X-bit labs

The Fastest Graphics Cards of 2003 (page 17)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin

[ 12/10/2003 | 10:57 PM ]

Eye Candy mode has always looked better on ATI graphics cards. Our today’s test session is also not an exception. As soon as the workload increased the eldest GeForce FX based solutions immediately gave in. the slower representatives of the NVIDIA GeForce family managed to retain pretty good positions despite the not very favorable testing conditions. Now let’s see what happens as the resolution keeps growing.

The proportions remained the same. GeForce FX 5700 Ultra is still very stable: it keeps pace with RADEON 9600 XT, which is also due to its faster memory.

Despite the fact that RADEON 9500 PRO works faster than its new fellows, it is still too slow for comfortable gaming in 1600x1200 with enabled full-screen anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. More powerful graphics accelerators outpacing one another by 3-5 fps also cannot boast any acceptable performance in this mode.

As the practical tests showed, almost all graphics cards pass the tests in Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory with disabled FSAA and anisotropic filtering. If we are talking about higher quality graphics settings, then the mainstream solutions will definitely not do here. Of course, the graphics cards based on RADEON 9800 and GeForce 5900 will cope with these tasks much better this way.