Why are there never any MMO Video Card Reviews?

[imported_falacy]

Considering that millions of people play games like World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings, Everquest, etc. it never ceases to amaze me how Anandtech completely ignores this segment of gamers when reviewing video cards. What I would like to see is a review of 10 games on various hardware. I'd organise it like so,

Games:
Tabula Rasa, Everquest II, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI, Lineage II, EVE Online, Guild Wars, Everquest, Vangaurd: Saga of Heros, and (because it's the only Star Wars MMO...) Star Wars: Galaxies.

Testing:
- Image quality (details, AA) vs. FPS: What's more important in this kind of game?
- Resolution vs. Image Quality/FPS in relation to the benifits of having more screen realestate in the game.
- Value for the dollar when buying a new system
- Best upgrades for older hardware
- Is there any benifit to buying Vista and DX10 hardware for MMO gamers or is Windows XP and DX9 hardware enough?
- How does multi-tasking effect framerates

Video Cards:
Ati series: 9600, 9800, x1600, x1900, 2600, 2900, 3800
Nvidia series: fx5900, 6600, 6800, 7600, 7900, 8500, 8600, 8800

Onboard Video:
Chipsets: i865G (socket 775 versions), GMA950, GMA3000, GMA3001, AMD Xpress 200, nVidia 6200, nVidia 6100

Processors:
- CPUs: Pentium 4, Pentium D, Pentium Dual-Core, Core2 4xxx/6xxx, Athlon 64, Athlon 64 x2 below the $320 price points, with perhaps a quad core thown in there.

The idea would be to give current gamers an idea of where there hardware stands and what kind of improvements they would see when upgrading, while giving people who have been thinking of playing an MMO an idea of what they really need in order to enjoy the game the way they wish to. The numbers speak for themselves: millions of people would benifit from a detailed review on MMO performance!

 

[recon6]

Hardocp used to put WoW in their reviews. I think the main reason they don't put MMO's in reviews is they typically are not mind blowing graphically and are a niche as far as the gaming community is concerned.

 

[nitromullet]

Anandtech did performance benchmarks for WoW when it came out. The reason you don't see them very often is because in order to conduct benchmarks on anything you have to have a controlled environment. This is very difficult with an MMO.

Video Cards:
Ati series: 9600, 9800, x1600, x1900, 2600, 2900, 3800
Nvidia series: fx5900, 6600, 6800, 7600, 7900, 8500, 8600, 8800

Onboard Video:
Chipsets: i865G (socket 775 versions), GMA950, GMA3000, GMA3001, AMD Xpress 200, nVidia 6200, nVidia 6100

Processors:
- CPUs: Pentium 4, Pentium D, Pentium Dual-Core, Core2 4xxx/6xxx, Athlon 64, Athlon 64 x2 below the $320 price points, with perhaps a quad core thown in there.

LOL!!!! You listed 8 cpus, 22 gpus, and 10 MMOs. That's 1760 benchmarks! You probably want those at 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, and 1920x1200 as well... That's only 7040 benchmarks.

 

[JAH]

I don't think MMO is niche. WoW expansion was the top selling PC game for weeks when it was released, and when you combine all those games player base, that's a huge demographic (not to mention a very active demographic since it's subscription based).

I do agree however that those games are not graphically intensive like other genres. Maybe that's why most reviews don't test them. I like to see them tested nonetheless.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: recon6
Hardocp used to put WoW in their reviews. I think the main reason they don't put MMO's in reviews is they typically are not mind blowing graphically and are a niche as far as the gaming community is concerned.

Basically. Although every now and then WoW benchmarks still show up. TR used to include Guild Wars all the time.

To make matters worse Blizzard has stated that WoW will not receive a graphics update in its next expansion. Although it did get dual core support in a recent patch.

 

[chizow]

WoW certainly isn't a niche market....

When you start seeing other games infiltrating pop culture the way WoW has (South Park, Toyota commercials during NFL games, radio/tv talk shows etc.), then you can say its a niche market. Then of course there's those ever-escalating stickers on the boxes boasting 8 million+ copies sold. I've never played WoW btw.

But ya the main reason I think is that MMOs typically don't push the envelope graphically. Typically a new MMO will be at least a generation behind in terms of graphics due to their longer development and lower emphasis on eye-candy in favor of content. AT and HOCP did used to bench WoW, but both stopped I believe once the X1900s and then G80s started pegging their FPS at 60FPS at 1600+ and 4xAA. Kind boring benches when you don't see any difference between the last 1-2 generations of cards in that game.

