Pier Level, Extreme Geometry

As said above, we decided to figure out the impact of geometry instancing on performance. We did not only disable usage of sprites on distant vegetation objects to get extreme geometry load, but also recorded a demo to intentionally exaggerate the effect of geometry instancing. Here are the results we got:

Note: minimal fps are marked with white numbers on the diagrams, black numbers represent average fps.

As you see, the impact of geometry instancing is colossal: 24% performance boost in a scene with truly extreme geometry load is something terrific. It is important to note that without geometry instancing all contemporary graphics cards seem to be CPU-dependant in 1024x768 and 1280x1024 resolutions, which means that on a processor less powerful than AMD Athlon 64 3400+ there will be even higher performance advantage from geometry instancing in case of hardcore geometry load.

Having raging geometry power, the RADEON X800 XT and RADEON X800 PRO fiercely leave the GeForce 6800 Ultra and GeForce 6800 GT graphics processors behind, even though the latter also take advantage of the geometry instancing capability. Meanwhile the RADEON 9800 XT demonstrates lower performance compared to the GeForce 6800.