AquaMark3, X² - The Threat
Aquamark3- Author: Massive
- DirectX Class: 9.0
- Pixel and Vertex Shaders: Yes (mixed mode, PS1.4 and PS2.0)
AquaMark3 is almost a perfect benchmark for the ASUS 9600XT/TVD. It uses DX9 features liberally, it isn't too reliant on a high memory bandwidth as it's generally considered to be GPU driven, and it just loves the ATI's basic method of rendering.
The ASUS card comfortably beats out both NVIDIA cards with something to spare. It's not even close, really. The important thing to remember, we feel, is that each card appears to produce similar image quality. We wouldn't appreciate a gain in frame-rates at the expense of IQ. Looking pretty tasty so far for the ASUS card. Maybe ASUS' decision to produce ATI-based cards wasn't such a bad one after all, was it ?.
X² - The Threat
- Author: Egosoft
- DirectX Class: 9.0
- Pixel and Vertex Shaders: Yes (unknown versions or amount of effects)
The benchmark was set from X²'s input screen and no shadows were rendered. NVIDIA cards appear to stutter at times, hinting at a driver problem. The benchmark becomes jerky and unwieldy at times. It doesn't seem to have done that much to harm their benchmark scores, though. On the ASUS 9600XT/TVD and at 1024x768x32 4x AA / 8x AF, the benchmark appeared smooth for the most part. There's still no real performance separation between the cards.
