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XFX 8800GTS - A gaming analysis of FEAR and CPU scaling

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tranceaddict

Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2005
Location
Toronto
In light of dominick32's thread: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=487151 , I decided to test CPU scaling with an Opteron 146 and a 8800GTS. A lot of people still have Opterons, and these series of tests will hopefully portray the relation between an Opteron and a 8800GTS.

Test System:
DFI LanpartyUT nF4 Ultra-D (704-2BTA BIOS)
AMD Opteron 146 (CABYE 0540 FPMW) @ 1.55V
Big Typhoon
2GB Mushkin eXtreme PC4000 (Black) @ 2.6V
Nvidia XFX 8800 GTS @ 630MHz core/1950MHz memory (fan fixed @ 80%)
WD Raptor 74gb
Fortron AX-500 Bluestorm PSU

Part 1 is performed with with Maximum F.E.A.R settings, High Quality in Nvidia CP, Supersampling for AA, and a 1024X768 Resolution

Part 2 is performed with with Maximum F.E.A.R settings, High Quality in Nvidia CP, Supersampling for AA, and a 1600X1200 Resolution



Part 1 - 1024X768

Opteron 146 @ 2.0GHz (stock), 8800GTS @ 630MHz/1950MHz
Screenshot008.jpg

Opteron 146 @ 2.4GHz, 8800GTS @ 630MHz/1950MHz
Screenshot006.jpg

Opteron 146 @ 2.6GHz, 8800GTS @ 630MHz/1950MHz
Screenshot004.jpg

Opteron 146 @ 2.8GHz, 8800GTS @ 630MHz/1950MHz
Screenshot002.jpg

Opteron 146 @ 3.0GHz, 8800GTS @ 630MHz/1950MHz
Screenshot000.jpg
 
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Part 2 - 1600X1200

Opteron 146 @ 2.0GHz (stock), 8800GTS @ 630MHz/1950MHz
Screenshot009.jpg

Opteron 146 @ 2.4GHz, 8800GTS @ 630MHz/1950MHz
Screenshot007.jpg

Opteron 146 @ 2.6GHz, 8800GTS @ 630MHz/1950MHz
Screenshot005.jpg

Opteron 146 @ 2.8GHz, 8800GTS @ 630MHz/1950MHz
Screenshot003.jpg

Opteron 146 @ 3.0GHz, 8800GTS @ 630MHz/1950MHz
Screenshot001.jpg

Conclusion:

At a resolution of 1024X768 the 8800GTS is definitively bottlenecked by the Opteron 146. The raise in FPS is quite linear as you raise the MHz of the processor.
At a resolution of 1600X1200 the 8800GTS is not bottlenecked by the Opteron 146 at all, with maybe a minor exception for 2.0GHz.
 
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Just for comparison, here is a screenshot of 1280X960:

Opteron 146 @ 3.0GHz, 8800GTS @ 630MHz/1950MHz
Screenshot010.jpg
 
PhysX said:
COol :) wonder what it could do quad quadcore :)..... tranceaddict.com ;) ?

Would it make much of a difference? It looks like the GPU is not bottlenecked at all with the higher resolution @ 2.4ghz and above. Thats good to hear that my Opteron may last longer than I thought it would. Great test, thanks for the info.
 
PhysX said:
COol :) wonder what it could do quad quadcore :)..... tranceaddict.com ;) ?


Yeah, I'm on tranceaddict "Trancextasy", although I don't post so much anymore. I do however, still chat with some of the member; Del (Swamper), Natalie (Tatgirl), Mike and Jenna, Frank Cuzo, etc.
 
Thanks for posting these results! It seems over the past year I've had several heated discussions with people about how much CPU power is required to avoid bottlenecking in games. I was primarily arguing that despite the dominance of Conroe over AMD, there was no need for anyone with a decent A64 rig to jump ship to Intel to maintain excellent gaming performance. In response, a lot of people said: "Just wait until G80... then the A64 CPUs will bottleneck gaming performance". Well, G80 is here, and guess what? A 2.4 GHz single-core A64 is still not the bottleneck for high-res gaming. I will concede that we need to see some testing with soon-to-be-released games like Crysis and ETQW before we can proclaim A64s as sufficient for cutting edge gaming. ;)
 
Yeah, I was really tempted to grab a Conroe, but these results make me feel a lot better about my Opty. I play almost all my games at 1600X1200 with 4AA/16AF so bottlenecking is really not an issue. For some online FPS like F.E.A.R and COD2 I will use 1280X960 because I don't like my FPS dropping below 60 in competitive online matches. However, single player I can now use 1600X1200 for all games, even Oblivion. Oblivion looks so much better with HDR and AA together, my old 7900GT as you all know, was not able to do that. The 8800GTS is great. It Overclocks really well, I had it up to 660/2000 but I lowered it to 630/1950 for 100% stability in all test applications. Overall, I am really happy with my setup now. I will re-install Windows in the next week or so and put up some 3DMark scores. So far I almost hit 15000pts in 05, but my registry is really clogged and my system is bogged down quite a bit.
 
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Great post!!! I might hang on to my opteron after all. I had been under the assumption (b/c of dom's thread) that you needed 3.4ghz conroe to get rid of cpu bottlenecking for 8800. His card was clocked a little faster than yours, but still, for a nicely OCed 8800 gts, the opteron looks fine. Thanks for doing this!
 
Awesome post there. I run games at 1680x1050 so I know my 2.7 Opty 165 will not slow down the card at all even when overclocked. Nobody buys an 8800 to play games at 1024x768 anyway.

All the hype about needing a superfast conroe stems from 3Dmark scores, which scale with CPU speed regardless of bottlenecking.
 
KillrBuckeye said:
Well, G80 is here, and guess what? A 2.4 GHz single-core A64 is still not the bottleneck for high-res gaming. I will concede that we need to see some testing with soon-to-be-released games like Crysis and ETQW before we can proclaim A64s as sufficient for cutting edge gaming. ;)

My guess is you will need at least a dual-core Athlon for these upcoming games. Crysis has a dual-core chip listed as one of the recommended specs.
 
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