Another game you mentioned however, is LOTRO, which I've been playing the last few months. This game is actually very graphically impressive and intensive and HOCP did include it in a few benches as well. It also rolled out a DX10 patch and can definitely bring any current GPU solution to its knees at 1920+.

Best way to get an idea of performance you might see in-game is to ask friends/guild members what card/hardware they're running and compare their frame rates to your own. Not as cut and dry as benchmarks, but it'll certainly give you a better idea of how your potential upgrade will impact performance in whatever game you're interested in.

 

[MarcVenice]

It's not a niche market, but the fact is MMO's run on 'outdated' engines, like the unreal engine 2.5 or 2.0. Perfectly fine for an MMO, but nothing that most videocards can't handle.

 

[zephyrprime]

Is it just because MMO's typically don't have FPS meters built into them?

 

[Kalessian]

It can be hard to standardize MMO tests since the game-world is constantly changing due to other players. As far as I know most don't have "offline" modes.

 

[superunknown98]

While it might interest many people to know the results, as others have said, Most of those games are just not intensive to today's hardware. Infact many are downright old, as are half the video cards you listed.

I have a friend who used to play WoW at max resolution on his 24" monitor with a radeon 9800pro. Just about any card you buy today above 80 dollars is much faster than that.

I understand that people need a comparison point for upgrading, but if you're worried that a 3 year old video card or computer for that matter wont be much faster playing a 3 year old game, well......

Besides whats the point in seeing that every new video card can score 300FPS in WoW, you might be better off focusing on games that show a cards strength or weakness.

as for the integrated graphics, you shouldn't be buying a new motherboard based on how fast it can play a game. while it may play an older game acceptably, any 50 dollar video card will signifacantly out perform it.

I think this is why, except for new releases, MMO's are not benchmarked.

 

[speckedhoncho]

I have recently seen benches for NWN2, Oblivion, for the 8800GT, but older reviews I can't remember.

NWN2 & Oblivion are excellent graphics-wise, older MMOs have a very similar graphics quality capability probably due to the scalability needed in an online world.

 

[Aiden]

As stated most MMO's really do not run on intensive graphics engines so you rarely see benchmarks for games like that.

Additionally MMO's are generally designed not to have intensive graphics. They have ok graphics, but they are limited by the fact that the intended design is for a persistant world that allows for large #s of charecters/models/textures drawn on the fly.

When you have game content that requires 40 player models, plus background, plus npcs/mobs, effects, etc etc, and you really have to do it in a lag free enviroment, your limited in what you can do.

The only game that really tried to use a cutting edge graphics engine was vanguard, that that game is probably one of the biggest failures in the history of gaming. It had other issues then graphics , but the intense demands really did not help the product.

 

[jonks]

Simply because if a card can run Crysis/UT3/etc well it can run any mmo well, and the reverse is not true.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
Is it just because MMO's typically don't have FPS meters built into them?

Ctrl+R will display the FPS on screen in WoW.

Originally posted by: speckedhoncho
I have recently seen benches for NWN2, Oblivion, for the 8800GT, but older reviews I can't remember.

NWN2 & Oblivion are excellent graphics-wise, older MMOs have a very similar graphics quality capability probably due to the scalability needed in an online world.

Those are RPGs, but not MMORPGs...

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: JAH
I don't think MMO is niche. WoW expansion was the top selling PC game for weeks when it was released, and when you combine all those games player base, that's a huge demographic (not to mention a very active demographic since it's subscription based).

I do agree however that those games are not graphically intensive like other genres. Maybe that's why most reviews don't test them. I like to see them tested nonetheless.

WoW players don't read Anandtech, they're too busy working on getting their epic or raiding.

 

[Skott]

Originally posted by: sirjonk
Simply because if a card can run Crysis/UT3/etc well it can run any mmo well, and the reverse is not true.

^What he said

 

[imported_falacy]

Originally posted by: recon6
LOL!!!! You listed 8 cpus, 22 gpus, and 10 MMOs. That's 1760 benchmarks! You probably want those at 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, and 1920x1200 as well... That's only 7040 benchmarks.

Gotta make up for lost time