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DOOM 3

DOOM 3 performance will be represented in table form until I can figure out a better way to graph all the data. The PowerColor X700 Pro does pretty well at 800x600 and at 1024 without AA. To be honest though, if DOOM 3 is your game of choice, the 6600GT is the way to go - it is much faster than the X700 overall. There are always buts though and here is another one - to play on High Quality without a lot of stutters, a 256MB card is recommended. The timedemo does not show the stutters that occur in many 128MB cards. With the PowerColor X700 Pro it should be a smoother overall experience with High Quality textures. If we drop down to medium, the 6600GT would be the card of choice.

Counter Strike: Source

CS:Source may not be something we keep in the video benchmarking section and why this is will be obvious. Our cusotom timedemo is based on a spawn till death run on de_aztec as a terrorist. Our team is rushing the CTS through the water. I get flashbaged about half way into the run. My team starts dropping like flies and I try to help by shooting a few times before getting tagged. I think this is a scene that is pretty atypical of CS.

With AA/AF we are completely CPU bound with both the X700 Pro and the 6600GT. Even the X600 is bound at 1024 but it takes a sharp nose dive as the resolution increases.

With AA/AF we are still CPU bound at 1024. Fillrate and memory bandwidth seem to be an issue at 1280. At 1600, the 6600GT drops off sharply in contrast with the PowerColor X700 Pro. Again the issue of texture memory that was brought up in the DOOM 3 discussion rears its head here. I've been having a lot of problems playing CS:Source with a 128MB 9800 Pro and having it texture thrash with texture quality set to high. I think this will be a problem with many 128MB cards including the 6600GT.