X-bit labs

MSI NX6800GT-T2D256E Graphics Card Review (page 11)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin

[ 07/22/2005 | 12:33 PM ]

Half-Life 2

The speed of the game on the Canals maps depends largely on the pixel shader performance of the graphics card. No wonder then that the RADEON X800/X850 series cards are in the lead. Overclocking gives some speed bonus to the NV6800GT in 1600x1200 only.

The GeForce6 cards perform better in the “eye candy” mode. They are no worse than the RADEON X850 in 1280x1024 and become leaders in 1600x1200.

The d3_c17_02 map isn’t as complex as d1_canals_12 . It doesn’t have any water, but includes a fight scene which loads the graphics card’s vertex processors, and the central processor, too. Since the performance of the vertex units directly depends on the frequency of the card, the ATI RADEON X850 cards win this test.

It’s all the same in the “eye candy” mode: the ATI RADEON X850 XT PE/X850 XT are still on top, while the overclocked MSI NX6800GT can only rival the RADEON X800 XL.