X-bit labs

XFX GeForce 7600 GT XXX Edition Graphics Card Review (page 9)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin

[ 07/27/2006 | 11:49 AM ]

The Chronicles of Riddick

The GeForce 7600 GT enjoys a certain initial advantage over the Radeon X1800 GTO here because it supports UltraShadow II technology and can process up to 16 Z-values per clock cycle against the Radeon’s 12. Added to that, the engine of The Chronicles of Riddick uses the OpenGL API. As a result, even the standard GeForce 7600 GT goes abreast to the Radeon X1900 GT, a solution of a higher class, in the “pure speed” mode, while the XFX card is only second to the GeForce 7900 GT. The G73-based solutions make the resolution of 1600x1200 playable whereas the Radeon X1800 GTO provides a comfortable average frame rate only in resolutions no higher than 1280x1024.

It’s different in the 4x FSAA + 16x AF mode because the ring-bus memory controller the Radeon X1800/X1900 cards are equipped with comes into play. But even here the standard GeForce 7600 GT, let alone its accelerated version from XFX, is confidently ahead of its direct market rival Radeon X1800 GTO. Resolutions above 1024x768 are virtually unplayable on these mainstream cards, though.

Call of Duty 2

The increased clock rates help the XFX GeForce 7600 GT XXX Edition keep ahead of the Radeon X1800 GTO in this test at the “pure speed” settings. The same is true for the “eye candy” mode in which the Radeon X1800 and X1900 cards slow down suddenly in high resolutions – we first saw this odd thing happen in our PowerColor X1800 GTO review. We can’t explain this behavior of ATI’s solutions; perhaps there is some defect in the Catalyst driver.

Call of Duty 2 is a rather demanding game, so the mainstream graphics cards only provide an acceptable average frame rate in 1024x768 resolution without full-screen antialiasing. FSAA is available on the more powerful solutions.