Source Engine: Counterstrike Beta Hits The Street
by Derek Wilson on August 26, 2004 5:22 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Test
Our benchmarks will take a look at the graphics stress test at 3 different resolutions with and without AA/AF (where available). We decided it was time to add 2048x1536 to our tests formally. These latest drivers make it much easier to take advantage of the highest resolution available to the highest end cards these days. It's been a much easier experience on NVIDIA hardware (all we had to do was pick the resolution and it worked). On ATI hardware, we've had to fiddle with monitor settings and maximum refresh rate settings in order to finally get 2048x1536 @ 75Hz to become a reality. We don't run this resolution with AA; if you've got a monitor with a dot pitch to do it justice, you just won't need AA anymore. We do still run with 8xAF at playable resolutions on some of the newer cards (which is truly amazing).| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | AMD Athlon 64 FX53 (oc to 2.6GHz) |
| RAM: | 2 x 512Mb OCZ 3200 Platinum Rev 2 (2:2:2:10) |
| Hard Drives | Seagate 120GB 7200 RPM (8MB Buffer) |
| Video AGP & IDE Bus Master Drivers | VIA Hyperion 4.51 |
| Video Card(s): | NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Ed. ATI Radeon X800 Pro ATI Radeon 9800 XT NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti 4400 |
| Video Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 4.8 NVIDIA ForceWare 61.77 |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP1 |
| Motherboards: | MSI MS-6702E (VIA K8T800 Pro Chipset) |
We do have to note that this isn't an apples to apples test. The NVIDIA 5950 and Ti 4400 couldn't run AA at all. The 5950 will not run in DX9 mode (though we are still looking for ways to force it on just for testing purposes). We suspect that AA is currently tied to DX9 functionality, but the beta makes note of a known bug that could be causing the problem. In addition to not being able to run with AA on, these cards would also not run with water reflections enabled. So far, this seems to be the only DX9 only feature we've seen in the engine. This may or may not change by the time HL2 ships. The effect is lost in the video stress test (there's just too much going on), but could prove very dramatic if Valve made proper use of it in the game.
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Ballistics - Sunday, September 5, 2004 - link
I guess I was just expecting more from Anandtech, thats all.Tired of buyer guides that are biased towards certain manufacturers (ie) the FX5900XT was released in December 2003 and has proven itself to be an awesome price/performance card. It was a sub $200 card that ran with the +$300 + cards of the time. Yet ATI, ATI, ATI was all that was touted. How come nobody picked up on that little powerhouse of a card that finally gave nVidia fans something to get excited about? There weren't even any good articles on that card until february!?!
I used to come to anandtech with confidence that what I was reading was the newest "unbiased" hardware analysis. I can't do that anymore. Thats all.
AtaStrumf - Saturday, August 28, 2004 - link
False alarm :(suryad - Saturday, August 28, 2004 - link
Hey guys, forgive my lack of knowledge but does anyone know if the final product, Half Life 2 when released that is, will have the capability to use SSE/3DNow! instructios in the CPU? Would it also take advantage of Hyperthreading? That would probably lead to higher framerates wouldn't it? I raise this question because I read at the S.T.A.L.K.E.R game website that the X-Ray engine is supposedly capable of taking advantage of not only the GPU (Duhh) but rather the type of CPU the computer has as well. Any comments? Thanks guys. As for the article, I am kind of leaning towards people who say that the games should be benhced on high end, middle end and lower end spec machines. I agree completely so it would give a better idea to most people. But since this is just a beta and I am sure that most people are interested in knowing about HL2 instead of CS IMHO I cant really blame AT for not making the article the way people want it. I am sure when they get the final released copy of HL2 all our questions will be answered. Thanks everyone.AtaStrumf - Saturday, August 28, 2004 - link
It appears that Gabe said that HL2 will be going gold on Monday, August 30th.http://www.hl2fallout.com/forums/index.php?showtop...
robbase29a - Saturday, August 28, 2004 - link
One more thing, if I may... Some of you guys have it all wrong. Yes, AT is a hardware site... that's a given. But something that (some of) you people aren't getting is that hardware just doesn't stand alone. People don't just buy the newest nvidia card because of it's awesome architecture. Nor do people buy $800 dollar cpus because of their sweet pipelines, right? Hardware is used to run software.... duh.So.. what i'm getting at: AT is using this game to glean information about all the available hardware there is. CPUs, Graphics cards, and maybe RAM too. You need to know how your current card measures up before you upgrade right?... That is why AT is going to write a comprehensive review of ALL (or it may be safer to say most) of the graphics cards out there (CPUs too). Not just the new ones. So let's stop this silly griping and wait for them to do their thing. Go AT! - Message posted with good intentions, not to hurt anyone's feelings.
Tobyus - Friday, August 27, 2004 - link
Ok, thanks Derek. That probably explains the difference. I am just amazed that my $170 processor can outperform an overclocked $800 processor. I guess the optimizations really make a big difference.Phiro - Friday, August 27, 2004 - link
Jalf said it all :)Jalf - Friday, August 27, 2004 - link
Well, as someone said earlier, AT happens to be a hardware site, not a gaming site. It's a lot more relevant for them to benchmark new cards in an interesting game, than 3 year old ones.Presumably they're more interested in which of the new cards actually performs best, than in how old harware HL2 can handle.
Makes sense to me, and doesn't bother me the least. I read AT to learn about new hardware, and to know what I should upgrade to, not to find out whether my current system can run games. I use actual game reviews for that.
Gugax - Friday, August 27, 2004 - link
We all need to chill out a little bit. I am shure AT will do a complete review as soon as they have a final HL2 copy to benchmark.My suggetion goes to havinga bang for the buck report. Better if including both Doom3/Hl2 results combined.
Most people prefers one of the games. But everybody sooner or later will use both engine based games to play on. And if they are using this benchmarks to help them decide the best way to go, this shoul help them.
And yes, not everybody is lucky to have a 800$ CPU... (altough you used it to take the cpu out of the equation, I know). :)
robbase29a - Friday, August 27, 2004 - link
I think everybody needs to chill about AT not including the midrange video cards. I would also liked to have seen them, but we have to keep in mind that this is NOT a real game. This is just a preliminary test of a test world. I'm sure AT will come out with a full blown (midrange included) review when the real thing comes out. If everyone just exercised a little bit of patience, we wouldn't have such hot heads floating around.