![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , March 03, 2008
- Author:
- Matthew Krysiak
- Editor:
- Brent Justice
- Google +1
Palit GeForce 9600 GT Sonic
Palit’s new GeForce 9600 GT Sonic overclocked video card has a unique design and cooling solution with enough output ports to satisfy any HTPC user. We evaluate gameplay in CoD 4, Crysis, and UT3 alongside a GeForce 8800 GT and a Radeon HD 3870.
Crysis
(DirectX 10)
We are using the full version copy of Crysis. Crysis is a first person shooter that is set in 2019. What makes Crysis unique is the amazing destructible environment and the on the fly customizability of your character and your weapons. Then there is always the graphics quality that will bring even the top end video cards to their knees. We will be playing Crysis in the default APIs for our system, which launches automatically in DX10 mode with the 64-bit executable. We have applied the latest Patch version 1.1 for Crysis which is supposed to improve single video card and multi-GPU (SLI and CrossFire) performance.
As you progress through Crysis the game becomes more graphically demanding; first the scenic vistas, then the weather effects, and finally the final boss all lead your optimized playable settings of the first few levels to become unplayable. Our run-through in the graphs below involves 5 minutes of gameplay in “Assault_Crysis” the Harbor map. This map includes the transition from night to day, tons of explosions, particles, physics, AI interaction and water.
Note that in the graphs, we have lowered our redline to 25 FPS for Crysis. This game is demanding, and low framerates are impossible to avoid, gameplay is also different in this game to where 25 FPS and up feels very playable which is very likely due to the efficient use of motion blur. Note that the down-spikes to 0 FPS in the graphs are due to the saved game points.
The Palit GeForce 9600 GT Sonic and the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT both were able to provide excellent image quality and gameplay experiences for this price range. They both were able to play at 1280x1024, No AA, No AF, shader quality high, and the rest of the in-game setting at medium. It seems the higher clock speeds of the Palit video card, compared to the slower video card in our initial evaluation, lends its way to higher in-game playable settings. While the game was playable at the same settings on the Palit GeForce 9600 GT and GeForce 8800 GT the GeForce 8800 GT did provide fewer slowdowns in performance when engaging the AI with a lot of particle effects onscreen.
Now, comparing the Palit GeForce 9600 GT Sonic to the ATI Radeon HD 3870 proved to be a much larger difference. Both were able to play at 1280x1024, No AA, and No AF. Where they differed was on the in-game settings. With the 9600 GT we were able to play with a shader quality of high. With the 3870 we weren’t. This one setting makes a huge impact on the look and the feel of the game.
During our testing we also looked at using 1600x1200 on the Palit GeForce 9600 GT but found we had to play with all the in-game settings at medium, No AA, and No AF. We also had to do the same thing with NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT. The reason why we chose to use the 1280x1024 and high shaders was because of the better image quality and game immersion. The extra resolution did not make up for having to turn the shader quality down.
Image Quality
Screenshots below are PNG format to eliminate compression artifacts and can range in file size of 1-3 MB.
Looking at the screenshot above we see what a difference having shader quality high or medium can make. With the high shader quality we see white snow and a nice haze effect that you would expect to see. With the medium shader quality the snow looks bluish and there is no haze to speak of. This is but one example from many of the difference in image quality high shaders can make.