Firingsquad Publishes HDR + AA Performance Tests

[Sc4freak]

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/hdr_aa_ati_radeon_x1k/

And their conclusion? HDR + AA is a useful and completely playable feature. From the article, adding 4xAA/8xAF to FarCry (HDR on) at 1600x1200 produced a FPS hit of 4% and 2% for the X1900XTX and X1800XT, respectively.

Adding 4xAA/8xAF to Oblivion (HDR on) caused a drop in framerate of 30% and 21% for the X1900XTX and X1800XT, respectively.

 

[Ika]

WAIT WHY DIDN'T THEY TEST IT ON NVIDIA CARDS HUH? THEY'RE BIASED!!!

oh wait....

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: Aflac
WAIT WHY DIDN'T THEY TEST IT ON NVIDIA CARDS HUH? THEY'RE BIASED!!!

oh wait....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

 

[akugami]

Aflac's post can be taken two ways. You can say he's trolling and I can see where you're coming from but at the same time you can say he's just pointing out the obvious to certain members of the AT forums who swear by their dead grandmothers that nVidia can do "true" HDR and AA. There are very few sites that are truly biased even though the site's forums may lean one way or another. It's just that any time someone doesn't agree with a review, it instantly gets the bias tag.

 

[Ika]

In case it wasn't clear, I was making fun of NVidia fanboys in my post, but in general I hate all fanboys.

Personally I think HDR looks better than Bloom, but Bloom is still a pretty nice improvement upon non-HDR. I still prefer ATI for what it can do with HDR though.

 

[dug777]

Nice

 

[LittleNemoNES]

That's pretty much been my experience. Adding 4xAA has no discernable FPS hit. I play Oblivion 1680x1050 HDR+4xAA, 16xHQAF.

Enabling AAA gives a pretty big hit, though. I found that if I want to enable it, I can use 2xAAA instead and it runs @ the same FPS.

I have trees, grass, and objects @ max and everything else in the middle. The only option left off is shadow on grass cos its a 10fps hit for something I never see (1st person)

 

[Noubourne]

HDR certainly looks way better than bloom, and I even prefer it over more AA - and like most other gamers I have to choose, because I don't spend $1200 on video cards.

So like the last 10 articles on HDR + AA, this means absolutely nothing to me. Maybe this will mean something when a sub-$500 video card is capable of handling it at respectable framerates - this winter maybe? Dunno how big of a jump the G80 and ATI's latest will be, but I'm hearing good things.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: Noubourne
HDR certainly looks way better than bloom, and I even prefer it over more AA - and like most other gamers I have to choose, because I don't spend $1200 on video cards.

So like the last 10 articles on HDR + AA, this means absolutely nothing to me. Maybe this will mean something when a sub-$500 video card is capable of handling it at respectable framerates - this winter maybe? Dunno how big of a jump the G80 and ATI's latest will be, but I'm hearing good things.

You're in luck now. The X1800 512MB is around $250 and the X1900XT is around $350. I'm running Oblivion at 1280x960 with 4x/16X/HDR and loving it. Fluid framerates in all areas of the game.

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: Noubourne
HDR certainly looks way better than bloom, and I even prefer it over more AA - and like most other gamers I have to choose, because I don't spend $1200 on video cards.

So like the last 10 articles on HDR + AA, this means absolutely nothing to me. Maybe this will mean something when a sub-$500 video card is capable of handling it at respectable framerates - this winter maybe? Dunno how big of a jump the G80 and ATI's latest will be, but I'm hearing good things.

You could get MSI X1800XL 512MB and X1800XT 256MB cards for about $200 just a week or two ago.

 

[nitromullet]

This is old news to anyone who actually owns an ATI card, we've known HDR+AA was playable for a while now. I think the only people who "needed" this article are people who will never buy an ATI card anyway... Nice to have it documented either way.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
This is old news to anyone who actually owns an ATI card, we've known HDR+AA was playable for a while now. I think the only people who "needed" this article are people who will never buy an ATI card anyway... Nice to have it documented either way.

Coming from Firingsquad, it's nothing short of an admission. So it's to edumacate some staunch partisons.

