SH64's 6800GT SLI benchmarks !

[SH64]

Following Rollo's in his excellent benchmarks & comparsion between 6800NU SLI vs 6800GT vs 6800GTSLI .. i decided to do the same but with different games rather that the usuall ones .

my system is AMD 64 4000+ / 6800GT SLI / 1GB DDR400 . i use HQ in the control panel for all games i tested . the drivers used are the official 71.84

(1) Need For Speed Underground 2
bench is taken from a replay for a whole lap with moderate number of cars.
i used patch v1.2 which said to increase performance for the GeForce 6800 series at high resolutions & even compared it to v1.0 just to see if thats correct . looks like it really did !
6800GT single (v1.2) :
2005-01-04 18:38:04 - speed2 (1600x1200,2xAA,8xAF, all settings maxed + motion blur & light trails)
Frames: 3882 - Time: 148246ms - Avg: 26.186 - Min: 21 - Max: 35

6800GT SLI (v1.0) :
2005-01-04 15:08:51 - speed2
Frames: 3899 - Time: 142455ms - Avg: 27.370 - Min: 21 - Max: 35

6800GT SLI (v1.2) :
2005-01-04 15:38:55 - speed2 (v1.2)
Frames: 4211 - Time: 137568ms - Avg: 30.610 - Min: 23 - Max: 39

i'm kinda disappointed with NFSU2's performance .. even on SLI its not really playable at 1600x1200 .. except maybe for a dual 6800U SLI running on Qulaity only .
either that or the SLI mode is not actually working in this game .

(2) Halo

single 6800GT @ 1600x1200,8xAF :

Date / Time: 1/4/2005 6:46:34 PM (1179593ms)
2400MHz, 1024MB, 256M nVidia (DeviceID=0x00f9) Driver=6.14.10.7184 Shader=2.0
C:\Halo\halo.exe -timedemo -use20 (Version=1.0.0.564)
Frames=4700
Total Time=112.47s
Average frame rate=41.79fps
Below 5fps= 1% (time) 0% (frames) (1.986s spent in 5 frames)
Below 10fps= 2% (time) 0% (frames)
Below 15fps= 3% (time) 0% (frames)
Below 20fps= 5% (time) 1% (frames)
Below 25fps= 13% (time) 5% (frames)
Below 30fps= 21% (time) 10% (frames)
Below 40fps= 46% (time) 32% (frames)
Below 50fps= 72% (time) 59% (frames)
Below 60fps= 89% (time) 81% (frames)
Memory used Max=162MB, Min=129MB, Ave=149MB

SLI :
Date / Time: 1/4/2005 1:31:09 PM (1505218ms)
2400MHz, 1024MB, 256M nVidia (DeviceID=0x00f9) Driver=6.14.10.7184 Shader=2.0
C:\Halo\halo.exe -timedemo -use20 (Version=1.0.0.564)
Frames=4700
Total Time=72.42s
Average frame rate=64.90fps
Below 5fps= 8% (time) 0% (frames) (5.814s spent in 10 frames)
Below 10fps= 8% (time) 0% (frames)
Below 15fps= 8% (time) 0% (frames)
Below 20fps= 9% (time) 0% (frames)
Below 25fps= 10% (time) 0% (frames)
Below 30fps= 11% (time) 1% (frames)
Below 40fps= 17% (time) 4% (frames)
Below 50fps= 35% (time) 16% (frames)
Below 60fps= 42% (time) 22% (frames)
Memory used Max=162MB, Min=130MB, Ave=150MB

the improvment in Halo is quite good . thats around 58.5% .
the gameplay is smooth but i still get quite few slowdowns in heavy firefights, but overall the game is playable @1600x1200,8xAF .

(3) Thief 3 : Deadly Shadows
for T3 i benchmarked the firstlevel , then took the result by FRAPS .

6800GT single @1600x1200,4xAA,8xAF (Bloom disabled) :
2005-01-04 18:31:39 - T3Main
Frames: 1459 - Time: 54798ms - Avg: 26.625 - Min: 10 - Max: 53

6800GT SLI :
2005-01-04 19:07:17 - T3Main
Frames: 2592 - Time: 50089ms - Avg: 51.748 - Min: 24 - Max: 107

Thief 3 is the first game to impress me with the SLI performance .. the increase as you can see is around 100%!
the game is completely playable at the highest settings esp when considering its slow pace gameplay .

(4) Star Wars : Republic Commando :
i benchmarked the game at "Alone" level start taking out some eneimes with the shotgun & some explosives were thrown around .

6800GT single @1600x1200,4xAA,8xAF :
2005-01-04 18:55:23 - SWRepublicCommando
Frames: 1644 - Time: 54311ms - Avg: 30.270 - Min: 23 - Max: 38

6800GT SLI :
2005-01-04 19:00:57 - SWRepublicCommando
Frames: 2178 - Time: 44574ms - Avg: 48.863 - Min: 36 - Max: 59

very nice improvment here .. around 60% ! .. another game made possible to be played at highest settings when using dual 6800GTs .

(5) Splinter Cell 3 : Chaos Therory Demo
the demo benchmarked is the un-official one . i benchmarked the point from the demo start until you reach the old bridge . so there was no action . i just liked to see how the general performance will be .

