, you save a lot of bandwidth & ROP usage, and the SPs in the chip keep working at its full theoric load.
Overclocking
I tried 750/1584/2800, and my frame rate raised from 87fps to 92fps in the BR2 HD test. (2800 / 2646) * 87 = 92fps exactly. Bandwidth linear with the FPS.
I played the game during half hour, and i did not see any artifact. The card was running at 75ºC with this OC. I was monitoring the temps with the eVGA precision tool in my G15 LCD.
About the shader OC, i tried 1800 MHz, and it worked, but, it did not raise my frame rate in BR2, so, i left it at the stock speed.
Final words
Overall, i'm really happy with my new gfx card. The card costed me 450E, but, i needed something to run my fav games at 1920x1200 SSAA 2x.
Also, i'm really surprised with my PSU. It is an old model from summer 2005, and it only features 36A max combined between the 12V rails (eVGA recommends 40A for this card), but, it is running my ultra overclocked quad, with my factory overclocked GTX 285, without any single issue yet. Prolly the PSU is running about its rated specs, but, i guess that this is what you get when you buy a PSU from a good brand.
About the future, there are some rumors about the 40nm GT212 for a summer launch, and some about the GT300 for the end of the year.
Personally, my plan is to use this card until the GT300 arrives.
If you are a 8800GTX user with a moderated budget, and you did not upgrade yet, i would not wait for the GT212. Why ? Because 6 months between the GT212 & GT300 is a short time for a card that will not feature DX11.
Time will tell.
I hope that you had a nice time reading my little review.
P.D.: The original post at: http://www.coopdb.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=13256