Final Words
Overall, X3 Reunion looks like a decent game, but more importantly for our purposes, it looks to make a pretty good performance benchmark. The new graphics look is significantly better than the previous X2 graphics, thanks to a new engine. Whether or not this is your type of game, it looks very impressive, and with the latest graphics technology, including SM 3.0 support, it will definitely put your graphics card to the test.
At AnandTech, it is important for us to have a wide variety of games to test when looking at hardware performance, and games like these are always a welcome addition to our benchmarks. The X2: The Threat rolling demo was a benchmark that we routinely used for our card roundups in the past (before it became technologically out of date), and now, it will be replaced by the graphically superior X3 rolling demo. We will definitely be using this as a benchmark for future testing, as it represents the next generation of game graphics suitable for testing the higher-end cards and systems.
We've also seen how the processor speed factors in to the X3 benchmark. With graphics cards capable of moderately high framerates, you will get the best performance in X3 on a system with a good processor. Because of the CPU limitation, the X3 demo would make a good CPU benchmark as well as a graphics card benchmark, further adding to the usefulness of the game as part of our test suite.
It's refreshing to see the level of quality graphics for a game like this, especially given the scarcity of good space simulation games. While X3: Reunion might not be the best game of its type, it is definitely one of the best looking, and is a welcome addition to the genre.
Overall, X3 Reunion looks like a decent game, but more importantly for our purposes, it looks to make a pretty good performance benchmark. The new graphics look is significantly better than the previous X2 graphics, thanks to a new engine. Whether or not this is your type of game, it looks very impressive, and with the latest graphics technology, including SM 3.0 support, it will definitely put your graphics card to the test.
At AnandTech, it is important for us to have a wide variety of games to test when looking at hardware performance, and games like these are always a welcome addition to our benchmarks. The X2: The Threat rolling demo was a benchmark that we routinely used for our card roundups in the past (before it became technologically out of date), and now, it will be replaced by the graphically superior X3 rolling demo. We will definitely be using this as a benchmark for future testing, as it represents the next generation of game graphics suitable for testing the higher-end cards and systems.
We've also seen how the processor speed factors in to the X3 benchmark. With graphics cards capable of moderately high framerates, you will get the best performance in X3 on a system with a good processor. Because of the CPU limitation, the X3 demo would make a good CPU benchmark as well as a graphics card benchmark, further adding to the usefulness of the game as part of our test suite.
It's refreshing to see the level of quality graphics for a game like this, especially given the scarcity of good space simulation games. While X3: Reunion might not be the best game of its type, it is definitely one of the best looking, and is a welcome addition to the genre.
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feraltoad - Thursday, January 26, 2006 - link
It supports widescreen. 1680x1050 Was available for my monitor.Shooks - Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - link
any idea if there is something you must do to enable SLI for this benchmark, because I am getting the same #'s that a single 7800GTX got. I chose multi-gpu rendering from the nvidia panel, but still no luck!alexhall50 - Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - link
I don't have SLI myself so can't answer specifically. I know this has been discussed on the Egosoft support forums and people have mentioned how to make the relevant profile.
regards
Alex
Diasper - Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - link
As more patches are released for X3 the more performance is improved - so this demo could well be using older code that later game patches have optimised/improved.One interesting thing about the X series of games is that they come out incredibly buggy (developer involvement I suspect) but that the patches after correct it immensely such that by 1.3 it's pretty damn good (currently the 1.3.1 beta patch) but by 1.4 pretty much everything is fixed with plenty of added content from the original.
Egosoft are good developers like that. Probably means now is a goodish time to pick up X3 - if you buy it from their website is it cheaper?
Samadhi - Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - link
Where were the screenshots of the demo in action. There were a number of comments about how beautiful the graphics are, so it would have been nice to have had a couple of examples to see as well.SLIM - Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - link
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed the complete lack of screenshots for this uber beautiful magnificent looking game...I guess I can download it when I get home tomorrow, but a screenie or two in the review would be nice.
JM
DerekWilson - Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - link
...if(your_wish == our_command)
postScreenies();
...
feraltoad - Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - link
? I guess I've been spoiled by the demos of late (e.g. Bf2, Fear etc.) I was kinda expecting to get 2 play a little see if I liked it. :( Just rolls through some footage of the game, albeit beautifully so. :) U certainly won't regret downloading it. O and it actually has widescreen support! 1680x1050 was an option, like it should be!Shooks - Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - link
Does this program take advantage of SLI? I ran it and I got the same scores for a single 7800GTX 256MB?Sunrise089 - Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - link
You did two things that are terrific to see at anandtech in this review, short as it was:1) You tested on a very wide range of cards, no SLI/Crossfire or X850 series, but still almost all of the newer single card solutions
and
2) You tested with different CPU speeds.
I don't know how much longer this took, and I would obviousely like to see CPU speeds combined with video card speeds, but this is still a great step in the right direction.