Source Engine: Counterstrike Beta Hits The Street
by Derek Wilson on August 26, 2004 5:22 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Test
Our benchmarks will take a look at the graphics stress test at 3 different resolutions with and without AA/AF (where available). We decided it was time to add 2048x1536 to our tests formally. These latest drivers make it much easier to take advantage of the highest resolution available to the highest end cards these days. It's been a much easier experience on NVIDIA hardware (all we had to do was pick the resolution and it worked). On ATI hardware, we've had to fiddle with monitor settings and maximum refresh rate settings in order to finally get 2048x1536 @ 75Hz to become a reality. We don't run this resolution with AA; if you've got a monitor with a dot pitch to do it justice, you just won't need AA anymore. We do still run with 8xAF at playable resolutions on some of the newer cards (which is truly amazing).| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | AMD Athlon 64 FX53 (oc to 2.6GHz) |
| RAM: | 2 x 512Mb OCZ 3200 Platinum Rev 2 (2:2:2:10) |
| Hard Drives | Seagate 120GB 7200 RPM (8MB Buffer) |
| Video AGP & IDE Bus Master Drivers | VIA Hyperion 4.51 |
| Video Card(s): | NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Ed. ATI Radeon X800 Pro ATI Radeon 9800 XT NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti 4400 |
| Video Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 4.8 NVIDIA ForceWare 61.77 |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP1 |
| Motherboards: | MSI MS-6702E (VIA K8T800 Pro Chipset) |
We do have to note that this isn't an apples to apples test. The NVIDIA 5950 and Ti 4400 couldn't run AA at all. The 5950 will not run in DX9 mode (though we are still looking for ways to force it on just for testing purposes). We suspect that AA is currently tied to DX9 functionality, but the beta makes note of a known bug that could be causing the problem. In addition to not being able to run with AA on, these cards would also not run with water reflections enabled. So far, this seems to be the only DX9 only feature we've seen in the engine. This may or may not change by the time HL2 ships. The effect is lost in the video stress test (there's just too much going on), but could prove very dramatic if Valve made proper use of it in the game.
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T8000 - Thursday, August 26, 2004 - link
When you look at the CPU scaling, I think you have no need to worry about that, unless your CPU runs below 2 Ghz, like the Athlon 2200+ mentioned above.Besides, Geforce 6800 cards scale pretty predictable, so a $200 Geforce 6800LE should still get above 50 fps where a 6800GT has 80. (1280x960/4xAA/8xAF)
saiku - Thursday, August 26, 2004 - link
ummm, can we have a few more mid-range cards in there? How about always benchmarking the cards in anandtech's mid-range and value buyer's guides? How about hot sellers such as the 9800 Pro.Most people who read these, IMHO, dont have $500 cards.
FuryVII - Thursday, August 26, 2004 - link
#9, Running at that resolution is definitely in the minority. Just as #25 mentioned a $800 CPU isnt too common, so goes people running CS at that resolution.KristopherKubicki - Thursday, August 26, 2004 - link
bigpow: Again, same as #15. If you wnat to see the source engine limited on CPU, then we could stick an Athlon XP 2200+ in there and all of the cards would get 23FPS. That would not accurately show which card performs better. We are in the business of benchmarking hardware, not video games.Kristopher
KristopherKubicki - Thursday, August 26, 2004 - link
#15 this is true of any video benchmarking, whether from AnandTech or not. The idea is to eliminate bottlenecks to show video card performance.Kristopher
bigpow - Thursday, August 26, 2004 - link
I'm getting sick of reading reviews that rely on 800$ CPU (FX53)How many percentage of the readers do you think have Athlon-64 FX53
IMO, I'd read, remember & enjoy these reviews more when they're more real.
saechaka - Thursday, August 26, 2004 - link
hey araczynski maybe you didn't like cs cause u sucked. heheklah - Thursday, August 26, 2004 - link
Any chance we can see some preliminary benchmarks using the beta 66.00 Forceware?http://www.3dchipset.com/drivers/beta/nvidia/nt5/i...
Early results show a 10-15% bump in VST scores.
araczynski - Thursday, August 26, 2004 - link
...hmmm, am i the only one in the world who doesn't give (and never did) a sh*t about CS?I love HL and probably will love HL2, but i think i had more fun playing 3D pac man then CS.
BF1942(ForgottenHope) is a thing of beauty however.
DerekWilson - Thursday, August 26, 2004 - link
/me notes the irony of having a typo in a comment about correcting typos ...We should work on getting editable comments :-)