Morrowind
This content was originally featured on Amdmb.com and has been converted to PC Perspective’s website. Some color changes and flaws may appear.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind |
The 3rd installment
to the Elder Scrolls franchise is proving to be very successful. Once again,
I am using Balmora as the “benchmark” town because of its large
number of NPCs and buildings (great for back-face culling testing), and a
large pixel-shaded river running through it.
Game
Configuration
|
|
View Distance | 50% |
Pixel-shading | Enabled |
Real-time shadows | Disabled |
Min and Max Frame Rates | Asus
Radeon 9800XT
|
NVIDIA
FX5950 Ultra
|
Softmod
R9500
|
||||
Min
|
Max
|
Min
|
Max
|
Min
|
Max
|
||
1024×768 | 0x0 |
43
|
65
|
25
|
61
|
43
|
66
|
0x8 | 46
|
70
|
12
|
57
|
38
|
64
|
|
2×0 | 46
|
65
|
25
|
58
|
43
|
64
|
|
2×8 | 39
|
62
|
24
|
56
|
39
|
61
|
|
4×0 | 47
|
67
|
27
|
56
|
35
|
65
|
|
4×8 |
43
|
65
|
10
|
61
|
37
|
62
|
Here we see the Asus Radeon 9800XT leading the pack but is mirrored by the softmod Radeon 9500. This is typical of the results we’ve been seeing here on AMDMB where all ATI cards beat the silicon out of any NVIDIA card in Morrowind. The Asus card played like silk and had no problems to speak of.
Min and Max Frame Rates | FX5700U
|
FX5600U
|
Softmod
R9500
|
||||
Min
|
Max
|
Min
|
Max
|
Min
|
Max
|
||
1600×1200 | 0x0 |
43
|
65
|
17
|
58
|
42
|
64
|
0x8 | 46
|
70
|
12
|
57
|
39
|
62
|
|
2×0 | 46
|
65
|
19
|
55
|
40
|
61
|
|
2×8 | 39
|
62
|
22
|
54
|
37
|
63
|
|
4×0 | 47
|
67
|
24
|
56
|
38
|
63
|
|
4×8 |
43
|
65
|
22
|
52
|
40
|
58
|
The same story at 1600×1200, we see both Asus Radeon 9800XT and the Softmod Radeon 9500 beating the FX5950 Ultra, but by a smaller margin. The Asus radeon 9800XT performed very smoothly and the game looks gorgeous.
However, there is a strange crash I have never experienced before during my 1+ year of playing Morrowind. This happened to me twice while testing the Asus Radeon 9800XT and never occured prior to that.
Morrowind anyone? 😉
One occurance happened when I switched from 1024×768 to 1600×1200 during the game, and another time was booting into the game from my desktop. It would seem that the sudden change of resolution causes this problem, but I can’t say for certain. Could this problem be linked to the same resolution switching problems ATI experiences in Homeworld 2? Just some issues to be aware of in case you run into them.