X-bit labs

ATI RADEON X700 XT: Gaming Performance Preview (page 6)

Category: Video

by Anton Shilov , Alexey Stepin

[ 09/21/2004 | 07:31 AM ]

Doom III

As you know, this game rather dislikes graphics cards on ATI’s GPUs, running slow on them, so we decided to make use of the additional optimizations available in the Catalyst AI driver for once.

With all its driver optimizations, the RADEON X700 XT is inferior to the GeForce 6600 GT in this test, as the latter features the UltraShadow technology and more efficient surface removal techniques – both being much needed in this game. Anyway, you can see that the new RADEON surpasses the RADEON 9800 XT, the ex-king of 3D graphics. The AI optimizations bring in the biggest gain in 1024x768 resolution.

The gap between the RADEON X700 XT and the GeForce 6600 GT diminishes in the eye candy mode, but the GeForce still remains the leader. The more advanced architecture and new driver of the RADEON X700 XT compensate for its narrow memory bus and contribute to its supremacy over the RADEON 9800 XT.