Supreme Commander Performance
This is the first time we've included Supreme Commander in our graphics benchmarks as well. There is a built-in performance test accessible by appending /perf to the command line. This performance test is quite long, so we edited the script (Gas Powered Games uses lua scripting) to skip over one or two of the longer battles. This way we still have a four or five minute test scenario that pushes graphics pretty hard. This test was run with all the graphics settings turned all the way up, and the framerate is fine for gameplay at 1280x1024 on both our 8600 cards. Getting up to 1600x1200 and beyond is pushing the limits though, and settings my need to be decreased.
The 8600 GT only beats the X1650 XT and the 7600 GT, which is not where we would like to see performance. As for the 8600 GTS, it leads the X1950 GT and 7900 GS, but this still means the 8600 GTS comes in last in its price class losing to the X1950 Pro, 7950 GT, and X1900 XT 256MB.
This is the first time we've included Supreme Commander in our graphics benchmarks as well. There is a built-in performance test accessible by appending /perf to the command line. This performance test is quite long, so we edited the script (Gas Powered Games uses lua scripting) to skip over one or two of the longer battles. This way we still have a four or five minute test scenario that pushes graphics pretty hard. This test was run with all the graphics settings turned all the way up, and the framerate is fine for gameplay at 1280x1024 on both our 8600 cards. Getting up to 1600x1200 and beyond is pushing the limits though, and settings my need to be decreased.
The 8600 GT only beats the X1650 XT and the 7600 GT, which is not where we would like to see performance. As for the 8600 GTS, it leads the X1950 GT and 7900 GS, but this still means the 8600 GTS comes in last in its price class losing to the X1950 Pro, 7950 GT, and X1900 XT 256MB.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
41 Comments
View All Comments
xpose - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
How does H.264 video decoding work? Do I need to use a special powerdvd with special nvidia drivers for this to work? Or can I simply just get the latest nvidia drivers and use whatever media player I want to take advantage of this?RamIt - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
Why no benchmarks for source based games?Yongsta - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
There should be a 8700 series to bridge the gap, since the 8600 is a dissappointment. Gone are the days when you could get a $150 card and get the performance of a $300+ card. Ti4200 (overclock to Ti4600) or Radeon 9500 (softmod to 9700), etc!ssidbroadcast - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
Does anyone else think that us enthusiasts are expecting too much out of nVidia? The 8600 line clearly beats out it's 7600 counterpart, I think it might be expecting too much for the g84 to handily outdo a 7900 or an X1950. These are the BEST of last year, ppl! The best their engineers could do and only a year ago, or less! Why should we expect a MID-RANGE card too wallop the HIGH-RANGE of last year?Just a thought.
Live - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
Because they have done so for the last years?Spoelie - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
http://legionhardware.com/document.php?id=637">http://legionhardware.com/document.php?id=637For namesake alone they should have called the 8600GTS the 8600GT,
and the 8600GT the 8600GS
which would indicate there performance a bit more out of a history perspective. Dunno if the 8600GTS provides the jumps expected from the last generation
shabby - Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - link
Its been available on newegg since the other 8600 cards came out last week. If nvidia's partners shipped those cards to stores why couldnt they ship one to you guys?mongo lloyd - Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - link
Have you actually tested this? Seeing as it was bloody madness to get it to work half-assedly on 6xxx and 7xxx cards (not even including the fact that nvidia screwed up support for it in every other driver release, and not disclosing that fact, or even acknowledging that they had broken it), it seems not so smart to just take it at face value.
I swear the quality of Anandtech articles has been declining...
Hippiekiller - Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - link
Heres to hoping they make an 8700 series, or AMD can fill in the performance gap between these cards and the 320 8800.I am not willing to pay 300+ anymore.
ochentay4 - Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - link
please explain me why do i need h.264 100% decoding on hardware when there are free decoders that already do that (and nvidias charges you for this cards like if you where buying a rocket) and the most important thing is that it is supposed that you will be using these cards when relatively new pcs that can already play h.264 without a single frame drop... see, dx10 is for vista, and h.264 is for hd video, so its likely that the user has a really good pc.my 2 cents!