![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , August 28, 2007
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Call of Juarez DX10 Performance and Image Quality
Call of Juarez enjoys a very large and noticeable visual difference in DirectX 10 versus DirectX 9. This is the first game to make us say “Wow!” at the visual quality improvements using DX10. We will explore GPU performance scaling and image quality comparisons using the 8800 Ultra, GTS, & 2900 XT.
Call of Juarez
DX9 and DX10 Apples-to-Apples
Call of Juarez was released for the PC in North America in June of 2007 with DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 support out of the box for Windows Vista. Based on the ChromeEngine the DirectX 10 version brings improvement to the game including relief mapping, alpha-to-coverage for soft edges, detailed terrain, higher quality textures, greater visibility distances, better post processing effects and higher resolution of shadow maps.
The young and impulsive Billy flees his family ranch after a violent bust-up with his stepfather. Billy roams the length and breadth of America; two years pass, then Billy decides to go home. The day of his return, gunshots are heard at the ranch from as far away as the neighboring town. At the farm, the Pastor discovers the bodies of his brother and wife and then spots Billy, bloodied whip in hand, standing by a wall daubed with the words ‘’Call of Juarez’’, written in blood. The young man notices the Reverend and flees in a panic.
Ray was well aware of the quarrels between his brother and Billy and figures out that the stepson must have killed the couple in a fit of anger. He vows to avenge the death of his brother and sister in law, and sets out in pursuit of Billy. In the course of his pitiless chase, he chooses to become once more what he was several years previously: a fearsome and bloodthirsty killer.
Our manual test runs us through Episode VIII which includes plenty of outdoor and indoor gameplay including enemies and us firing guns with particle and post processing effects being used. Indoor performance is also tested in the run-through.
In all our graphs do not be alarmed at two areas you will see where the framerates drop down to 0 FPS on every video card. This game has an autosave feature which kicks in and subsequently drops the framerate down to 0 as it is saving.
DirectX 9
We are running the game at the same in-game settings for all the video cards; hence “apples-to-apples” does apply here. In DirectX 9 mode this means Shader Model 3.0 as well as Shadow Map Size at 2048 and the highest effects enabled. For Anisotropic Filtering we used the in-game setting to ensure an “equal” setting among every video cards, the highest available setting is “AnisotropicTrilinear” which by our testing appears to be level 8X AF.
Note the color of the lines in the graph, there are four of them representing each video card. The light blue line is the GeForce 8800 Ultra, light yellow is the GeForce 8800 GTX, red is the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB and purple is the GeForce 8800 GTS . We will look at the Radeon HD 2900 XT in comparison in the graph below.
The scaling is exactly what you would expect here with the 8800 Ultra performing the best, then the 8800 GTX then the 640 MB GTS and then the 320 MB GTS. What is interesting is that there is only a small difference in performance between the GTX and Ultra. However, there is a rather large difference between the 320 MB and 640 MB GeForce 8800 GTS. The GPU frequencies are the same; therefore it is RAM capacity difference that is making such a large performance difference. It seems right off the bat in DX9 mode this game likes video cards with more RAM.
When we bring the Radeon HD 2900 XT into the picture we are pleasantly surprised at the DX9 performance in Call of Juarez. Looking at the average framerate in our run-through we received an average of 33 FPS with the Radeon HD 2900 XT and an average of 30 FPS with the GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB; the Radeon HD 2900 XT was actually faster. If you look at the graph at its peak the Radeon HD 2900 XT in one point of our run-through is showing a 14 FPS advantage over the GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB. There is no doubt the Radeon HD 2900 XT is a strong performer in DX9 mode, especially if you compare it to the 320 MB GeForce 8800 GTS.
DirectX 10
When launching the DirectX 10 version of this game two new options are enabled from the menu. First you will see that the game is now running in Shader Model 4.0 mode, this is automatic and it cannot be changed for DX10 mode. The other mode is called “Enhanced Quality” and can be enabled once you launch the DX10 version. For our testing in DX10 we are using the highest settings possible including Enhanced Quality, Shadow Map size at 2048 and Shader Model 4.0. For Anisotropic Filtering we are still using “AnisotropicTrilinear” set from in-game.
The performance of every video card drops when enabling DirectX 10 mode versus DirectX 9 mode. There is good reason for this though since many new features are being enabled and used in DX10 mode versus DX9 mode. We will look at IQ following performance evaluation.
You will no doubt notice the drastic performance of the 320 MB GeForce 8800 GTS at these settings. Basically this video card lacks the RAM capacity to run at these settings in DX10 mode. The video card seems to be running out of local memory storage and thus is using the PCI-Express bus to transfer textures, utterly killing performance in this game at these high settings. It seems with the 320 MB GeForce 8800 GTS you are going to have to run at a lower resolution or lower settings.
The GeForce 8800 Ultra and 8800 GTX are still close in performance, but the 640 MB GeForce 8800 GTS trails with a wider gap than in DX9. Overall the GeForce 8800 Ultra is still playable at this level with the highest settings in DX10.
*Update 8-28-2007* – We have been in contact with NVIDIA regarding the performance issues with the 320 MB GeForce 8800 GTS in Call of Juarez. They believe that this is a driver bug but have no fix at this time. If it is a bug that is great, that means performance can be fixed in a future driver update. For now though, until that fix is available, this is the performance you will experience.
Once again the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT is performing strongly. It seems to be right on the heels of the GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB. The average framerates between the Radeon HD 2900 XT and GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB are very close. We received an average of 22.3 FPS with the Radeon HD 2900 XT and an average of 23.2 FPS with the GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB, a meaningless 1 FPS difference. Of course the GTX and Ultra are faster, but compared to the 640 MB GeForce 8800 GTS the Radeon HD 2900 XT is making a good showing.