X-bit labs

Sparkle SF-PX88GT256D3-HP Graphics Card: Is 256MB Enough? (page 11)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 02/28/2008 | 04:25 PM ]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

The game doesn’t support FSAA when you enable the dynamic lighting model, but loses much of its visual appeal with the static model. This is the reason why we benchmarked the cards in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. using anisotropic filtering only.

Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 cards are traditional strong in this game, and the Sparkle GeForce 8800 GT 256MB is quite good at 1280x1024. At least it delivers a higher average frame rate than the ATI Radeon HD 3870. At the higher resolutions the card doesn’t have enough graphics memory to perform fast. Interestingly, overclocking has but a small effect here irrespective of the resolution.

Unreal Tournament 3

Forcing FSAA from the graphics card’s driver doesn’t produce any effect as yet. That’s why the game is tested with anisotropic filtering only.

The game has moderate system requirements and runs fast enough on the Sparkle GeForce 8800 GT 256MB at every resolution. The frame rate is playable even at 1920x1200. The choice between Nvidia’s solution and the ATI Radeon HD 3850 depends only on your personal preferences here.