{"id":1024,"date":"2008-09-12T05:05:55","date_gmt":"2008-09-12T05:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/?p=81"},"modified":"2009-04-09T13:23:11","modified_gmt":"2009-04-09T13:23:11","slug":"ati-4850-vs-nvidia-8800-ultra-comparison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/ati-4850-vs-nvidia-8800-ultra-comparison\/","title":{"rendered":"ATi 4850 vs nVidia 8800 Ultra Comparison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--pagetitle:Introduction & Setup--><strong><span><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span>Introduction<\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My 8800 Ultra died outside of warranty so I picked up a 4850 for interim purposes that will become my backup card once I pick up a high-end card as a proper replacement. Unfortunately since I wasn\u2019t expecting the 8800 to die, I only managed to get a few benchmarks with recent drivers which I can compare to the 4850, but I still hope you find the results interesting.<\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span>Hardware<\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 (reference 3 GHz clock).<\/li>\n<li>Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R (Intel G33 chipset, F7 BIOS).<\/li>\n<li>4 GB DDR2-800 RAM (4&#215;1 GB, dual-channel).<\/li>\n<li>X-Fi XtremeMusic.<\/li>\n<li>nVidia GeForce 8800 Ultra (768 MB, reference clocks).<\/li>\n<li>ATi Radeon 4850 (512 MB, reference clocks).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span>Software<\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ATi Catalyst 8.8, high quality mip-mapping.<\/li>\n<li>nVidia Forceware 177.83, high quality, optimizations off, LOD clamp.<\/li>\n<li>Windows XP 32 bit SP3.<\/li>\n<li>DirectX August 2008.<\/li>\n<li>All games patched to latest versions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span>Settings<\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>16xAF forced on, vsync forced off (driver).<\/li>\n<li>Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.<\/li>\n<li>All results are an average framerate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--nextpage--> <!--pagetitle:Comparative Benchmarks--><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Part 1: 4850 vs 8800 Benchmarks<\/span> <\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first set of benchmarks compare the 4850 against the 8800 Ultra using common settings. The AA levels used below are either <span style=\"color: #99ccff;\">4xMSAA<\/span> <strong><\/strong> or <span style=\"color: #99ccff;\">8xMSAA<\/span> <strong><\/strong> (8xQ on nVidia). <span style=\"color: #99ccff;\">SS<\/span> <strong><\/strong> is transparency super-sampling which is the same as quality adaptive anti-aliasing on the Radeon. This is apples vs apples testing.<\/p>\n<p>The <span style=\"color: #99ccff;\">% change<\/span> <strong><\/strong> column shows the percentage gain or loss resulting in the move to the 4850 from the 8800 Ultra. If the value is <span style=\"color: #ffcc99;\">orange <\/span> the 4850 wins; if it\u2019s <span style=\"color: #ccffcc;\">green <\/span> the 8800 Ultra wins.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1319  aligncenter\" title=\"chart1\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/chart1.png?resize=291%2C323\" alt=\"\" title=\"chart1\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/chart1.png?resize=291%2C323 291w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/chart1-270x300.png 270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 291px) 100vw, 291px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: left\">For some reason the 4850 absolutely loves <em>Doom 3<\/em> where it totally demolishes the 8800 Ultra; even at 24xAA (see the benchmarks later) it\u2019s the same speed as the 8800 Ultra is at 8xMSAA. I even used Ultra quality textures which generally hammer 512 MB cards.<\/p>\n<p>The 4850 also scores a great victory in <em>Crysis<\/em> without AA which is very handy for this demanding next generation title, though it does lose with AA, probably because of a lack of VRAM size and\/or bandwidth.<\/p>\n<p>Removing the two large victories as they somewhat skew my limited testing base, we can see an average performance loss of <span style=\"color: #99ccff;\">8.76%<\/span> <strong><\/strong> which is quite good considering what a monster the 8800 Ultra was, both in terms of physical size and memory specs. The 4850 only has around 60% memory bandwidth and 66% memory size of the 8800 Ultra.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a comparison chart of the same results:<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1321\" title=\"graph-comparison\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/graph-comparison.png?resize=660%2C569\" alt=\"\" title=\"graph-comparison\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/graph-comparison.png?resize=660%2C569 660w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/graph-comparison-300x258.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p> <!--nextpage--> <!--pagetitle:24xAA Benchmarks--><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Part 2: 24xAA Results<\/strong> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>The second set of benchmarks were done using 24xAA to demonstrate a wide range of legacy titles that are playable with AA maxed out on the 4850. All games were tested at 1920&#215;1440 with 16xAF and 24xAA, with the adaptive aliasing level as indicated (<span style=\"color: #99ccff;\">Q<\/span> <strong><\/strong> = quality, <span style=\"color: #99ccff;\">P<\/span> <strong><\/strong> = performance).