X-bit labs

Started by: DeMagH | Date 10/27/07

Comments: 36 | Last Comment:  11/20/07

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1. why would you still using Catalyst Beta 7.9 while catalyst 7.10 is out already for 20 days+ now.

Many improvements have been mentioned from 7.9 to 7.10 ...

this review needs to be re-done IMO

The were a number of typos in the "Testbed and Methods" section (e.g., incorrect PSB speed and indication of a beta driver), which have been corrected. We used Catalyst 7.9 WHQL drivers, which are normal drivers.

Given that it takes a lot of time to benchmark over ten graphics cards in a number of games and write the whole article as well as the fact that ATI Catalyst 7.10 drivers released on the October 11 (so, your information about availability for over 20 days is incorrect) increased performance primarily on CrossFire configurations, it was not our priority to employ them for this particular review.

my bad then about the 20+ days, but I've been using it for like a long time, and didn't feel like counting. but your bad in the Beta 7.9 typo as well ;)

Still, at least do some updates with the dx.10, not all benchmarks at once of course, but 2 benchmarks should be enough to see if there is really some REAL world performance increase or not.

If i were you, I'd take a game that favors ati's hardware/drivers and another that favors nvidia's setup "generally speaking of course" at a moderate resolution 1280x1024 to see if there is a difference or not, if not, that might drop the 7.10 posts or give them a rest a bit till the next review or something, if yes, i think you should do the tests again, from the ati's newest catalyst point of view.

2. Catalyst 7.10 is out for more than 2 weeks, yet it isn't used here...

Call of Juarez DX10: CrossFire™ performance improves up to 42% and single card performance improves up to 34% on all ATI Radeon™ HD2x00 series of products

Company of Heroes DX10 CrossFire™ performance improves up to 80% on all ATI Radeon™ HD2x00 series of products and single card performance improves as much as 31% on ATI Radeon™ HD2900

Lost Planet DX10 CrossFire™ performance improves 20% or greater on all ATI Radeon™ HD2x00 series of products

World In Conflict DX10 CrossFire™ performance improves 14-67% or more and single card performance improves 20% or more on ATI Radeon™ HD2900XT and ATI Radeon™ HD2600 products

Have you actually tried to read the article and see performance figures?

Performance of the ATI Radeon HD 2600-series is so low that generally the new drivers are unlikely to bring up its performance so substantially that it would be possible to use it.

When it comes to the Radeon HD 2900, only Call of Juarez and Company of Heroes (note that ATI names Company of Heroes, not Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts) could actually benefit from the version 7.10 drives (the HD 2900-series does not perform well, to say at least, in the World in Conflict).

Given that it takes a lot of time to benchmark over ten graphics cards in a number of games and write the whole article as well as the fact that ATI Catalyst 7.10 drivers released on the October 11 increased performance primarily on CrossFire configurations, it was not our priority to employ them for this particular review.

Lame excuse.....
just post your article a few days later
problem solved.....

if you cant bench with latest drivers,you better dont bench at all.....

Agreed... if the benchmarks you post are already incorrect, then the comparison presented is a moot point.

You are an idiot. AMD releases new drivers every month. If they postponed the review, the day it came out, a bunch of nitwits like you would have something complain about.
"OH, why didn't you use 7.11 drivers, HD 2400PRO CROSSFIRE sees a %32 increase in call of jaruz @ 2560*1600 with 16AA"

AMD CARDS SUCK, plain and simple.

indeed AMD/ATI releases drivers every month
if you cannot finish an article in 1 month,it is kinda sad you know.....

you should kill yourself with your point of views. did you even see the charts? the comparison between x2600xt and 8600GTs? it is all about 3-6 frames difference MAX. so if the new driver improves 10% to 30% in some single card situations, then the 8600GTs will be the town's dog as the 2600xt series HD playback features/performance are just out of this world.

Go read a book about clothes and sawing, before spreading your mental germs among the posters.

3. Using catalyst 7.9
stopped reading review
7.10 is such an awesome driver bringing sooo much improvements,still you guys use 7.9....
too bad

Given that it takes a lot of time to benchmark over ten graphics cards in a number of games and write the whole article as well as the fact that ATI Catalyst 7.10 drivers released on the October 11 (so, your information about availability for over 20 days is incorrect) increased performance primarily on CrossFire configurations, it was not our priority to employ them for this particular review.

you should take care anton, this reply is just a copy and paste from the one you posted for me, this guy didn't even claim the drivers where out for 20+ days.

:) take care when you copy/paste next time

4. still same old habit happen...again and again

Given that it takes a lot of time to benchmark over ten graphics cards in a number of games and write the whole article as well as the fact that ATI Catalyst 7.10 drivers released on the October 11 (so, your information about availability for over 20 days is incorrect) increased performance primarily on CrossFire configurations, it was not our priority to employ them for this particular review.

