Serious Sam: Second Encounter

For the final game test we'll look at the OpenGL based title Serious Sam: Second Encounter. In this case we'll use the "The Pit" Custom Firing Squad Demo.

SS:SE (FPS) 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
6800 Ultra 150.3 146.4 141.8 132.7 127.6
5950 Ultra 150.9 146.8 140.2 117.1 91.0
5900 Ultra 152.2 150.6 141.0 114.3 87.6
5800 Ultra 144.1 135.7 107.0 76.4 56.3
6800 Ultra % Difference 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
5950 Ultra -0.4% -0.3% 1.1% 13.3% 40.2%
5900 Ultra -1.2% -2.8% 0.6% 16.1% 45.7%
5800 Ultra 4.3% 7.9% 32.5% 73.7% 126.6%

In this SS:SE test we can again see that where other boards are being fill-rate limited, the 6800 Ultra isn't, or at least not as much. Only beyond 1280x1024 does the 6800 Ultra begin to show any performance limitations outside of the system performance, and by this point it has a 40% performance lead over the 5950.

SS:SE - 4X FSAA + 8X AF (FPS) 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
6800 Ultra 150.5 145.8 140.2 124.2 103.3
5950 Ultra 144.0 138.5 111.3 79.3 58.7
5900 Ultra 144.1 135.7 107.0 76.4 56.3
5800 Ultra 150.5 130.2 94.0 63.6 45.6
6800 Ultra % Difference 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
5950 Ultra 4.5% 5.3% 26.0% 56.6% 76.0%
5900 Ultra 4.4% 7.4% 31.0% 62.6% 83.5%
5800 Ultra 0.0% 12.0% 49.1% 95.3% 126.5%

With both 4X FSAA and 8X AD enabled the GeForce 6800 Ultra is beginning to get a little more fill-rate and / or bandwidth limited, but the performance differential between it and the 5950 further opens up to a maximum of 76%

6800 Ultra (FPS) 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
Normal 150.3 146.4 141.8 132.7 127.6
8X AF 150.4 148.4 142.6 131.8 116.7
4X FSAA 149.4 145.3 141.0 132.4 121.9
4X FSAA + 8X AF 150.5 145.8 140.2 124.2 103.3
% Diff from Normal 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
8X AF 0.1% 1.4% 0.6% -0.7% -8.5%
4X FSAA -0.6% -0.8% -0.6% -0.2% -4.5%
4X FSAA + 8X AF 0.1% -0.4% -1.1% -6.4% -19.0%

In all the rendering situations here we see that the average performance of the 6800 Ultra remains over 100 FPS. Even at high resolution there is only a 9% performance drop for enabling 8X AF, 5% for 4X FSAA and 19% for both combined.