Supreme Commander Performance
This is the first time we've included Supreme Commander in our graphics benchmarks as well. There is a built-in performance test accessible by appending /perf to the command line. This performance test is quite long, so we edited the script (Gas Powered Games uses lua scripting) to skip over one or two of the longer battles. This way we still have a four or five minute test scenario that pushes graphics pretty hard. This test was run with all the graphics settings turned all the way up, and the framerate is fine for gameplay at 1280x1024 on both our 8600 cards. Getting up to 1600x1200 and beyond is pushing the limits though, and settings my need to be decreased.
The 8600 GT only beats the X1650 XT and the 7600 GT, which is not where we would like to see performance. As for the 8600 GTS, it leads the X1950 GT and 7900 GS, but this still means the 8600 GTS comes in last in its price class losing to the X1950 Pro, 7950 GT, and X1900 XT 256MB.
This is the first time we've included Supreme Commander in our graphics benchmarks as well. There is a built-in performance test accessible by appending /perf to the command line. This performance test is quite long, so we edited the script (Gas Powered Games uses lua scripting) to skip over one or two of the longer battles. This way we still have a four or five minute test scenario that pushes graphics pretty hard. This test was run with all the graphics settings turned all the way up, and the framerate is fine for gameplay at 1280x1024 on both our 8600 cards. Getting up to 1600x1200 and beyond is pushing the limits though, and settings my need to be decreased.
The 8600 GT only beats the X1650 XT and the 7600 GT, which is not where we would like to see performance. As for the 8600 GTS, it leads the X1950 GT and 7900 GS, but this still means the 8600 GTS comes in last in its price class losing to the X1950 Pro, 7950 GT, and X1900 XT 256MB.
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nullpointerus - Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - link
Methinks this would be a good time for a cynical retort, but I can't think of one ATM.
coldpower27 - Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - link
We'll see, if the RV630 is competitive to these cards as it too has a 128Bit pCB as well from the rumors we have been hearing.yacoub - Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - link
Thank you for confirming the mediocrity of these cards. It is good to see a nice unbiased review that does not sugar-coat the pathetic results these cards are posting in some games and the so-so to just-okay results in other games.The fact remains a new generation of cards should outperform the previous generation at the same price/performance level.
The 8600GT needs to CONSISTENTLY outperform the 7600GT, the 8600GTS needs to CONSISTENTLY outperform the 7900GS/7900GT, and neither of these cards can manage that because they are cut down too far. A 256-bit bus and 64 stream processsors on the GTS for the same price point and it would have been a success and ensured NVidia victory across the board.
coldpower27 - Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - link
Which would basically nullify any cost advantage to production the 8600 Line has, if you add a 256Bit PCB plus the increase to 64 SP, you have a card that costs more then the 7900 line to make. There wouldn't be any point, Nvidia would have to eat the costs and still sell at the mainstream price points and make less money in the end.yacoub - Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - link
7900 series is going away, my friend.CalvinHobbes - Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - link
I'd love to see some video benchmarks using CPU's that the users of these cards would most likely have. If I were building a system with an 8600 based card I would probably match it with an E4300, E4400 or 5000+.ssidbroadcast - Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - link
I got your back. If you examine hardware surveys, IE Steam uses over a million unique samples, most people aren't using top-dollar processors or 2GB corsair RAM (pricey stuff). I realize the obvious benefits of using this kindof hardware for benching; cross-standardization being one, but most of us can't really afford these kind of systems.It'd be nice to see "modest" benchmarks on an entry-level AM2 machine, or even better, a 939 socket? Pentium equivalents as well?
A5 - Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - link
They're testing the card, not the system. If they used it with a slower CPU, it would skew the results of the better cards a little lower and make the 8600s look better than they are.Sunrise089 - Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - link
The number one reason nVidia has had more success than ATI in the past few generations is their superior midrange cards. (The number 2 reason is product delays with new high-end part intorductions, but that isn't as severe, since the real high-end market segment will just buy the new cards anyways). nVidia has clearly dropped the ball here, and these new benches confirm what the last review seemed to indicate - that unless AMD is totally asleep, they can nail nVidia with the Radeon 2600 line."The problem is that there is a huge performance gap between the 8600 GTS and the 8800 GTS 320MB." - This is the essense of the problem...the much better card is just priced much to close to these parts. The overall bottom line might have actually been better if nVidia hadn't released the 320meg part at all.
"We also have multiple cases where NVIDIA's new offerings perform lower than similarly priced hardware from their own previous generation hardware." - This is when it becomes outright embarrassing. It's been a long time, if there ever was a time, when this was true for the boys in green.
I'll say it again - 64 shader part at $200 will come quickly if AMDs competing parts are any good.
SalientKing - Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - link
Ive been wondering how 2 8600GT would fair