Geek Tested:

Videocard Image-Quality Shootout

Posted 01/28/08 at 07:48:46 PM by Michael Brown

An Eye on Visual Quality

A closer look at our benchmarks - and why we selected them.

High-Resolution Digital Photo: Eustace

We selected this portrait because it was shot by a professional using a very high-resolution digital SLR camera (Canon’s 10MP EOS-1D Mark III). We anticipated that our test subjects might discern differences in skin tone, hair color, black levels, and similar details.

DirectX10 Game: World in Conflict

The shipping version of Massive Entertainment’s sumptuous RTS World in Conflict has more DX10 eye candy than the beta version we’ve used in the past. We selected this game because it has a built-in benchmark that uses the game’s engine to render an action-packed animation sequence. We thought our test subjects might see differences in color rendering, antialiasing, and lighting. We expressly told them not to evaluate frame rate or animation quality.

High Definition Video: Blue Planet

We chose this disc for several reasons: The film was originally shot in IMAX format, and the digital transfer is excellent. We wanted video clips with diverse content, and this movie provides an abundance of it, ranging from sequences shot from the International Space Station to farmers setting fires in the Amazon rain forest to clear land for farming. We expected our test subjects might see differences in color rendering or spot decoding artifacts.

THE RESULTS

A breakdown of our test subjects’ preferences when comparing content on ATI CrossFire with Nvidia SLI (control group results not included)

The first chart shows the subjects’ responses for the DX10 game, the high-definition video clip, and the high-res digital photo. You can see whether they consistently picked one vendor over the other, or if they preferred different GPUs for different applications.

The second chart sums up the total number of responses for each videocard and the total number of no-preference responses in each category. A quick glance shows a slight overall preference for CrossFire, but read on for a more detailed analysis of the results.

Raw Results
	DirectX 10 Game	HD Video	Digital Photo
Subject 1	CrossFire	CrossFire	CrossFire
Subject 2	CrossFire	No Preference	CrossFire
Subject 3	SLI	SLI	No Preference
Subject 4	SLI	No Preference	CrossFire
Subject 5	CrossFire	CrossFire	CrossFire
Subject 6	SLI	CrossFire	SLI
Subject 7	No Preference	CrossFire	SLI
Subject 8	CrossFire	No Preference	No Preference
Subject 9	CrossFire	CrossFire	No Preference
Subject 10	CrossFire	SLI	SLI
Subject 11	CrossFire	CrossFire	CrossFire
Subject 12	SLI	SLI	SLI
Subject 13	SLI	SLI	No Preference
Subject 14	SLI	SLI	CrossFire
Subject 15	CrossFire	CrossFire	No Preference

Cumulative Scores
	CrossFire	SLI	No Preference
Game Preferences	8	6	1
HD Video Preferences	7	5	3
Digital Photo Preferences	6	4	5
Total	21	15	9

COMMENTS:4

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COMMENTS

Radeons most certainly did
Submitted by Swankenstein on Mon, 02/04/2008 - 6:39pm

Radeons most certainly did win, well noticed. However you wouldn't think (that after such a laborious test) the reviewer would go on to exclaim "would you sacrifice performance for a tiny little increase in colour or saturation?" And you want us to subscribe to your bias?

Yes the 8800 Ultra was an awesome card for such a long time... and yes the 3870 x2 is now the fastest single card solution available.

Yes, Nvidia will bring out a 9800.
Yes, it will be as expensive as the 8800 Ultra.
No, it won't be fast enough to justify the 40% price difference between the 3870 x2 and the 9800.
Yes, you will buy it anyway.

Laters :)

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Well .. now that we have the 3870 x2
Submitted by Budgetperson on Sun, 02/03/2008 - 1:51pm

Nvidia's 8800 ultra finally has a run for the $$! The benchmarks are a bit disputed, but the 3870 x2 is extremely fast. But the 3870 x2 will be short-lived because the 9800 seiries is coming .. what will AMD/ATI do then?
--
Budgetperson
http://22tech.blogspot.com

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Radeons won, admit it
Submitted by totuus on Wed, 01/30/2008 - 9:26am

The author is clearly sorry that ATI won this neutral comparison and downplays Radeons as not being as superduperfast as his 8800 Ultra/whatever (ever heard of HD3870 X2?). ATI nonetheless delivers better tech with competitive price than nVidia.

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Re: Radeons won, admit it
Submitted by Antilogic81 on Fri, 02/01/2008 - 8:05am

Perhaps you should download an old issue of MPC (If they have one that goes that far back), and you'll realize there was a time when they heralded the S3 or the Voodoo. They praise whoever can do the best.

And might I add, that in a much older issue they point out that ATI was able to produce better image quality...this is nothing new to us. However, ATI's supremacy in this department was much more visually pronounced that a kid would have been just as much a valid judge as a professional photographer. That was then...this is now, and Nvidia has obviously made some vast improvements in regards to image quality, so much so that they wanted qualified individuals to come in and chose a winner.

If anything this article gives one more reason to get an Nvidia because they [read: consumer] no longer have to take a hit in the movie/photo department of computers. They now have great image quality in all three areas.

My entertainment rig has an ATI and always will but my gaming system has an Nvidia...but for those who don't want to bother with two systems and the maintenance thereof will be able to pick a card and not lament about their decision because of some lacking character on the card. *And invariably the system itself because the card decides the motherboard too*

Trust me if ATI pulled a card that could give an Ultra a run for the money, MPC would have a party...because that means cheaper cards for everyone.

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