Quake 4 High-end Graphics Shootout October 22, 2005 Brandon Sandman Bell

Introduction

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For most of you, Quake 4 is a game that probably needs no introduction so we’ll keep it brief. After all, you’re probably here for the benchmarks anyway right? The brief synopsis is that id Software and Raven have collaborated together to continue the storyline id first established with Quake 2 -- Quake 4 takes places immediately following the events at the end of Quake 2. After the successful defeat of the Strogg’s leader (Makron), in Quake 2 Earth has now sent an invasion force to take down the Strogg’s home planet. You’ll play the role of rookie space marine Matthew Kane as he takes on the Strogg, and, according to the game’s teaser, eventually becomes a Strogg himself in order to defeat them.

As you probably know, Quake 4 is built on id’s DOOM 3 engine. From a hardware perspective, the DOOM 3 engine has traditionally been very unforgiving to ATI’s DX9 hardware. In our RADEON X1800 XT/X1800 XL Performance Preview earlier this month, both X1800 cards were easily outgunned by the GeForce 7800 GTX/7800 GT, with ATI’s flagship X1800 XT falling behind NVIDIA’s lower-end 7800 GT offering by 7-9% in our testing. The X800 series ran into this same problem around this time last year in OpenGL titles such as DOOM 3 and Chronicles of Riddick. Eventually it was just accepted that ATI’s OpenGL performance was inferior to that of NVIDIA. This stigma has stuck with ATI all the way up to the present day.

Until now that is.

A little over a week ago, rumors began spreading that ATI was working on a new tool that delivered substantially improved performance to their recently launched X1000 cards in OpenGL titles such as DOOM 3, Quake 4, and many others. Some reports claimed ATI’s performance improved by up to 35% in these titles in 4xAA mode. Then, posts on Beyond3D’s forums and sites like Guru3D confirmed these rumors.

So how did ATI pull this off? The key ingredient is ATI’s new programmable memory controller.

In our RADEON X1800 XT Performance Preview article, we mentioned how ATI’s new memory controller features arbitration logic that is more efficient at assigning read/write requests to the X1800’s eight 32-bit memory controllers. The arbitration logic accomplishes this by collecting a variety of information from each memory controller when it makes a read or write request. With the help of algorithms, the arbitration logic assigns a priority value to each of these requests based on this data.

The arbitration logic can then track how successful it was at assigning these priority values, making adjustments to ensure peak efficiency.

One cool feature ATI has added to their X1000 family is the ability to make changes to the memory controller’s arbitration logic and/or its algorithms via software. This allows ATI to make adjustments with a simple driver update.

This is what ATI has done with their new hotfix driver, they’ve simply optimized memory access inside their memory controller to better handle OpenGL titles. This is all invisible to the end user: once an OpenGL game such as Quake 4 or DOOM 3 is loaded by the user, the new driver automatically loads up the optimized algorithms for the memory controller’s arbitration logic. This means there’s no setting you have to turn on in the driver control panel, nor is there a button you have to press. You will however need to make sure you’ve got the correct file. Unfortunately, ATI accidentally uploaded the wrong file to their support site initially.

On Friday we contacted ATI and were able to determine that the file originally uploaded to the site, hotfix_xp-2k_dd_ccc_027483.exe, wasn’t the driver with the OpenGL performance enhancements. Fortunately ATI was able to quickly correct the problem, the file that you want is hotfix_xp-2k_dd_ccc_027483a.exe. This driver is currently undergoing WHQL testing and will eventually become CATALYST 5.11 once ATI updates their CATALYST suite next month.

With the proper driver in hand, it’s now time to see if the reports of a 35% performance improvement are true. We’ll start with DOOM 3 first.

DOOM 3 performance

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Notes

Once ATI’s hotfix driver is installed, the RADEON X1800’s performance dramatically improves in DOOM 3. At 1024x768 with 4xAA/8xAF, the X1800 XT saw a performance improvement of 16%, while the XL board’s performance was improved by 15%. By the time the screen resolution is increased to 1600x1200, the progression is even more significant, with the X1800 XT running 28% faster once ATI’s hotfix driver is installed, while the XL card sees a 20% improvement.


Altogether, these improvements are astounding – this is the type of performance improvement you expect in a new product, not a driver release. The scary part is these are only ATI’s initial changes, they’ve acknowledged that there’s still room for further tweaking.


