Performance in Gaming Tests: Strategies

Age of Empires 3

This game can work with enabled Super AA or SLI AA, but it doesn’t make a good testing tool since its speed varies but too wildly. We don’t want to mislead you and do not publish the test results in these modes.

The GeForce 7900 GTX can show itself to advantage here. The game uses rather complex SM3.0 effects, so the higher GPU clock rate of the new graphics card puts it ahead of the GeForce 7800 GTX 512 and very close to the Radeon X1900 XT in 1600x1200.

Multi-GPU technologies do not provide any speed bonuses in Age of Empires 3 , but even worsen the speed as CrossFire does in 1280x1024.

Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War

Graphics cards of the GeForce 7 family have always been victorious in Dawn of War as they can efficiently process large textures and feature UltraShadow II technology which greatly accelerates stencil shadows rendering. The GeForce 7900 GTX feels well under such conditions, being only second to the Radeon X1900 XT CrossFire in 1600x1200 where its memory, slower than that of the GeForce 7800 GTX 512, begins to stifle its speed.

The GeForce 7900 GTX SLI subsystem put on a glorious performance, outpacing the Radeon X1900 XT CrossFire in every mode and resolution. The only exception is the resolution of 1600x1200 with turned-on 16x SLI AA: the memory load is too high here for the GeForce 7900 GTX SLI to keep on being superior to the Radeon X1900 XT CrossFire with its somewhat easier 14x Super AA mode. The performance of both the multi-GPU platforms is far from optimal and you don’t get a comfortable frame rate with either of them at the highest level of antialiasing.