Lost Planet DX9 vs DX10

We’re back with a more thorough analysis of the Lost Planet demo just released today. This time around, we’re comparing screenshots and framerates between maxed out DX10 and DX9 settings. We’re also throwing in screens and numbers for more playable DX10 settings.

Again, the game is being played on a system powered by a FX60 dual-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, an 8800GTX, and running Windows Vista.

In scenario 1, we’ve run the game benchmark with all video options maxed out, running at 1920x1200 with 8xAA and 16xAF. These settings give an average 10 frames per second in the outdoor portion of the demo, and 14FPS in the second “cave” portion.

With effects set to medium when avaiable, resolution scaled down to 1280x720 (the resolution X-Box 360’s run the game in HD), and AA/AF turned off, the game chuned out a much more playable average of 70FPS outdoors and 33FPS indoors.

The numbers for the DX9 benchmark dropped down to 22 outdoors and 30 indoors, with settings again maxed out at 1920x1200.

The screenshots below illustrate various scenes from the demo in each of the three test scenarios. Keep in mind that the screens from the game at higher settings look a little fuzzy because of motion blur. This doesn't accomodate great screenshots, but makes a big difference when you see the game in action.

DX10 1920x1200

DX9 1920x1200

DX10 1280x720

DX10 1920x1200

DX9 1920x1200

DX10 1280x720

DX10 1920x1200

DX9 1920x1200

DX10 1280x720

DX10 1920x1200 settings

DX10 1280x720 settings

DX10 1920x1200

DX10 1280x720

A couple take-aways from the demo and benchmark:

- The demo is the same single-player sample that X-Box 360 owners got a year ago over X-Box Live Marketplace.

- The benchmark isn’t completely scripted. The bugs spawn and act a little differently each time you run the demo. The benchmark is more of a scripted flyby of the level with invincibility and “noclip” turned on, with the bugs relying on game AI to direct their reactions. This means the benchmark won’t make a perfect comparison between different hardware setups, even with identical game settings.

- The DX 9 version doesn’t look that much different from the DX10 game, especially in motion. You can pick out more shader effects in screenshots, but these aren’t particularly noticable when you’re in game and in combat.