Page 13 - AquaMark 3
AquaMark 3
The latest graphics cards on the market are almost all DirectX 9 compatible these days, and we also see an increasing number of games utilizing the new DX9 features. To be able to see how well a graphics card is performing in this new challenging DirectX 9 environment, AquaMark was developed.
The AquaMark3 benchmark delivers scores for specific hardware components as well as an overall score for the entire system. AquaMark3 is highly qualified to meet the needs of gamers because it's as close as possible to a typical game application. The AquaMark benchmarking series is based directly on the huge code and data base of the AquaNox games and the underlying krass game engine."
In the past we have used AquaMark 2.3 in our benchmark suite and although still a reputable application, Massive figured it was time for the next generation. This is AquaMark 3, a benchmark that will utilize some of the finest DirectX 9 capabilities like Pixel and Vertex Shaders 2.0, and yet is by far not as Shader dependant as Half-Life 2 is, for example. You will notice that in the overall results later in this article.
AquaMark 3, however, is not solely a DirectX 9 benchmark. If you are working with a DirectX 8 or 7 compatible graphics card you will still be able to play the game, just with a lot of the graphical features missing. Make no mistake, AquaMark3 is a DirectX 9 benchmark. But since it's based on a real game engine it has fallbacks to DirectX 8 and even DirectX 7, which makes this software not a 100% DX9 benchmark.
Download: Aquamark 3 (63 MB)
AquaMark 3 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
FX 5600 | 24 | 21 | 17 | 13 |
9600 256 | 29 | 23 | 17 | 13 |
Creative R9600 | 29 | 23 | 17 | 13 |
9600 Pro | 31 | 25 | 19 | 14 |
FX 5700 | 36 | 30 | 23 | 18 |
R9800XT | 41 | 35 | 26 | 20 |
FX 5700 Ultra | 41 | 35 | 27 | 21 |
9700 Pro | 46 | 41 | 33 | 26 |
9800 Pro | 49 | 45 | 38 | 30 |
9800 Pro | 50 | 44 | 38 | 30 |
5900 XT GALAXY | 50 | 47 | 43 | 36 |
9800XT | 51 | 46 | 40 | 33 |
FX 5950 Ultra | 53 | 49 | 45 | 38 |
As you can see, pretty similar results compared to other tests. The NVIDIA series clearly have the edge here. Again look at that really nice performance the 5900 XT is capable of. That's really nice to see for a $199 USD product. Things will change a bit when we turn on 4x Antialiasing and 8x Anisotropic Filtering where ATI is stronger.
4xAA 8xAF | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
FX 5600 | 16 | 13 | 9 | 7 |
9600 256 | 21 | 16 | 12 | 8 |
FX 5700 | 22 | 17 | 12 | 9 |
9600 Pro | 24 | 18 | 13 | 9 |
FX 5700 Ultra | 26 | 19 | 14 | 11 |
R9600XT | 32 | 25 | 19 | 12 |
5900 XT GALAXY | 33 | 26 | 19 | 15 |
FX 5900 Ultra | 39 | 31 | 23 | 17 |
9700 Pro | 39 | 32 | 24 | 19 |
FX 5950 Ultra | 40 | 32 | 24 | 18 |
9800 Pro | 43 | 36 | 27 | 21 |
9800XT | 45 | 39 | 30 | 23 |