ATI's Radeon 8500 - New drivers expose potential

AA Performance

In order to measure AA performance we looked at the 2X/4X settings from both manufacturers (and all of their different modes, e.g. quality vs. performance for ATI). We also threw in a test where we enabled 16-tap anisotropic filtering and the highest quality 2X mode (2X Quality AA for ATI and Quincunx for NVIDIA); these results are labeled AA + Aniso.

Serious Sam Maximum Settings 1024x768x32 ATI Radeon 8500 (2X Performance AA) ATI Radeon 8500 (2X Quality AA) ATI Radeon 8500 (AA + Aniso) ATI Radeon 8500 (4X Performance AA) ATI Radeon 8500 (4X Quality AA) NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 (Quincunx AA) NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 (AA + Aniso) NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 (4X AA) 58 52 34 32 25 66 66 51 | 0 | 13 | 26 | 40 | 53 | 66 | 79

The highest performing combination here is the GeForce3 Ti 500 with Quincunx enabled however the best looking solution goes to ATI. Even though NVIDIA can offer their 4X AA mode at the same performance as ATI's 2X quality mode, there is extensive blurring with this AA mode that isn't nearly as noticeable on the Radeon 8500 because of SMOOTHVISION.

Quake III Arena High Quality 1024x768x32 ATI Radeon 8500 (2X Performance AA) ATI Radeon 8500 (2X Quality AA) ATI Radeon 8500 (AA + Aniso) ATI Radeon 8500 (4X Performance AA) ATI Radeon 8500 (4X Quality AA) NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 (Quincunx AA) NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 (AA + Aniso) NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 (4X AA) 107 95 89 50 39 100 91 82 | 0 | 21 | 43 | 64 | 86 | 107 | 128

Courtesy of the new drivers, ATI not only looks better with AA enabled but it also performs faster than even the GeForce3 Ti 500. What is very interesting is the relatively small hit the Ti 500 takes when rendering with 4X AA enabled in comparison to the Radeon 8500. We're not entirely sure why this is the case but it's worth noting.

Wolfenstein MP Test atdemo8 1024x768x32 ATI Radeon 8500 (2X Performance AA) ATI Radeon 8500 (2X Quality AA) ATI Radeon 8500 (AA + Aniso) ATI Radeon 8500 (4X Performance AA) ATI Radeon 8500 (4X Quality AA) NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 (Quincunx AA) NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 (AA + Aniso) NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 (4X AA) 104 94 85 49 39 90 82 69 | 0 | 21 | 42 | 62 | 83 | 104 | 125

The Radeon 8500 continues to be better looking and better performing than the competition; if ATI had only released these drivers with the card a month ago there would have been much fewer saddened ATI fans. The GeForce3 Ti 500 continues to pull ahead with 4X AA enabled unfortunately the classic blurring is still present even with the 4X AA mode enabled on the GeForce3.

Max Payne 1024x768x32 ATI Radeon 8500 (2X Quality AA) ATI Radeon 8500 (4X Quality AA) NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 (Quincunx AA) NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 (4X AA) 64 29 56 38 | 0 | 13 | 26 | 38 | 51 | 64 | 77

Finally with Max Payne we are able to see the ATI both take the performance crown and lose it. With 2X AA enabled the card looks and performs just like it should, but with 4X AA enabled it loses the performance match to NVIDIA.