![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Wednesday, May 30, 2007
- Author:
- Mark Warner
- Editor:
- Brent Justice
- Google +1
BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB
BFGTech has a new video card in the wild; the GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB. It's highly overclocked from the factory, but just how will that actually improve the gameplay experience? We're about to find out with some of today's most demanding games!
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
(DirectX 9)
Oblivion is the next Elder Scrolls game and the unconnected sequel to Morrowind. It uses the multi-platform Gamebryo game engine. Oblivion features DirectX 9 shaders and Havok physics. The engine supports lush vegetation, soft shadows, and high dynamic range lighting (HDR). Oblivion also features SpeedTree for rendering trees.
For testing, we have chosen to do a manual run-through riding horseback from outside the Imperial City to Chorrol to Bruma. This run-through allows us to push the hardware as much as the game can. While this is an outdoor run-through, we do make sure to test indoor situations in our gameplay analysis as well. We have found that turning on the torch indoors with HDR lighting takes a big hit on performance in some situations. We make sure to test this scenario, and the posted configuration screenshots reflect the results of testing both indoor and outdoor scenarios.
The BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB was able to run Oblivion at 1600x1200 with 4x TR MSAA and 16x AF. Every available in-game image quality option was set to its highest available setting. Gameplay was smooth and fluid, and we experienced no unpleasant slowdowns.
With the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB, we found 1600x1200 with 2x TR MSAA and 16x to be playable. We were able to use maximum in-game settings here as well. We tried to bring up the AA setting to 4x TR MSAA, but the game was choppy and unplayable. It seems the factory overclock on the BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB is showing its stuff here.
On the other hand, the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768 MB predictably beat both other video cards. It was able to run Oblivion at 1600x1200 with 8x TR MSAA and 16x AF, with all in-game settings at the maximum values. The GeForce 8800 GTX is considerably more expensive than the GTS, and so we expected it to outperform both GeForce 8800 GTS based video cards in this evaluation, and especially in Oblivion. However, the difference is not that large. It is just one level of AA higher than the BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB was able to use, and about 10% higher framerates.
Image Quality
The above screenshot comparison shows the different AA modes used by these three video cards. On the far left, we have the BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB using 4x TR MSAA. In the middle, the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB is using 2x TR MSAA. And on the far right, the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768 MB is using 8x TR MSAA.
Looking carefully at the lamppost and gravestones, we can see that 4x and 8x TR MSAA offer significantly better anti-aliasing than 2x offers. However, it is more difficult to spot the image quality difference between 4x and 8x AA.