Performance in Third-Person 3D Shooters

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

The ASUS EAX1800XT TOP luckily makes up for its fewer pixel processors with high clock rates and is thus quite competitive against the Radeon X1900 XT. Note that the latter ensures a bigger speed reserve in 1600x1200 than the ASUS card does while the average performance of the cards is similar. So, there is some profit from the architectural innovations implemented in the Radeon X1900 in Price of Persia , too.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

It is the speed of the pixel processors that is the most important factor in the “pure speed” test mode. This is why the ASUS EAX1800XT TOP outperforms the Radeon X1800 XT by about 10-15%, but it also slower than the Radeon X1900 XT by 8-10%. In this case the 48 pixel processors of the latter card make a difference as the game makes wide use of Shader Model 3.0 and HDR.

The memory subsystem performance then comes to the fore in the modes with full-screen antialiasing and the Radeon X1900 XT finds it impossible to stay ahead of the ASUS card whose memory is clocked at a higher frequency: 800 (1600) MHz against 725 (1450) MHz. These two graphics cards are equals then, providing a minimum frame rate of over 40fps and an average frame rate of 58-61fps in 1600x1200 which is quite enough for a third-person shooter game.