Page 17 - Call of Juarez DX10
Now we are very limited in DX10 testing, but to know if the HD2900 XT could be better than the green competing team we had to revert to some limited options at hand. I'm very happy to be able to show you performance results done with an exclusive distribution of a Call of Juarez demo which includes a Call Of Juarez DX10 Benchmark.
Call Of Juarez DX10 Benchmark
This game benchmark which is just so delicious to look at, is using Shader Model 4 with DirectX 10, so the usage of Vista32 is mandatory.
The games developer, Techland has found that this was caused by an application issue when MSAA is enabled. The benchmark can be run on both ATI Radeon and Nvidia hardware with MSAA disabled. This application issue will be fixed in an upcoming patch available in the next couple of weeks. The full DirectX 10 version of Call of Juarez will be available to the public sometime in June with full functionality for all DirectX 10 capable graphics cards.
Breathtaking is what this benchmark is. Initially when ATI handed out this demo I was a little reluctant to actually use it as a performance test as well ... it could be tainted as it's handed out by ATI. So we started testing an 8800 GTX with this software, and yes ... stumbled into bad performance and weird performance issues. The HD 2900 XT and 8800 GTX where equal performance wise. And what this review definitely shows, is that such a thing is unlikely. Later that evening NVIDIA noticed that the press obtained the demo and one day later issued a driver which was showing excellent performance and no weird stutters or anything anymore. The driver is the 158.42 driver which be will be released to the public this week.
That's good enough for me .. let's have a look, folks. In all fairness I enabled every possible "high" setting available with 2048x2048 shadow map size. Again this thing looks amazing. We have a recording (movie file of the demo available for you, which you can download here. Also we included a side-by-side movie to show differences between DX9 and DX10; be sure to check them out both, as they are lovely.
By the way; throughout our test sessions and all benchmarks (all games) when you look at the charts you will see a mixture of the following cards:
- Radeon X1950 Pro refrence
- Radeon X1950 XTX reference
- GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB (BFG OC)
- GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB reference
- GeForce 8800 GTX 768 MB reference
- GeForce 8800 Ultra 768 MB reference
*update - small mistake the 8800 GTX 640 MB obviously is a GTS.
Performance, well it has to be said: the HD 2900 XT definitely shows potential in DX10, doesn't it? Sure it's no GeForce 8800 GTX, but for the money in this demo it shows excellent performance.
We have some footage available for you guys in the form of WMV files; if you are interested chech it out:
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Call of Juarez DirectX 10 Benchmark (movie) - 158MB
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Call of Juarez FirePlace (movie) shows render difference between DX9/DX10 - 17MB
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Call of Juarez Mountains & Rocks (movie) shows render difference between DX9/DX10 - 14MB
Since this test demands 100% DX10 compatiblity, I obviously could not include other Radeon DX9 cards. Here we see the HD2900 XT performing at GeForce 8800 GTS levels. You'll notice throughout this benchmark session that the HD 2900 XT wins and loses some from the entire NVIDIA Series 8800. Sometimes a pre-overclocked 8800 320MB tends to be faster, and in other scenarios it can keep up with a 8800 GTX. It's very weird, I know. But this is the reality.
HDR lighting with MSAA enabled, and fully dynamic real-time shadowing
