FSAA, Aniso, Overclocking

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FSAA, Aniso, Overclocking

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 97 Anti-aliasing Quality

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 98

“Jaggies” are the result of rendering an edge using the display’s default pixel locations. Anti-aliasing removes these jagged edges by softening the edge to make it appear more smooth – creating the illusion of rendering an edge on the screen as if it were at a higher resolution. As a result, anti-aliasing is generally more important on lower resolution displays (i.e. 1024×768 on a 19″ monitor) as there are less pixels to render an edge. But many users, regardless of resolution and monitor size, use anti-aliasing to generally improve the way images look. Here we will test the three major chipset’s in anti-aliasing performance.

 
Asus Radeon 9800XT
NVIDIA FX5950 Ultra
0xAA

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 99

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 100
2xAA

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 101

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 102

4xAA
Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 103

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 104

Comparing each level of anti-aliasing, it would appear that the Asus Radeon 9800XT has a superior image at 4x anti-aliasing. You can see that the NVIDIA FX5950 Ultra performs poorly along diagonal edges (look at the outside edges of the house on the left) compared to the Asus 9800XT. However, things are less decisive at 2x anti-aliasing as both the Asus 9800XT and the NVIDIA FX5950 Ultra are about balanced – the Asus looks better in some spots, whereas the NVIDIA looks better in others.

So if you’re looking to game at 2xAA, there is no real discernable difference between the two cards. However, if you’re wanting 4xAA, then the Asus Radeon 9800XT is your obvious choice.

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 105 Anisotropic Quality

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 106

We will now take a look at the anisotropic filtering quality of the Asus Radeon 9800XT compared to the NVIDIA FX5950 Ultra. The game we are using to compare samples is from Halo using the best texture quality settings from both the videocard driver and from the game.

 
Asus Radeon 9800XT
NVIDIA FX5950 Ultra
0xAF

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 107

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 108
2xAF

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 109

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 110

4xAF
Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 111

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 112

Looking at these samples, you can’t help but notice that the Asus Radeon 9800XT looks sharper and more defined than the NVIDIA FX5950 Ultra. At each level of anisotropy, the Asus shows deeper color in the floor textures and makes the FX5950 Ultra look flat in comparison. At 4x filtering, there isn’t much change in the texture on the back wall, but the textures in the mid-ground get brighter and more detailed. You may not notice all the details in a game, but you would definitely notice the brighter textures. Also comparing the Asus to the NVIDIA at 4x sampling, you will notice that the NVIDIA card gets a bit washed out as if the white-balance slider was increased by a notch.

I would say that the Asus Radeon 9800XT has very nice anisotropy filtering capabilities that is superior in lumination, color, and definition compared to NVIDIA’s FX5950 Ultra.

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 105 Overclocking

Though Asus bundles Smart Doctor which features core and memory overclocking, I found that this wasn’t enough as the Asus Radeon 9800XT easily did the maximum 440MHz core and 770MHz DDR memory. I used PowerStrip instead to achieve my overclocking since it features higher settings. Each overclock was tested using Halo with all the features enabled. I found this game a better test for overclocking as artifact problems become apparent a lot quicker than using a benchmark or UT2K3. The following is a scatter chart of my trials.

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 114

The best possible overclock I achieved was 456 MHz core (+45Mhz from 411MHz) and 786 MHz DDR memory (+58MHz DDR from 728MHz). Just to put things into perspective, here are the comparisons of frame rates in Halo before and after overclocking.

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD - Graphics Cards 115

Not bad, a 7 FPS increase when Specular effects are turned off but only a 3 FPS increase when Specular is on. I think overclocking this videocard is worth it in Halo as an extra 3 FPS can make a difference with specular effects. I’m sure overclocking mileage will be better in other less demanding games (in UT2K3, I was able to push almost 800MHz on the memory and 472 MHz on the core).

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