![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , November 12, 2007
- Author:
- Mark Warner
- Editor:
- Brent Justice
- Google +1
Lord of the Rings Online: DX10 Patch
Turbine's DirectX 10 client for The Lord of the Rings Online is upon us. Though the company admits that its DirectX 10 offers "minor visual upgrades," we seek to find what kind of performance penalty comes with the new DX10 code. All is not well in the land of Middle-Earth...with DX10.
Performance
We began testing with the game pre-patch so we would have data to compare and then applied the patch. We found our median playable settings for DirectX9, which we then repeated with DirectX 10. Since this is an established game, and not a new game coming to market with DX10 support out of the box, this part was easy. We already knew what to expect out of LOTRO in DX9.
Looking at the configuration interface, we see a few new options. The first one we see is a checkbox labeled "Use DirectX 10 Graphics (BETA)." This option predictably enables and disables the DX10 rendering path. Note that the also option indicates that the DirectX 10 Code in LOTRO is still in beta form. Without a doubt, there will be future updates to this code as the game itself goes through more updates. Apart from that first option, there are only two other graphics options that are specific to DX10. There is the "DX10 Distant Landscape Lighting" checkbox, and the "DX10 Dynamic Shadows" drop down list. Obviously, the "DX10 Distant Landscape Lighting" option allows us to either enable or disable that feature. Under the "DX10 Dynamic Shadows" drop down list, there are 3 options: Very High, High, and Disabled.
DirectX 9 Performance
Enthusiast Class
These first run of tests are done pre-patch in DX9 to give us a baseline to compare post-patch DX10 performance in the DX10 section below.
It should not surprise anyone that the GeForce 8800 Ultra and the GeForce 8800 GTX are both capable of playing LOTRO at high resolutions, with maximum in-game settings, and with high levels of AA (and of course AF). We found that we could comfortably play the game in most environments at 1920x1200 with 16X CSAA and 16X AF. The occasional dip into unplayable territory that is visible in the graph was the result of hard drive loading. It is unavoidable, and it is the biggest performance problem in DX9 for LOTRO.
Performance Class
In the Performance class of video cards, we see another familiar and lamentable trend. The GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB and GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB perform at nearly the same level, while the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT falls woefully behind. All three of these video cards are playable at this resolution, but the Radeon is borderline in some areas, such as densely populated towns and camps.
Our configuration for these three video cards uses a lower texture quality setting than the maximum the game allows for. This was done to make sure that LOTRO was playable on all three video cards (in DX9 at least) in our baseline. The GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB does not have the memory capacity to enable the "Very High" texture detail settings, so we used "High" for all three video cards here. It should be noted that both the GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB and the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT are capable of using the "Very High" texture setting with a negligible performance penalty. In that way, the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, in spite of its lackluster performance, is capable of providing a better experience in LOTRO than the GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB.
DirectX 10 Performance
Enthusiast Class
DirectX 10 performance on the two fastest video cards on the market, to be frank, shocked us. As you can see from the above graph, the GeForce 8800 Ultra and the GeForce 8800 GTX both failed to maintain framerates above 30 frames-per-second for a significant portion of our testing routine. Recall that we used the exact same settings as we did in our DX9 testing, and both of these video cards provided an excellent experience earlier. In DX10, though, neither of these video cards provided a playable experience with these settings with this patch.
We also see that the GeForce 8800 GTX is noticeably slower than the GeForce 8800 Ultra. In the results of our DirectX 9 testing shown above, we found that there was no noticeable performance difference at all between the two.
Performance Class
We saw more of the same downward trend with the Performance class of video cards we tested. The GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB and GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB again performed essentially the same as one another, while the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT still remained far below them in performance. This time, however, LOTRO was not playable on any of these video cards, while using these settings.
Because it had the least room to wiggle, the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT took the most severe performance hit when changed from DirectX 9 to DirectX 10. But it hardly matters, as the two NVIDIA cards didn’t fare much better with DX10 enabled with this patch.
DX9 vs. DX10 Side-by-Side
Since performance between the GeForce 8800 Ultra and the GeForce 8800 GTX, and between the GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB and the GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB are so similar, we will be excluding the GeForce 8800 GTX and GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB from our direct comparison. This is solely for the sake of simplicity, and we are not excluding any data that could affect the outcome of our evaluation. Finally, since the Radeon HD 2900 XT is the only ATI video card we used here, we will include that direct comparison as well.
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
When we directly compare DirectX 9 performance and DirectX 10 performance on the same graph, using the most powerful gaming video card you can currently buy, the results are quite clear. In LOTRO, the GeForce 8800 Ultra is 55% slower when using the DX10 code, than it is when using only DX9 code. We have observed similar performance penalties in the past, but we are no less frustrated to see it here.
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
The performance difference on the GeForce 8800 GTS even more severe. We recorded a 62% drop in framerates with the GeForce 8800 GTS in LOTRO when we changed from DirectX 9 to DirectX 10. Sixty-two percent! That kind of disconnect is simply shocking.
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT
The Radeon HD 2900 XT did not have ample wiggle room in LOTRO under DirectX 9, and changing to DirectX 10 only exacerbated its problems. This video card exhibited the single most severe performance impact of any in our evaluation, dropping a whopping 66% of its already borderline framerate.
What does it all mean?
The above performance data seem to indicate that the performance problems plaguing The Lord of the Rings Online in DirectX 10 are a result of the game's code itself. We experimented with different driver versions from both ATI and NVIDIA, and we found no change in performance. We removed and reinstalled the game, which is a considerably time-consuming task with this game, and we still found no improvement.
After all of this, the big question is of course: Is it worth it? Does DirectX 10 offer such spectacular improvements in image quality over DirectX 9 that we are not bothered by being forced to lower our settings, including resolution and AA?