5. I found it pretty weird (and biased) that Xbit would put the $149 GF8600GT in the entrylevel category and the $149 Radeon2600XT in the mainstream category.

A quick check at my local computer store, and the cheapest 2600xt was $102 while the gf8600gt was $130 at its lowest.

This would obviously make the performance *seem* to be low on on red parts and higher on green parts for any given market segment... while in fact quite the opposite is true for the 2600xt price segment.

Well, in fact, we try to use MSRP as a starting point for comparison. On the other hand, when it comes to the Radeon HD 2600 XT, the GeForce 8600 GTS and DirectX 10, it seems that the HD 2600 XT is actually a competitor for the GeForce 8600 GTS :) Which means that we compare them head to head.

There are more DirectX 10 articles coming later on, so, we may reconsider some of the comparisons.

that's exactly my point, with a little driver update, this head to head comparison with 8600GTs may turn out to be in favor of the ATi's 2600XT.

Problem with colored figures, ppl forget to see the numbers, they think 8600GTs performance is just too supreme for ati to catch up, while the FPS numbers are clear showing a difference of 3-6 frames or so, which can be maintained (IMO) by Ati's new drivers release.

6. It's a great pity that newer games titles are moving toward DX10 graphics instead of relying on OpenGL 2.1 or upcoming 3.0 version.

It turns out that Linux and Mac users are again out of luck. I cannot even understand how the results of yours tests can be reliable in face of the fact that Windows Vista's behaviour is often too unpredictable.

Windows Vista behaviour is pretty much predictable when it comes to gaming.

It looks like you do a bit of tweaking before running any tests, like disabling file indexing and stopping system restore service. Otherwise I can suppose that there will be slowdowns and spikes in games performance.

7. bye bye ATi/AMD Graphics division

was good knowing ya.....

hahahaha

this reply just made my day :D
its so plain stupid,i am still laughing with it

Well, I've bought mostly nVidia graphics cards, but it would just suck if AMD/ATI leaves the market because the prizes will go up and development would also go slower...
Anyway, because 7.10 was not used the comparison in this article is not 100% correct imo

bye bye yourself. What are you? Nvidia's girlfriend?!

anyway, you should re-read the article + user comments here before being so full of yourself and so conclusive with so little data.

Also, if bye bye AMD, would you enjoy a market with one vendor that you'll always have to buy its products?! Get a new brain, as obviously yours stopped working long time ago.

8. Back in April, 07 I bought an ASUS N8800 GTX for $560, Newegg. Today Oct 07, the best price for this card is $708, The Nerds. Your article shows why the price is increasing. The card/driver performance seems to be getting better in every review posted. Can't wait for Crysis. Love reading your articles, keep up the good work!

9. I stopped after reading the 3rd comment. All complaining about the same ¿Does people read other people comments? It doesnt seem so.

It is a pity you didnt wait to use catalyst 7.10 but I think it wouldnt have been very usefull after seeing performance on single directX 10 cards.

And finally you tested without AA enabled on mainstream cards (so with high- end but this doesnt matter on DX 10 :) ).

For the rest good review as usual (if someone read this...)

10. Overall is good review
I love when you compare cards with high end,mainstream,entry level such a great details.But the major disappointment is you still using ATI old driver. I have been read all the comment hope you will make the update version in other article. So keep it up ;)

11. 7.9 "?"

Why not 7.10 "?"

Are you nVIDIA biased?????????????
Did the nVIDIA cards get there asses handed to them? So you decided to use the older "slower" drivers to get your higher nV. scores and keep being nVIDIA biased fanboys. Emphasis on the "boys" part.

***LAME LAME LAME***

12. Ya, I quit reading it too, beyond that point!

13. ***UM... to anyone else reading this.

The scores are meaningless for any comparison. This article is WORTHLESS unless your a raging nVIDIA fan who wants to just bask in the glory of a SERIOUSLY biased review. I am not an ATi fanboy, but I am pretty mad that you can't get something so simple right.

I mean come on... who are you? Xbit Labs or just some 2 bit corporate buy-out like Tom'sHardware?

You still haven't updated the article... and here I am again, hoping for a good review to read. ***BUT NO"!"

I am not coming back to read your sell-out reviews.

Quit letting advertisement rule your life/pay check.

What a waste of time it was for your staff to make this article. ***BAFFLING REALLY

14. come on people, why are you testing entry level gpu's with max AF? no-one using those crappy cards will use af/aa on their games.

15. Article is lame. One side has out of date drivers. Calling it 'the second encounter', ...what the second encounter with old manky drivers? Could have used 7.10beta if so pressed for time. Article is way out of date when it was posted, pure and simple.

Have a word with yourself anandtech!

16. what i don't get is why these have to be tested in the highest image possible, what kind of processor and RAM are they testing with anyway?

17. So...Any reason why you are testing obsolete video cards that no one cares about instead of new generation ones?
Do you really think performance is going to be any different from the 2349284 2x00 HD series you tested already?
Do something new for christ sakes.

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