Age of Empires III Benchmark

[userofcomputer]

Today I came across this Age of Empires III benchmark from some German hardware site.

In their test the Radeon X800XL appears to be very bad, in fact it is inferior to the 6800 vanilla (!), and constantly 15-20 fps behind the 6800GT.

Is this benchmark to be trusted? This was the only one I found when googling, are there any other benchmarks out?

And if this problem for X800XL is true, why does it exist? Is AoE3 OpenGL based or what? And could the problem be expected to be fixed by drivers or patches, or is this problem a fact?

And what about the upcoming TES4: Oblivion, what engine does that game use and how is the ATi cards expected to play it?

 

[klah]

Probably the same phenomenon we are seeing here: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=1726485


Someone with access to all of these cards *cough*Derek*cough* should do some testing with R:TW.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: userofcomputer
And what about the upcoming TES4: Oblivion, what engine does that game use and how is the ATi cards expected to play it?

Oblivion is going to be delayed for 4+ months, so it would be impossible to know and/or guess.

 

[userofcomputer]

Originally posted by: klah
Probably the same phenomenon we are seeing here: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=1726485


Someone with access to all of these cards *cough*Derek*cough* should do some testing with R:TW.

A test made by Driverheaven.net shows the X800XL as slightly better than the 6800GT in all settings in Rome: Total War.

The AoE3 test stirred my mind, as I had settled for the Asus X800XL. Now maybe I have to get a 6800GT instead.

 

[anandtechrocks]

High FPS don't really mean much to me in an RTS. My friend plays AOE 3 on integrated Intel graphics and he still enjoys the game.

 

[microAmp]

I finished AoE3 a couple days ago on an X800XL. On one map you get a huge army to plow through the enemy and never experienced any slow down at all. 1280x1024 4xAA 8xAF.

 

[userofcomputer]

Well, then how should I interpret their benchmark? And how did they do it, the article is from 5 october and at that time AoE3 wasn't released in the U.S.??
Someone with knowledge of the German language maybe could help interpreting the article?

Does ATi actually have a vertex pipeline problem, or is it only the X1K series as stated in the link provided by klah?

If it is a vertex pipeline problem, could new drivers fix it?

I really need answers, my dad wants to order the rig in my sig tomorrow, I have delayed it long enough.

 

[userofcomputer]

My brother showed me Babelfish, a translation program. The syntax may not be the best, but some very interesting results appeared in the last part:

However we have the Shader details on ?High? reduced, since the stage ?is available? Very High only on SM3-kompatiblen diagram maps and SM2-Karten cannot represent some graphic details thus, what the results would falsify. Unfortunately Age OF Empires 3 in the quality attitudes can be tested only with the anisotropic filter, since the anti- Aliasing on ATi maps engraving error prepared and the play let fall.

Which means AoE3 really make use of SM3.0?
And what the last part, about engraving error with ATi AA?

Please help me interpret this.

 

[userofcomputer]

Someone?

 

[Fardringle]

I can't speak for any problems that the 800XL might have with Age of Empires 3 since I don't have one, but my system (Barton 2500+ with a very wimpy Geforce 4 MX440) plays the game flawlessly. There is no jerkiness or delays anywhere in the game that I have seen and it is more than smooth enough for enjoyable play. I wouldn't worry at all about any review that says any video card gets less than "UBER" frame rates in a Real Time Sim like this since frame rates simply don't matter for this type of game unless you are talking about numbers in the teens or single digits, and even then it would probably still be completely playable...


edit: darn typos

 

[userofcomputer]

Yes, but I'm still worried about the last part stating that ATi Anti-Aliasing don't work in AoE3?
Could someone with the game and an ATi card confirm if it works or not?

 

[tuteja1986]

I will wait for another review from a site i trust... for all i know that website can be nvidia fanboyish.

 

[cmrmrc]

i don't know about that test but the results doesnt seem very trustworthy...

here another site in french that shows the x850 xt pe in front of the 6800gt by 12 fps...

http://www.presence-pc.com/tests/Preview-ATI-Radeon-X1800-X1600-X1300-368/18/

i'm not sure about which site to trust but x800xl trailing 6800gt by 20fps....never seen that before..

 

[coomar]

i dunno, aoe3 puts the hurt on my 6800gt, while its playable on everything highest, its a little slow, with shader model high its fine though, there is a very noticeble difference between shader model very high and high though

 

[CraigRT]

I play AoE3 at 1680x1050 no AA, everything else on high, runs good all the time except when there are eleventy billion guys all moving around on the screen at once. (Mostly near game's end) This is on a 7800GT mild OC.

 

[userofcomputer]

Still no ATi owners dropping in...

 

[chinkgai]

everyone should clarify between high and very high shader

also state your resolution or else its apples and oranges

does anyone know if aoe3 benefits from 2 gb of ram?

 

[lopri]

Here it is

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24865

Above comparison done with a single GTX setup with an X2