6800GT single @1280x1024,4xAA,8xAF (SM3.0 + VDM + HQ soft shadows , HDR disabled)
2005-01-04 18:52:04 - splintercell3
Frames: 2558 - Time: 76336ms - Avg: 33.510 - Min: 20 - Max: 68

6800GT SLI :
2005-01-04 19:03:32 - splintercell3
Frames: 4677 - Time: 76690ms - Avg: 60.986 - Min: 35 - Max: 101

6800GT SLI with HDR enabled :
2005-01-06 19:49:46 - splintercell3 (@1024x768,noAA,2xAF[HQ])
Frames: 3237 - Time: 76344ms - Avg: 42.400 - Min: 25 - Max: 100

the performance on SLI is astonishing ! .. where the game was barely playable @1280x1024,2xAA without VDM & HQSS .. now its smooth at the above settings .
unfortunatly though .. on the infrared vision mode i get a serious framerate drops in SLI mode for some unknown reason . i suspect a bug , but i wont report it to nVIDIA until i try the official demo or the full game itself .
going to 1600x1200 slowed me down & the game was not smooth at the res so i skipped it .. the same goes with HDR .
@1024x768,noAA,2xAF .. i find the game playable with all features including HDR .

(6) Painkiller : BooH
i benchmarked BooH with the embedded recording command (patch v1.61)
i picked the first level & engaged in some action with those evil kids .. there were a lots of shaders there like heat haze effects & distortion , dynamic lights & multiple eneimes .

6800GT single @1600x1200,4xAA,8xAF (all in-game settings maxed)
timedemo = 29fps

6800GT SLI
timedemo = 55 fps

obviosly a huge increase in Painkiller : BooH over the single 6800GT's performance .

(7) Vampire : Bloodlines
i benchmarked the first scene in the game which mostly represent the indoors in VTM:B .

6800GT single :
2005-01-03 02:23:30 - vampire
Frames: 4598 - Time: 55381ms - Avg: 83.025 - Min: 59 - Max: 112

6800GT SLI
2005-01-03 02:27:48 - vampire
Frames: 5240 - Time: 55635ms - Avg: 94.185 - Min: 72 - Max: 110

theres a little improvmet here & i guess i'm more CPU limited in this game now .. as the outdoors performance shows . a nice increase nevertheless !

all in all .. i impressed with the SLi performance in many games , but not all of them (the SLI supported ones) as some of them get outperformed by my other X800XT-PE PC . but considering the 6800GT's power .. i think the overall score is very good .. but i'm still looking for more !

BTW this is of course my personal experiance & that might get changed with other people either positively or negatively . so keep that in mind

EDIT : Updated with Vampire : Bloodlines performance .

[OWA]

Is NFSU2 patched with the latest patch that appears to increase performance for 6800 series cards?

[SH64]

Originally Posted by OWA

Is NFSU2 patched with the latest patch that appears to increase performance for 6800 series cards?

Yeah i mentioned that above that i'm using patch 1.2 .
the patch increased the performance for me indeed !
thats from 27fps avarage (v1.0) to 30fps (patch v1.2) .

[PSYCHODAD]

I got similar results on NFSU2 also. 1600x1200 HQ settings

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
2019, 60000, 25, 42, 33.650

Although there is a sli profile for the game I'm wondering if sli is actually enabled for it. After exiting the game checked the card temps and only one was warmer than idle temp. No load balancing showing up either. hmm.

[SH64]

Originally Posted by PSYCHODAD

I got similar results on NFSU2 also. 1600x1200 HQ settings

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
2019, 60000, 25, 42, 33.650

Although there is a sli profile for the game I'm wondering if sli is actually enabled for it. After exiting the game checked the card temps and only one was warmer than idle temp. No load balancing showing up either. hmm.

Yeah most possible reason is that SLI isnt working in NFSU2 .
if it was working we should at least get higher minimum framerate .

[MustangSVT]

Some of your results don't sound right. Like, 42fps on single 6800GT on Halo at 1600x1200 8xAF? From what I know, a single 6800U with a slower proc (like A64 3000+) would get aroudn 60fps at that setting.

[PSYCHODAD]

I may be mistaken but kinda thought that sli worked with one of the previous drivers on Nfsu2. Using newest official driver from Nvidia website currently.(71.84)

[OWA]

Originally Posted by SH64

Yeah i mentioned that above that i'm using patch 1.2 .
the patch increased the performance for me indeed !
thats from 27fps avarage (v1.0) to 30fps (patch v1.2) .

Oops, sorry about that. I guess I skimmed the post too quickly.

[SH64]

Originally Posted by MustangSVT

Some of your results don't sound right. Like, 42fps on single 6800GT on Halo at 1600x1200 8xAF? From what I know, a single 6800U with a slower proc (like A64 3000+) would get aroudn 60fps at that setting.

The results in Halo's timedemo sometimes become confusing .. also keep in mind that different banchmarks uses different settings .
for exmaple : some set the particles to low & some to high , some uses Q in the CP & some HQ . some disables AF opt & some dont & some even uses EAX2 or Miles fast . so you cant really get a grip on an exact number .
my bench was done at the highest possible settings except that i used EAX2 instead of 3 . the sound also can affect in the score in some siutations .

the whole point is showing the differnece between single & dual 6800GTs .

[ChrisRay]

So I guess the new downloadable Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is benefiting from SLI. Quite interesting. Your using the profile in the 71.84 drivers right? Thats good news to say the least. I was quite disapoitned when I saw the demo did not benefit from SLi to begin with. I expect great things from it now

I have already begun my own investigation. It's going to be quite an undertaking. I am probably going to have to forgo using multiple maps and try to stick to the most demanding ones since I am using far more titles/applications this time.

[jAkUp]

Nice benchies!

[SH64]

Originally Posted by ChrisRay

So I guess the new downloadable Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is benefiting from SLI. Quite interesting. Your using the profile in the 71.84 drivers right? Thats good news to say the least. I was quite disapoitned when I saw the demo did not benefit from SLi to begin with. I expect great things from it now

Yep that surprised me as well .. & how no one mentioned it yet !
i'm now downloading the official demo which some of the forum members said it improved HDR performance for them .
if i noticed anything interesting in it . i will update the results here .