X3: Reunion Performance
For X3, we simply tested with their rolling demo based on the 1.3.0 version of X3: Reunion. Egosoft has traditionally designed their rolling demos to test many aspects of game play in order to accurately show the capability of a system. The rolling demo has the ability to run with an adaptive quality mode that will run the game at consistent framerates. While this is on by default we disabled it for our tests allowing us to test consistent rendering quality on our hardware.
We used the highest settings we could without enabling antialiasing. We also set anisotropic filtering to 8x. While there are some sections of this benchmark with extremely high framerates on all cards, an average of about 25-30 should give playable results without any real hiccuping based on our experience.
The only card that's really not playable at 1600x1200 is the 6600 GT. Everything else runs well enough throughout the demo so as to suggest a smooth gaming experience.
The X1900 GT outperforms the more expensive 7900 GT across the board. While the 7600 GT is just playable at 1920x1440, the X1900 GT runs incredibly smoothly. We really have to recommend the X1900 GT for value and the X1900 XT for performance.
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coldpower27 - Friday, August 11, 2006 - link
Well it wasn't too long ago that X1900 XT still had pricing over 400US.
It wasn't until ATI started doing some price slashes in preparation for the X1950 that the prices have fallen alot, fairly recently.
JarredWalton - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
It's more based on price than performance, and obviously at $330 we're very close to the high end.Powermoloch - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
Why was it not listed? These days they can be found almost under $150.00kalrith - Friday, August 11, 2006 - link
Actually, it's http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">$126 shipped from Newegg right now, and that's BEFORE a $30 MIR. It should keep up (or beat) the 7600GT, so I think it deserves to be on there as well.Jedi2155 - Sunday, August 13, 2006 - link
Although it is plenty fast, I think the DX 9.0C has shown enough benefits over 9.0b to seriously consider the 7600 GT over the X850 XTZebo - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
Nice review but there should only be two choices in the sub $300 field:7900GT, not only can it be had for $224, not $275 as the review implies, it can be overclocked to 7900GTX virtually guarnteed, meaning it trades punches with a $359 1900XT.
The card missing from this review is the $220 1900 All-in-Wonder, not only is it faster than 7900GT stock and has way more features, it can also be overclocked to 1900XT levels.
Zebo - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Pr...">http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Pr...looks like they raised price since last week... it really was 224:)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...
AmbroseAthan - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
Was kind of surprised to see it not in this mix being you can get one for ~$200 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82...">Sapphire x1800xt - OEM (Retail is 250ish)I assume it runs faster then the 1800GTO, but how does it rank with the 7800GT and 7900GT?
mpc7488 - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
The 7900GT is consistently around $240 after rebates. There are 3 cards at that price from 3 different manufacturers at Newegg right now (eVGA, XFX, and MSI). In fact, the overclocked version (520 core/1540 memory) is $244.
Maybe rebates aren't really looked at in the price engine, but the fact remains that you can easily find a 7900GT for under $250.
DerekWilson - Thursday, August 10, 2006 - link
Good point. We didn't include rebates as they can change without warning, not everyone follows through on them, and they take some time to recieve.But, obviously, they can make a difference. I'll add a bit to the conclusion about it.
Thanks.