Benchmarks - Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (OpenGL)

For the final game test we'll look at the OpenGL based title Serious Sam: Second Encounter. In this case we'll use the "The Pit" Custom Firing Squad Demo.

 

S:SE (FPS) 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
X800 XT PE 135.8 132.3 127.8 121.3 113.2
X800 PRO 135.1 132.0 127.2 117.8 100.3
9800 XT 137.8 134.4 128.9 119.6 99.0
9800 PRO 138.0 134.6 117.8 88.1 63.7
9700 PRO 135.7 132.9 128.7 110.6 85.6
 
X800 XT PE % Difference 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
X800 PRO 0.5% 0.2% 0.5% 3.0% 12.9%
9800 XT -1.5% -1.6% -0.9% 1.4% 14.3%
9800 PRO -1.6% -1.7% 8.5% 37.7% 77.7%
9700 PRO 0.1% -0.5% -0.7% 9.7% 32.2%
 
X800 PRO % Difference 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
9800 XT -2.0% -1.8% -1.3% -1.5% 1.3%
9800 PRO -2.1% -1.9% 8.0% 33.7% 57.5%
9700 PRO -0.4% -0.7% -1.2% 6.5% 17.2%

Again the X800 XT PR is fairly CPU limited under normal rendering, however it opens up a gap to the 9800 XT to the tune of 14%. Here we see that X800 PRO is only at the same performance as the 9800 XT, and in fact slightly behind it in a couple of resolutions.

 

S:SE - 4X FSAA + 16X AF (FPS) 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
X800 XT PE 136.7 129.3 119.4 100.7 83.3
X800 PRO 132.9 124.4 110.9 84.9 67.4
9800 XT 138.0 134.6 117.8 88.1 63.7
9800 PRO 137.4 130.5 111.0 82.2 61.2
9700 PRO 135.0 127.7 102.4 74.0 52.4
 
X800 XT PE % Difference 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
X800 PRO 2.9% 3.9% 7.7% 18.6% 23.6%
9800 XT -0.9% -3.9% 1.4% 14.3% 30.8%
9800 PRO -0.5% -0.9% 7.6% 22.5% 36.1%
9700 PRO 1.3% 1.3% 16.6% 36.1% 59.0%
 
X800 PRO % Difference 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
9800 XT -3.7% -7.6% -5.9% -3.6% 5.8%
9800 PRO -3.3% -4.7% -0.1% 3.3% 10.1%
9700 PRO -1.6% -2.6% 8.3% 14.7% 28.6%

With 4X FSAA and 16X AF enabled the grater fill-rate and bandwidth of the X800 XT PE allow it to pull ahead of the 9800 XT by about 31% at high resolutions. Again, we see the X800 PRO languishing at around the same performance as the 9800 XT for most resolutions bar 1600x1200.

 

X800 XT PE 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
Normal 135.8 132.3 127.8 121.3 113.2
16X AF 137.2 130.7 121.5 110.4 96.9
4X FSAA 135.7 133.9 127.7 116.4 98.7
4X FSAA + 16X AF 136.7 129.3 119.4 100.7 83.3
 
% Diff from Normal 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
16X AF 1.0% -1.2% -4.9% -9.0% -14.4%
4X FSAA -0.1% 1.2% -0.1% -4.0% -12.8%
4X FSAA + 16X AF 0.7% -2.3% -6.6% -17.0% -26.4%

Here we see that the performance penalty for enabling 16X AF on the x800 XT PE is a little greater than enabling 4X FSAA, however enabling them both has pretty much a cumulative performance penalty.

 

X800 XT PE 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
Normal 135.1 132 127.2 117.8 100.3
16X AF 133.8 126 118.7 100.3 83.7
4X FSAA 134.2 131.8 124.5 104.4 82.1
4X FSAA + 16X AF 132.9 124.4 110.9 84.9 67.4
 
% Diff from Normal 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
16X AF -1.0% -4.5% -6.7% -14.9% -16.6%
4X FSAA -0.7% -0.2% -2.1% -11.4% -18.1%
4X FSAA + 16X AF -1.6% -5.8% -12.8% -27.9% -32.8%

On the X800 PRO there is a slightly higher performance penalty for enabling 4X FSAA than there is for 16X AF, but once again we can see that enabling both give a nearly cumulative performance hit.