RHR Benchmark Suite 1997-2000, DirectX 6+ Performance Index

Introduction

This post will be continously updated, as all graphics cards that I'll write about _and_ fit the criteria for this suite, will undergo the tests of my RHR DX6+ suite and will be included in the charts.

If you are interested in further information on the suite, I invite you to read the descriptions provided below the charts. They contain details on the games and settings used, the driver versions used for all cards, etc.

If you are interested in further information on a graphics card used in the benchmarks, you can search for it in the box on the top right of the site. If it is in the charts, I should already have written something about it. If not, chances are very good that I will do so in the future 😉

The Test System

All tests were performed on my dedicated benchmarking system for this index. All details on the system can be found here:

Retromachine: Official RHR Benchmarking System for DX6-DX8 Suites

This system is solely used for the global benchmark comparisons on this site. It has enough CPU performance for the fastest DX8(.1) cards out there and its VIA KT333 chipset ensures compatibility to older graphics cards, that can only handle 3,3V AGP. Hardware: EPoX 8KTA3+ (VIA KT333) AMD Athlon XP-m (Barton) @ 2133 MHz (16×133) @ 1,575V 512MB Corsair CMX512-3200XLPRO v1.1 @ DDR266 CL2 2-2-5 Western Digital Caviar WD800BB Fast Etherlink XL PCI Software: Windows 98SE Unofficial Servicepack 2.1d DirectX 8.1 VIA 4in1 4.56 VIA AC’97 Audio 4.05.00.1130 To make sure that all results are correct and stay comparable even... Continue reading

RHR DX6+ Suite - 1024x768x16

RHR DX6+ Suite - 1024x768x32

Games And Settings

The 16-bit suite consits of five benchmarks:

• Descent³
• Half-Life: Opposing Force
• MDK2
• Quake 2
• Unreal

The 32-bit suite consits of three benchmarks (as two of the games above are 16-bit-only):

• MDK2
• Quake 2
• Unreal

I tried to find a good mix of games and APIs and restricted the global comparison to the 1024x768 resolution in both color depths. The system used for the benchmarks effectively removes any CPU bottleneck and also provides a very good PCI performance for cards that use that connector.

All cards run the benchmarks in the API that work best for them if a game supports multiple APIs. Further details on the games and settings used follow up next.

Descent³

Descent³, released in mid-1999, featured the newly developed Fusion Engine, which provided broad hardware support. It supported all the most common 3D APIs at the time, such as Direct3D, OpenGL and 3dfx Glide, as well as EAX and A3D for 3D audio hardware. The engine also had a state-of-the-art feature set with regard to 3D effects. Descent³ runs relatively decent (no pun intended) on low-spec systems, but also scales very well with both more CPU and GPU horsepower.

API: Direct3D, OpenGL, Glide | Version 1.4 | Settings used:

Half-Life Opposing Force: Blast From The Past timedemo

Opposing Force was the first expansion pack for Half-Life and got released roughly a year after the original game, in November 1999. I used the "blast" timedemo, that a member of voodooalert.de recorded. He also put a ready-to-bench package including the demo version of the game together, which can be found on archive.org.
The original thread with several other results can be found here.

API: OpenGL, Direct3D | Demo Version 1.0.1.2 | Settings used:

- none configurable / default

MDK2: integrated benchmark

MDK2, released in May 2000, is the newest title among the selected benchmarks. It already supports Hardware T&L and has the highest demand on video memory out of all tests.

API: OpenGL | Version 1.002 | Settings used:

Quake 2: demo1.dm2 timedemo

No 3D benchmarking suite covering 3D graphics up to the millennium is complete without Quake 2. While this game is the oldest of the selected tests, it still scales beautifully with stronger hardware. The demo1.dm2 timedemo used here is also a lot less CPU dependant than the famous crusher.dm2 timedemo.

API: OpenGL | Version 3.20 | Settings used:

Unreal: castle flyby

Unreal was released in mid-1998 and raised the bar for visual fidelity in 3D games to another level. Upon release, it only supported 3dfx Glide and PowerSQL for 3D acceleration, but patches also brought support for OpenGL, Direct3D and even S3 MeTaL. This makes it an ideal benchmark for hardware of that era.

API: Direct3D, OpenGL, Glide, PowerSQL, MeTaL | Version 2.26 | Settings used:

• gamestart with -firstrun parameter
• this ensures that all advanced settings are on default on every benchmark run
• no further settings are changed

Drivers used

• ATI Rage 128 series: 4.12.6292
• nVidia TNT: Detonator 2.08
• nVidia TNT2 series: Detonator 5.32

Notes And Further Details

ATI Rage 128 series

• Descent³ (D3D): VSync has to be turned off in the driver but activated in-game. Otherwise the game stutters heavily.
• Unreal (D3D): Vsync has to be activated in the driver, otherwise the game stutters heavily.

nVidia TNT

• Descent³ shows flickering and stuttering in D3D (idendepended of the driver used), but OpenGL runs fine and was used for the test.
• Unreal (D3D): Vsync has to be/stay activated in the driver (which is default), otherwise the game becomes laggy.

nVidia TNT2 series

• Unreal (D3D): Vsync has to be/stay activated in the driver (which is default), otherwise the game becomes laggy.