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Each of the tests was run using three alternate settings for visual quality. When seeking to improve visual quality, two options are called upon above all others, Anti aliasing, to blend jagged edges and Anisotropic Filtering, to enhance the appearance of textures. Numerous additional options for fine tuning “eye candy” are offered by both ATI’s and Nvidia’s driver software, though since most are specific to one or the other, these were not employed during testing.
Where made permissible by the application, the following profiles were used:
Low Quality – 1920×1200 and 2560x1600 – 0xaa and 0xaf – This is the default profile with both anti-aliasing (aa) and anisotropic filtering (af) disabled and thus, the lowest quality.
Medium Quality – 1920×1200 and 2560x1600 – 4xaa and 16xaf – This profile has anti-aliasing set to 4x (4 samples) and anisotropic filtering set to 16x, the maximum currently possible.
High Quality- 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 – 8xaa and 16xaf – The third profile has anti-aliasing set to 8x while anisotropic filtering remains at 16x.
Settings for both AA and AF were initially applied within the application or benchmark, if either of these options was not available, they were selected in the driver software’s control panel. All other settings were left at their driver defaults.
If one or more of the above profiles was not enforceable in a particular benchmark, either via the video card’s control panel or within the software’s configuration options, the test was skipped and/or a “best match” alternative was run it its place.For each test, where possible, the minimum, average and maximum frame rates were recorded and have been included in the accompanying bar graphs for reference. The two most important figures are those for the minimum and average framerates since it is these that have the biggest impact on user interaction and ultimately determine a smooth, responsive and enjoyable gaming experience or one riddled with choppiness and frustration. The video below from a previous series of tests pitting three GTX 580s against two HD 5970s serves as convicing evidence of just how noticable this problem can become.
Test System Configuration.
Asus P6T7 Supercomputer.
– Intel Core I7 980X 3.33ghz (stock speed with Intel Turboboost enabled).
– 6GB Kingston HyperX 1866mhz (clocked at 1333mhz, latency 9-9-9-24).
– Silverstone Strider 1500w.
– 4x Samsing SSDs – Pb22-J 256GB.
(2x in RAID 0 array, 2x non-RAID. Game installed on RAID array).
– Auzentech X-Fi Home Theatre HD.
– Windows 7 x64.– Drivers, 270.61 Nvidia Forceware and ATI Catalyst 11.3 (official releases) All cards run at their default “stock” speeds.
