Gaming Benchmark Testing

Gaming Benchmark Testing

• CPU: Core 2 Duo E8400 @3.0Ghz
• RAM: 2 GB DDR2 800
• GFX: Gigabyte GTX260 core 216
• HDD:  2 X 640 GB SATA II

 We decided to run this card through some gaming benchmarks; although Right Mark 3DS does a great job of showing how the card operates the benchmarks are synthetic.  Given the fact this card has EAX 1,2,3,4 and OpenAL support we decided to play some of our favorite games on various settings to see how this card actually performs in the real world.

 Far cry2 Benchmark Testing
 Farcry2 comes with its own Benchmarking utility so since we have enjoyed this game we figured we would give it a shot and see what the results are.  We ran the benchmark 3 times on three cards and averaged the results.  We put the Bravura 7.1 against the Forte 7.1 and a software card, the Xonar DX 7.1 for a bit of contrast.

This benchmark was run at 1600 X 900 with medium settings and no AA. All other settings were left at default.  We can see the Forte 7.1 pulled ahead on this game but the margin between it and the Bravura is very small ~2-3 FPS.  The different between the Bravura and the Xonar DX is also only about 3 FPS but considering both cards offer software based processing, we tend to believe the Bravura has some optimized coding in the drivers.  We chose 1600X900 as we figured this is close to the sweet spot for gaming as some play games slight over and slightly below this screen resolution.

Call of Duty 2 EAX Effect Testing
We were interested on how the Bravura 7.1 would do processing EAX 3 effects when put up against a hardware processor card like the Forte 7.1.  The game was tested 3 times for each card and the results were averaged.  We tested a well known board trying to keep things as similar as possible.

Given this is an older game we cranked up the resolution a bit running this test at 1680 X 1050 with 4X AA and anisotropic filtering.

We were surprised at the results, but given the 3Ds testing we had good idea that this card can hold its own for EAX audio effect gaming.  The graph makes the device look more substantial than it really is, The Forte still pulls ahead at: 85.5 FPS, the Bravura flexes it software muscle at: ~84.7.

Although these cards look fairly matched for this test, we would still suggest the Forte would perform better when higher buffer numbers come into play given the fact the Bravura only supports 63 buffers for 3D audio and high buffers choke software cards.  The DX could not be used for contrast in this game as it does not support EAX 3 directly and its GX emulation will not enable when playing this game.

Medal of Honor: Airborne

We decide to try a game at a lower resolution for contrast.  Again, the Bravura and the Forte 7.1 seemed very close to each other during the testing.

The Forte 7.1 measured ~93fps and the Bravura measured ~91.5 which is very close, the Bravura seemed to out muscle the Xonar DX in this test with the DX measuring ~16 frames lower at 75.7FPS. 

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare II
Lets turn up the resolution again and try a newer game COD4: Modern Warfare II. These results look interesting!  The Bravura actually surpasses the Forte 7.1?

Yes but understand it is only by .8 FPS, we should say it is within the realm of error.  However, the Bravura stays head to head with the hardware based Forte 7.1 throughout the 3 gaming runs. The Xonar DX again fell to the rear pulling in about 88.2 fps, again if we had to speculate we would suggest it is in the realm of driver optimizations for the Bravura 7.1.

Call of Juarez: Bound in BloodThis game is just cool so we wanted to throw it in!  Lets change the resolution around the area that most would be playing their games 1280X1024.  The test was performed three times each for each card being test and the results were averaged.

These results are interesting, we have the hardware based Forte 7.1 leading the pack at ~113Fps followed by the Bravura 7.1 running at 107 Fps.  The Xonar DX is again pulling up the rear offering 99fps during its gaming run.  We are really only talking about ~8fps between the software based Xonar DX and Bravura 7.1 but it may be significant to some depending on the specifications of your system.