Image Quality – Doom 3

Our IQ Testing

Continuing on with the trend started in our Source Engine article, our IQ testing is formatted as you see below.  We have included 4 total images this time for your comparison, each of them labeled with the card, resolution and image quality settings that they were run at.  First, the thumbnail gives you a brief look at the area, though not with enough detail to make a IQ comparison yourself.  The “Full Size” image is a link to a full resolution image, in this case 500×500 pixels, in its original form, just cropped for easy viewing.  The “Enlarged 200%” image is just what it says, the same image enlarged to 1000×1000 pixels to better show the detail.  These images will show the faults of each cards rendering more easily but also more dramatically than you would see in-game.  Finally, the last image is the “Original Image” at the 1024×768 resolution that we cropped the 500×500 pixel section from. 

Doom 3 – Antialiasing Quality

With all the excitment about Doom 3, it made perfect sense to use it for some of our image quality testing.  Gamers are expecting to see the best quality from Doom 3, and comparing the quality from the NVIDIA and ATI cards should tell us if they are providing gaming experiences on the same level.

NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT AGP - Finally! - Graphics Cards 88

NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT AGP - Finally! - Graphics Cards 89

Full Size

Full Size

Enlarged 200%

Enlarged 200%

Original Image

Original Image

For judging the AA quality of the two cards, we are looking at this section of our benchmark run through.  The spot to pay attention to is the area where the hand rail intersects with the light and surrounding areas.  Here you can see the aliasing that takes place.  On both the NVIDIA and ATI cards, without AA enabled, there is a lot of aliasing taking place.

NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT AGP - Finally! - Graphics Cards 90

NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT AGP - Finally! - Graphics Cards 91

Full Size

Full Size

Enlarged 200%

Enlarged 200%

Original Image

Original Image

The ATI 9800 Pro has a noticeably less soft AA method on the lower hand rail in the Enlarged 200% images.  Though the edges are blurred together on both screen shots, with the ATI card you can easily see the “stepping” of the aliased line inside the blurring.  The NVIDIA rendering is more soft and gives a slightly better overall impression. 

Notice also that neither card does much AA work on the interior of the walk way, looking through to the door.

Doom 3 – Anisotropic Filtering Quality 

NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT AGP - Finally! - Graphics Cards 92

NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT AGP - Finally! - Graphics Cards 93

Full Size

Full Size

Enlarged 200%

Enlarged 200%

Original Image

Original Image

NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT AGP - Finally! - Graphics Cards 94

NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT AGP - Finally! - Graphics Cards 95

Full Size

Full Size

Enlarged 200%

Enlarged 200%

Original Image

Original Image

Similarly here, you can see on the left hand rail where the AA is taking place.  However, on this dark of a background, the difference between the 6600GT and the 9800 Pro is impossible to see.

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