Half Life 2 GPU Roundup Part 1 - DirectX 9 Shootout
by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 17, 2004 11:22 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Head to Head: ATI Radeon X700 XT vs. NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
As far as PCI Express platforms go, the Radeon X700 XT and the GeForce 6600GT are about as evenly matched as you can get in terms of price and performance and thankfully they are both readily available today. Let's see how they perform head to head under Half Life 2:
In our first demo, the two basically tie - we aren't considering performance differences of ~3% or less to be anything significant.
| Half Life 2 AT_canals_08.dem | |||
ATI Radeon X700 XT |
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT |
Performance Advantage |
|
| 1024 x 768 | 116.4 |
113.5 |
2.6% |
| 1280 x 1024 | 78.7 |
78.1 |
0.8% |
| 1600 x 1200 | 55.9 |
57.7 |
3.1% |
| 1024 x 768 - 4X AA | 75.3 |
72.7 |
3.6% |
| Winner | - |
- |
Tie |
Our second demo shows the X700 XT pulling ahead and definitely taking the lead when AA is enabled.
| Half Life 2 AT_coast_05.dem | |||
ATI Radeon X700 XT |
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT |
Performance Advantage |
|
| 1024 x 768 | 133.5 |
129.6 |
3.0% |
| 1280 x 1024 | 112.3 |
107.9 |
4.1% |
| 1600 x 1200 | 81.9 |
78.5 |
4.3% |
| 1024 x 768 - 4X AA | 115.8 |
107.2 |
8.0% |
| Winner | - |
- |
X700 XT |
We have a tie once again in our third demo:
| Half Life 2 AT_coast_12.dem | |||
ATI Radeon X700 XT |
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT |
Performance Advantage |
|
| 1024 x 768 | 115.7 |
113.6 |
1.8% |
| 1280 x 1024 | 88 |
88.2 |
0.2% |
| 1600 x 1200 | 63 |
64.4 |
2.2% |
| 1024 x 768 - 4X AA | 87.5 |
87.1 |
0.5% |
| Winner | - |
- |
Tie |
Our fourth demo shows the X700 XT pulling far ahead with AA enabled, but otherwise the two perform identically:
| Half Life 2 AT_prison_05.dem | |||
ATI Radeon X700 XT |
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT |
Performance Advantage |
|
| 1024 x 768 | 119 |
116.1 |
2.5% |
| 1280 x 1024 | 79.4 |
77.2 |
2.8% |
| 1600 x 1200 | 55.5 |
55.7 |
0.4% |
| 1024 x 768 - 4X AA | 85.1 |
74.6 |
14.1% |
| Winner | - |
- |
X700 XT |
In our final demothe X700 XT manages to maintain the greatest performance advantage, even at 1600 x 1200 without AA the X700 XT is over 10% faster than the 6600GT.
| Half Life 2 AT_c17_12.dem | |||
ATI Radeon X700 XT |
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT |
Performance Advantage |
|
| 1024 x 768 | 87.3 |
82.9 |
5.3% |
| 1280 x 1024 | 82.2 |
76.4 |
7.6% |
| 1600 x 1200 | 69.2 |
61.6 |
12.3% |
| 1024 x 768 - 4X AA | 77.4 |
70 |
10.6% |
| Winner | - |
- |
X700 XT |
We averaged all of the X700 XT's wins together to make up the table below. From the looks of it, the X700 XT is significantly faster when AA is enabled, but is otherwise a relative equal to the 6600GT. What is important to note here is that the sweet spot for image quality and performance on these two cards appears to be at 1280 x 1024, where they are both virtually equal in performance.
| Summary | |||
Average Performance Advantage (X700 XT over 6600GT) |
|||
| 1024 x 768 | 3.0% |
||
| 1280 x 1024 | 3.1% |
||
| 1600 x 1200 | 4.5% |
||
| 1024 x 768 - 4X AA | 7.3% |
||
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alexlck - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
In map AT_coast_05.dem, GF6800U have no performance penalty with 4xAA@1024x768?HardwareD00d - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
hey, #27, I was gonna say that ;)jediknight - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
Well, it's obvious from the benchmarks. They don't lie.ATI RULZ NVIDIA SUXORZ!!
(lol@#3)
bob661 - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
Do you need HL2 to play CS: Source? Thanks.wien - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
#24 There is.. It's called Counter-Strike: Sourcebob661 - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
Anyone know if there's multiplayer support in HL2? Thanks.L1FE - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
Nice and thorough comparison. That 6600GT looks more and more enticing...Rekonn - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
Great article, looking forward to reading the next one with slower cpus. Being cpu limited with an A64 4000+ is a little scary, I wonder what kind of fps an XP3200+ gets when paired with an AGP 6600GT. (still running an overclocked Barton 2500+)Jalf - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
I'm surprised at how well NV stacks up... And good to see the 6800 GT beat the X800 Pro. Not because I'm an NV fan, but simply because it makes it easier to choose. When the 6800 GT wins over the equivalent ATI card, even in an ATI-optimized game, then it's kinda easy to choose what to buy... :DIt's a lot harder with the other cards, where both companies scores some wins in different games.
Regs - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
Yeah, I'm hoping a CPU round up will come after part two! I can afford a 400 dollar video card but not paired with a 700 dollar AMD CPU.I did notice a lot of stuttering in my gaming experience with a A64 3000 + 6800 GT/1024 MB pC3200. I was playing at 1280x1024 with 4x/8x max details. So likely I would have to cut out the 8x Aniso to have smooth gameplay. I don't know if that was what Anand was mentioning about with the "Shimmering" of textures with the Manhatten calculations.