GTX285 vs GTX260+ vs 4850 Performance Test

Direct3D (16xS)

Next we move to 16xS, and these classic Direct3D titles generally attain plenty of performance even with such a demanding anti-aliasing mode. All of the tests also used transparency super-sampling except for Descent 3, which used multi-sampling due to super-sampling having an adverse performance issue with its engine.

We go back to an average performance gain of 22.94%, similar to that observed in tests prior to 8xS, but Half-Life 2 runs over 30% faster on the 285.

Descent 3 and Painkiller are probably CPU limited to some extent, but it’s worth noting that Descent 3 is a ten year old game and is still showing a performance benefit from a video card released ten years later, courtesy of 16xS. There’s really no doubt that full scene super-sampling adds value to old games, and to the investment of new graphics hardware.