X-bit labs

Goes Like Hell: Gainward Bliss 8800 GT 512MB GS GLH Graphics Card Review (page 15)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 12/24/2007 | 09:19 AM ]

Performance in Strategies

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts

The new add-on to Company of Heroes is tested in DirectX 10 mode only since it provides the highest quality of the visuals.

The Gainward card is ahead of the Leadtek and goes neck and neck with the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX at high resolutions. The average frame rate is quite comfortable everywhere even with 4x FSAA while the minimum of speed is not quite good. Anyway, the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB and ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB are the only cards you are going to have real slowdowns with.

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

The game having a frame rate limiter, you should consider the minimum speed of the cards in the first place.

All of the tested graphics cards allow playing this game with comfort at a resolution of 1920x1200 and with enabled full-screen antialiasing. The Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB has the worst minimum of speed, yet it is higher than 20fps anyway. The best result of 26fps and higher belongs to the Gainward Bliss 8800 GT 512MB GS GLH.

World in Conflict

The increased clock rates of the Gainward card help it match the average performance of the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB but its minimum speed is lower, especially at 1920x1200. It’s hard to tell if this is due to the less efficient texture processor architecture or to the smaller amount of raster operators or to both.

From a gamer’s point of view, all the tested graphics cards are not fast enough for comfortable play, yet you can try to use the solutions with Nvidia’s GPUs at 1280x1024. Better yet, you can disable FSAA because it doesn’t worsen the picture as much as the reduction of the level of detail.