Performance in Gothic 3

Gothic 3 is a third-person RPG, just like the famous TES IV: Oblivion. And these are actually the only projects of such a high level which have no other rivals in their genre as yet. Like TES IV, Gothic 3 offers you total freedom of action and a vast game world to explore, from snow-covered plains and forests, to cities and hot deserts. All of the game locations look gorgeous on the Genome Engine notwithstanding a certain excess of special effects like bloom, depth of field, and fog.

Even with the latest patch the game does not support full-screen antialiasing correctly, so we benchmarked the cards in Gothic 3 in the pure speed mode only.

Premium/High-End Class

This is not a first-person shooter and our requirements to the average and minimum frame rates are not so strict here. To play this game comfortably, you need a frame rate of no less than 24-25fps. Every graphics card meets this requirement at a resolution of 1280x1024 pixels, except for the dual-processor GeForce 7950 GX2 whose SLI technology has problems here.

The GeForce 8800 GTX is expectably in the lead. It will remain superior at least until the release of AMD’s graphics cards based on the new-generation graphics core. This is the only card that allows playing Gothic 3 at a resolution of 1600x1200 pixels and, with some reservations, even at 1920x1200. The AMD Radeon X1950 XTX, the best solution from the last generation, is limited to 1280x1024 where it delivers an average frame rate of only 35fps.

Here, the choice of the gamer who is going to upgrade his computer is obvious: an Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX or, for people who don’t have that much money, a GeForce 8800 GTS. Users who have a Radeon X1950 XTX should not replace it with Nvidia’s products. But if you’ve got a GeForce 7950 GX2, you won’t be able to play Gothic 3 comfortably without reducing the level of detail or switching to resolutions lower than the popular 1280x1024.