 

[Noubourne]

Well I do see that the X1900XTs are in the $375 range now. On their way down for sure, but I have yet to spend more than $300 on a video card. Anyway, it's certainly good to know.

I have an SLI board, and don't want to cut that upgrade path off just yet, so I'll be sticking with Nvidia for now. In fact, I have a 7900GT and a Vu900 coming as well, so we'll see how the 7900GT does at whatever overclock I can get out of it (the two together cost me less than $300). It'll be my first vid-card volt mod too. Yay fun!

 

[Polish3d]

I would have liked to see a bigger gap between the x1900xtx and the x1800xt in oblivion

Its something like 30% faster in Far Cry, I wonder why not in Oblivion

 

[TanisHalfElven]

isn't it weird the performance hit is less on x1800xt than x1900xtx.
any idea why ?

 

[fierydemise]

Originally posted by: tanishalfelven
isn't it weird the performance hit is less on x1800xt than x1900xtx.
any idea why ?

This is just a theory but isn't the reason ATI takes less of a hit is memory bandwidth? In that case if the X1800 has faster memory it would take less of a hit?

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: tanishalfelven
isn't it weird the performance hit is less on x1800xt than x1900xtx.
any idea why ?

CPU limitation, maybe.

 

[thilanliyan]

Finally there's some evidence from a reputable site that certain crusaders of NVidia cards can't deny and say "but adding AA to HDR will make games unplayable so it's useless anyway".

Of course, this is what ATI X1K users have been saying for a while.

 

[Polish3d]

Yeah I'm surprised people have been saying that. HDR+AA is totally playable even on Oblivion.

 

[josh6079]

Good to see a site that makes benches that reflect realistic game settings.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: thilan29
Finally there's some evidence from a reputable site that certain crusaders of NVidia cards can't deny and say "but adding AA to HDR will make games unplayable so it's useless anyway".

Of course, this is what ATI X1K users have been saying for a while.

Actually I would consider FS the most red biased site on the net. It's no suprise that the redfanboys here always quote that site above all others.

 

[schneiderguy]

Originally posted by: Wreckage

Originally posted by: thilan29
Finally there's some evidence from a reputable site that certain crusaders of NVidia cards can't deny and say "but adding AA to HDR will make games unplayable so it's useless anyway".

Of course, this is what ATI X1K users have been saying for a while.

Actually I would consider FS the most red biased site on the net. It's no suprise that the redfanboys here always quote that site above all others.

:Q *gets popcorn*

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: Wreckage
Actually I would consider FS the most red biased site on the net. It's no suprise that the redfanboys here always quote that site above all others.

You're joking right?? Now it's FS the most red biased?? I thought it was supposedly B3D that was so red biased?? Next it'll be AT being the most red biased?? I guess any site that paints ATI in a good light is biased huh?? So I guess any site that reviewed the 7950 and said it performs well is also biased too right??

And actually, no, you're generalizing when you say it is quoted above all others. You pulled that statement out of your a$$.

And what's been stated in the review has been stated by several people on this forum that have played Oblivion with HDR+AA. It's just that some fanboys thought they were lying. If you had an ATI card maybe you could test it out too.

 

[TheRyuu]

Is the link bad?

For me, from their homepage I get this:
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/hdr_aa_ati_radeon_x1k/

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: Wreckage
Actually I would consider FS the most red biased site on the net. It's no suprise that the redfanboys here always quote that site above all others.

You're joking right?? Now it's FS the most red biased?? I thought it was supposedly B3D that was so red biased?? Next it'll be AT being the most red biased?? I guess any site that paints ATI in a good light is biased huh?? So I guess any site that reviewed the 7950 and said it performs well is also biased too right??.

That's right there are only NVIDIA biased sites, there could never be ATI biased sites. :roll:

And actually, no, you're generalizing when you say it is quoted above all others. You pulled that statement out of your a$$.

It's frequently quoted by ATI fans on this site. Anyone who has read this site for awhile knows that. Joker, Ackmed, etc. all use it as the golden site for their benchmarks.

And what's been stated in the review has been stated by several people on this forum that have played Oblivion with HDR+AA.

I guess it's been established that there are no biased people on this site. :roll:


Hypocrisy at it's finest. There are only NVIDIA biased sites and NVIDIA biased people.....whatever.