<\/p>\n<p>ATi currently have an advantage over nVidia in OpenGL because adaptive anti-aliasing functions in said API while nVidia&#8217;s transparency anti-aliasing does not, which means you can get some very nice looking alpha textures in OpenGL games, especially in legacy titles where you can crank up the base multi-sampling level.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1320\" title=\"graph-24xaa\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/graph-24xaa.png?resize=683%2C735\" alt=\"\" title=\"graph-24xaa\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/graph-24xaa.png?resize=683%2C735 683w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/graph-24xaa-278x300.png 278w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--> <!--pagetitle:Other Observations--><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><\/span> <\/strong> <\/span> <span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Miscellaneous Advantages<\/span> <\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>I prefer the Catalyst Control Center to nVidia\u2019s control panel. The layout is better, more polished, plus it opens instantly for me.<\/p>\n<p>The 4850 also has much lower physical, thermal and power consumption characteristics than the 8800 Ultra, requiring only a single PSU connector. While the idle temperature is quite high (around 75C), it seems to be localized to the card so it doesn\u2019t impact ambient case temperatures very much. The 8800 Ultra had much lower temperatures and a dual-slot cooler which evicted a lot of heat out of the case but despite this, it still dramatically increased ambient temperatures.<\/p>\n<p>The 4850&#8217;s cooler is also silent at idle and while it does spin up a bit under gaming it\u2019s generally quieter than the 8800 Ultra\u2019s cooler under load which is surprising considering single-slot fans have a tendency to &quot;whine&quot; when they spin up.<\/p>\n<p>\n <strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Anisotropic Filtering<\/span> <\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately it\u2019s not all roses for ATi with this one. One of the things I immediately noticed is the 4850\u2019s inferior AF quality compared to my 8800 Ultra. Newer titles are generally not much worse but many legacy titles have visible texture shimmering and line crawling where the 8800 Ultra was producing perfect image quality. The games that were quite bad were Undying, Serious Sam 1st Encounter, Star Trek Elite Force and Painkiller.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to nVidia\u2019s superior texture filtering they also offer full screen super-sampling modes which stack with AF and offer even better image quality on textures.<\/p>\n<p>\n <strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Profile\/Game Management<\/span> <\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>ATi still haven\u2019t implemented automatic profiles, nor have they allowed the end-user to change advanced compatibility flags to allow users to tweak the drivers without resorting to application renaming. nVidia is far ahead of ATi in this area, especially with regard to being able to force AA into unsupported games (e.g. I can force AA in Stalker with nVidia but I can\u2019t with ATi).<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--> <!--pagetitle:Conclusion--><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><\/span> <\/span> <\/strong> <strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Summary \u2013 Pros<\/span> <\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Great price\/performance ratio.<\/li>\n<li>Single slot, very reasonable physical size, thermals and power consumption.<\/li>\n<li>Quiet cooler, especially for a single-slot.<\/li>\n<li>24xAA usable in many games.<\/li>\n<li>AAA functions in OpenGL.<\/li>\n<li>CCC is great.<\/li>\n<li>Great driver compatibility in legacy games.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Summary \u2013 Cons<\/span> <\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Visibly inferior anisotropic filtering quality.<\/li>\n<li>No full screen super-sampling modes.<\/li>\n<li>Lack of automatic profiles, lacking game compatibility options.<\/li>\n<li>512 MB VRAM potentially limits modern games.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span><span style=\"color: #99ccff;\">Conclusion<\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Overall the 4850 is a great card for those looking for bang for buck and excellent performance in legacy titles with high AA levels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=1024\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-192 aligncenter\" title=\"Author: BFG10K\" src=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/ati20hd204850.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7814,7],"tags":[296,237,295,239,73,121,460],"class_list":["post-1024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-technology","tag-296","tag-237","tag-295","tag-239","tag-ati","tag-nvidia","tag-ultra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}