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3D Performance with Fallout 3: Part 1 High-end Cards November 06, 2008 Brandon Sandman Bell |
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Summary: Wondering which GPUs perform best in Fallout 3? Then you'll want to check out today's article. We've rounded up 11 of the fastest graphics cards on the market ranging from the GeForce 8800 GTX up to the Radeon 4870 X2. See how the cards perform in Bethesda's latest RPG under both 4xAA and 8xAA!
 3D Performance with Fallout 3 Part 1: High-end cards | Page:: ( 1 / 5 ) |
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Fans of the Fallout series have had to wait a long time to return to the post-apocalyptic world at the center of the game. 10 years in fact. After Black Isle Studios, the original developer of Fallout and Fallout 2 was shut down five years ago, it looked like another Fallout sequel would never happen, but fortunately the project fell in the hands of Bethesda Softworks, the same guys who brought us Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in 2006.
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But that’s not the only thing Fallout 3 has in common with Oblivion. Both RPGs are also based on the same Gamebryo game engine. Fallout 3’s graphics are a little more polished than Oblivion’s, but the underlying nuts and bolts of the game are the same. Because Fallout 3 isn’t based on the latest version of Gamebryo (which supports DirectX 10 as well as NVIDIA PhysX), you won’t need Vista and a DirectX 10 GPU to experience the game’s best graphics: DX9.0c is the only codepath supported in the game. This is certainly good news for those of you with older Radeon X800s and GeForce 6800 class hardware, you’ll obviously need to dial down the graphics settings a little more aggressively than you did in Oblivion, but at least you’ll be able to play the game.
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The story in Fallout 3 is completely independent of the previous Fallout games, with the game taking place in the Capitol Wasteland in and around Washington D.C. The game is set in the year 2277, 30 years after the events that took place in Fallout 2. The central plot involves the search for your father, who suddenly disappears mysteriously. The overseer of your vault has murdered your father’s assistant and now he’s looking for you. You must escape from the vault and find your father, along the way you’ll face many choices and side quests. For instance, during your escape from the vault, a childhood bully pleads with you to save his mother. Do you take the time out to help him, or should you focus on getting out of the vault alive? The choices you make throughout the game affect your karma, which determines which NPCs will join you on your quests, and ultimately determines the final outcome of the game.
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I’ve barely scratched the surface of the game as I’ve been busy testing Nehalem and other products, but so far it’s been the most fascinating game I’ve played since BioShock. In my opinion Fallout 3’s story and gameplay should appeal to the traditional FPS gamer as well as RPG fans looking for a deeper experience than the traditional linear FPS like Crysis or Far Cry 2. The game’s new VATS combat system has been a little controversial as it takes some control away from the player, but I think Bethesda’s done a good job with it.
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To see how well the game plays with today’s latest hardware, I’ve rounded up the latest high-end DX10 cards from ATI and NVIDIA, as well as the performance champs of the previous generation, the 8800 GTX and 8800 Ultra. 11 cards total. Since the game doesn’t have a built-in way to record timedemos or evaluate performance, I used FRAPS to record frame rates as I ran through the town of Springvale as well as running up to the outskirts of Megaton, a city named for the unexploded megaton bomb located at the center of the city. Let’s see how the cards compare to each other in performance.
| System setup | Page:: ( 2 / 5 ) |
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650
ASUS P5E3 Premium
4GB (4x1GB) OCZ DDR3 PC3-16000 Platinum
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
NVIDIA GeForce 216-core GTX 260
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
ForceWare 180.43
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
Far Cry 2/STALKER Hotfix driver
300GB Western Digital Caviar SE
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit w/Service Pack 1
Benchmarks
Fallout 3
| Fallout 3 4xAA | Page:: ( 3 / 5 ) |
| Fallout 3 Performance 1920x1200x32 | ||
| Card | Min FPS | Max FPS |
| GeForce GTX 280 | 39 | 74 |
| GeForce GTX 260 | 36 | 65 |
| GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 | 37 | 69 |
| GeForce 9800 GTX+ | 31 | 56 |
| GeForce 9800 GTX | 29 | 53 |
| GeForce 8800 Ultra | 29 | 53 |
| GeForce 8800 GTX | 27 | 50 |
| Radeon HD 4870 X2 | 44 | 82 |
| Radeon HD 4870 1GB | 34 | 65 |
| Radeon HD 4870 512MB | 33 | 65 |
| Radeon HD 4850 512MB | 26 | 51 |
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Notes
The Radeon 4870 X2 is CPU-bound in all of our benchmark results, including 2560x1600! This is pretty remarkable considering we’re testing with Intel’s second fastest Penryn processor and the game’s highest graphics settings. Clearly the 4870 X2 is the fastest graphics card for Fallout 2.
NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 280 finishes second to the 4870 X2, while the GTX 260 Core 216 and 192-shader GTX 260 settle in the third and fourth place positions. The Core 216 GPU generally runs 3-4% faster than its older counterpart, while ATI’s Radeon 4870 1GB GPU runs right on the heels of the GTX 260, finishing as close as 2% at 1920x1200. The 512MB Radeon 4870 performs similarly to the 1GB card at 1600x1200 and 1920x1200, although by 2560x1600 the card runs out of memory and performance drops off significantly.
One thing we should note about the 4800 cards are their minimum frame rates. As you can see, the GeForce GTX 260 boards have higher minimum frame rates than the 4870s. When walking into a new area, the ATI card’s chug slightly more than GeForce. This is reflected to some extent in the min frame rates.
Thanks to their higher clock speeds, the 9800 GTX GPUs are able to outrun the older 8800 cards, but with just 512MB of memory the GeForce 8800s manages to pull ahead by 2560x1600.
ATI’s Radeon 4850 finished last in our Fallout 3 performance testing, falling behind the GeForce 9800 GTX by 10% or more.
Let’s see how the cards scale under the greater demands of 8xAA.
| Fallout 3 8xAA | Page:: ( 4 / 5 ) |
| Fallout 3 Performance 1920x1200 | ||
| Card | Min FPS | Max FPS |
| GeForce GTX 280 | 35 | 65 |
| GeForce GTX 260 | 29 | 57 |
| GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 | 31 | 58 |
| GeForce 9800 GTX+ | 22 | 40 |
| GeForce 9800 GTX | 19 | 34 |
| GeForce 880 Ultra | 27 | 44 |
| GeForce 8800 GTX | 24 | 40 |
| Radeon HD 4870 X2 | 44 | 85 |
| Radeon HD 4870 1GB | 31 | 60 |
| Radeon HD 4870 512MB | 25 | 43 |
| Radeon HD 4850 512MB | 18 | 38 |
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Notes
The Radeon 4870 X2 continues to be CPU-bound under 8xAA. Again, this is very impressive considering the graphics settings we’re running as well as the Intel CPU we’re using for testing. The GeForce GTX 280 also delivers very playable frame rates under 8xAA at 1600x1200 and 1920x1200, although by 2560x1600 performance begins to become too choppy.
ATI’s Radeon 4870 1GB puts up a stronger showing under 8xAA. It now runs faster than both GeForce GTX 260 GPUs, and nearly performs evenly with the GTX 280 at 2560x1600. The GTX 260 Core 216 then runs 3-11% slower than the 4870 1GB. The GTX 260 continues to run around 3% slower than the 216-core GTX 260 GPU.
Interestingly enough, we see a pretty significant performance gap between the Radeon 4870 512MB and the 1GB board. At just 1600x1200 with 8xAA the margin is a surprising 9% and it grows from there. At 1920x1200 the gap grows to 24%. The Radeon 4850 also puts up a stronger showing under 8xAA, outrunning the 9800 GTX in our testing. Despite their age, the GeForce 8800 cards also continue to perform well.
| Conclusion | Page:: ( 5 / 5 ) |
Fortunately since it isn’t as graphically demanding as some of today’s latest DX10 titles, hardware enthusiasts with GeForce GTX 260/280 SLI setups or Radeon 4870 X2/4800 CrossFire should be able to crank up the graphics settings to the max yet still get very good performance. ATI’s 4870 X2 was clearly the fastest card for this game, with NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 280 finishing second overall. The Radeon 4870 1GB also put up a strong showing, we saw a clear performance advantage for the 1GB 4870 SKU over the 512MB part. Considering the price difference between the two cards, we’d urge you to pick up the 1GB board if you can afford to splurge a little.
NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 260 GPUs also performed very well in this game, particularly under 4xAA. As we mentioned on page 3, the GTX 260s boasted higher minimum frame rates than both 4870s, this is something you’ll definitely want to consider if you plan on gaming under 4xAA.
The Radeon 4870 has a clear advantage though under 8xAA. Ever since the cards were introduced earlier this summer, ATI’s 4800 series have held a performance advantage over NVIDIA under 8xAA. ATI’s driver team has really nailed their 8xAA performance optimizations.
Speaking of driver optimizations, it will be interesting to see if ATI or NVIDIA have a beta driver planned for Fallout 3. The game probably performs so well with these cards in part due to its use of the battle-tested Gamebryo engine, but they may be able to squeeze a few extra fps out of their drivers. We’re going to be taking a look at the performance of mainstream $100-$200 GPUs in Fallout 3 next, these cards would certainly benefit from any performance enhancements…