DOOM 3 is a game that’s been out for awhile though, the real question is, how does the new hotfix affect performance in a brand new OpenGL title like Quake 4? Let’s find out.

But is this enough for the RADEON X1800 XT/X1800 XL to overtake the GeForce 7800 GTX and 7800 GT in performance? Let's find out !

Quake 4 performance

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Notes

Once again we’re seeing some pretty substantial gains with the new hotfix driver. At 800x600x32 the X1800 XT saw a performance improvement of 31%, while the performance of the XL board improved by 32% at the same resolution. This is pretty big news folks.

At 1600x1200, we saw even greater gains with our custom Quake 4 demo. The RADEON X1800 XT’s performance improved by 36%! The RADEON X1800 XL saw an improvement of 32%. Again, gains like this aren’t normally seen in one graphics driver update – it’s practically like getting a new graphics card!

Test Systems

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System Setup

AMD Athlon 64 FX-57

ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe

1GB OCZ DDR400 SDRAM

ATI RADEON X1800 XT 512MB
ATI RADEON X1800 XL 256MB
ATI RADEON X800 XL 256MB
Driver version hotfix_xp-2k_dd_ccc_027483a.exe

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX @ Reference Speeds
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT @ Reference Speeds
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT
Driver version ForceWare 81.85

250GB Maxtor Hard Drive Maxline III SATA Hard Drive w/16MB Cache

Windows XP Professional SP1

DirectX 9.0c

Benchmarks

Quake 4

Quake 4 High Quality 0xAA/8xAF

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Q4 HQ 4xAA/8xAF

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Quake 4 Ultra quality 8xAF

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Q4 Ultra 4xAA/8xAF

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SLI Performance

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Q4 SLI Ultra Performance

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Conclusion

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For one thing the RADEON X1800 cards really don’t begin to shine until you turn on 4xAA. For an example, let’s take a look at the Quake 4 numbers at 1600x1200 in high quality mode. While the margin between the X1800 XT and GeForce 7800 GTX was merely 5% in favor of the X1800 XT 512MB without AA, the margin opens up to a whopping 18% once 4xAA is applied. Meanwhile, the X1800 XL goes from finishing behind the GeForce 7800 GT, to outperforming it by 10% at 1600x1200 with 4xAA/8xAF.

The tables turn a little once Quake 4’s ultra quality mode is turned on. The GeForce 7800 GT is able to outperform the RADEON X1800 XL, while the GeForce 7800 GTX pulls to within 16% of the X1800 XT. We have a feeling that the X1800 XT’s 512MB of memory is helping it maintain its lead a little here. That would help explain the X1800 XL’s surprisingly slower showing in Quake 4’s ultra quality mode (remember that the ultra quality mode is borrowed from DOOM 3, using uncompressed textures and full resolution normal maps, with a typical level taking up over 500MB of texture memory.)

Now that’s ATI’s demonstrated that they can deliver a faster OpenGL RADEON card, the onus is now on them to deliver boards to retail. The RADEON X1800 XL still hasn’t shown up on Price Watch. Both ZipZoomFly and Newegg carry X1800 XL boards from ATI and Sapphire (with prices starting as low as $380), but this is still woefully inadequate to compete with the avalanche of GeForce 7800 GT cards that can be found on the market. As we showed you earlier this week in the news, the GeForce 7800 GT can be easily purchased online with a free copy of Call of Duty 2 for as low as $340. ATI’s got to get more boards on the market in order for prices to fall.

Meanwhile, the RADEON X1800 XT can’t be purchased at retail yet. ATI has stated availability of November 5th. That’s about 2 weeks from now. Until ATI is actually able to deliver a product on time, we’ve got to take this date with a grain of salt. Sure, it’s possible ATI may be able to deliver on their promises this time, but given their track record it’s prudent to be skeptical. If ATI can deliver though, they’ve got an excellent chance at regaining mindshare among enthusiasts.

Clearly ATI’s got a strong product. The benchmarks we’ve presented to you today show they’ve got the fastest graphics card on the market for Quake 4. Now the question is how will NVIDIA respond? It’s certainly possible they may have a few tricks up their sleeve in the driver department to improve the performance of the GeForce 7800 GT and 7800 GTX as well.