Mid Range GPU Performance w/ Bloom Enabled

Just as was the case with the high end tests, we ran a separate set of benchmarks with HDR lighting disabled to allow for comparison to ATI's Radeon X850/X800 series. The question we're looking to answer here is what upgrade options X850/X800 owners have in the mid-range market segment.


The white lines within the bars indicate minimum frame rate

With HDR disabled, if you've got anything faster than an X800 XL from ATI you are sitting very pretty. While the GeForce 7900 GT and X1800 XT offer some pretty compelling performance, high end X850/X800 owners really don't have a reason to upgrade unless they want better image quality. Even the X800 Pro performs pretty well here; fortunately (or unfortunately) for owners of ATI's X850/X800 series, if you're not going to spend a lot of money on a GPU upgrade then your best bet is actually to stay put and just turn down your detail settings.

NVIDIA's GeForce 6800 GS does reasonably well here, but it looks like Oblivion isn't very friendly to NVIDIA's GeForce 6 architecture as the vanilla ATI Radeon X800 offers similar performance.


The white lines within the bars indicate minimum frame rate

The performance picture doesn't really change all that much here for Radeon X850/X800 owners, their performance is still chart topping.


The white lines within the bars indicate minimum frame rate

Mid Range GPU Performance w/ HDR Enabled Final Words
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  • MrCoyote - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link

    What good does it do to benchmark this game? The engine they licensed for this game is very limited in performance and unoptimized <b>(GameByro)</b>. Please wait until a patch comes out, then benchmark the game. This performance limit can be seen in various reviews across the web. A 7900GT or X1900XT should be getting more than 20-30FPS on this game.
  • munky - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link

    People are not gonna wait for a patch to buy the game, and the whole premise of improved performance with a patch is uncertain. This review is useful for those who have the game, and would like to know if a certain upgrade would give them a significant improvement, or would just like to see how their performance compares to those with other video cards.
  • Jackyl - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link

    That's very true that the game is very much in an "unfinished" stage and was released too soon. Any professional developer knows that the Gamebyro engine has it's share of performance problems. It is not in the same league of engines as others. Why they licensed this engine is beyond me.

    Warning...Don't post anything even remotely negative about the game on the official forums. Fanboys will be waiting to lash back at you. Yet people are complaining left and right on the forums of the performance problems, bugs, and interface problems. The PC game looks nothing but just a console port. Bad inventory screen system and GUI. Hopefully a 3rd party modder can change these things.
  • poohbear - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link

    the bad inventory has already been resolved w/ a user mod. look for the Btmod-2.20
  • nts - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link

    The X1800XT can be had for less than the 7900GT and performs better...

    Why was it not include it in the Mid Range graphs?
  • SiliconDoc - Friday, July 17, 2009 - link

    Wow, how quickly the complaining masses forget. $1,200.00 for two ati cards - LOL
    And here I've been told by all the disgruntled red fans that nvidia is the greedy scalping horror....
    BWHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
    ---
    It's so nice that anandtech doesn't delete their old reviews.
    TWELVE HUNDRED BUCKAROOS FOR 2 ATI CARDS.
    --
    Once again I find out the red fans have been deceiving me all along.
    This is great - another myth of the web, exploded thanks to the web.
  • Spoelie - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link

    So very true
    http://www.alternate.de/html/productDetails.html?a...">http://www.alternate.de/html/productDetails.html?a...
    http://www.alternate.de/html/productDetails.html?a...">http://www.alternate.de/html/productDetails.html?a...

    For the money, the x1800xt 512mb seems a better deal.
  • bob661 - Thursday, April 27, 2006 - link

    Just checked on Newegg and the prices are the same unless you go with the 256MB version of the X1800XT.
  • bob661 - Thursday, April 27, 2006 - link

    On Zipzoomfly, the 7900GT is a bit cheaper.
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link

    We inadvertently left it out of the midrange tests; I just updated the graphs and conclusion to reflect its inclusion.

    Take care,
    Anand

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