This system should be representative for quite a lot of Nexuiz players. Also quite interesting the selection of VGA boards. You can get most of them new or at least used at reasonable prices. For having fun with Nexuiz it's not necessary having high-end hardware anyway. Except the Ati Radeon X300SE which is just a PCIe-Version of a stoneage Radeon 9600SE, all cards are able to run Nexuiz at pretty fair framerates.
For benchmarking the performance in Nexuiz, I used the 2.42 release and ran the demo1 in timedemo-mode. For the Ati cards I installed the Catalyst 8.8, for the Nvidias I used the 178.13 (XP) and 178.24 (Vista) Forceware releases. The 7600GT and the 8600GTS were additionally tested with 169.21(XP)/169.25(Vista) drivers. I also tried the catalyst 8.10 with some of the Radeons, but when I noticed there was no differences in performance, just a crash when quitting Nexuiz, I dropped this version.
After a run with default settings I couldn't notice big differences between the cards' performance, so I switched the graphics settings up to „Ultra“ in order to keep the CPU performance's influence as low as possible. Resolution was 1280x1024 (32K colors).
Additionally I benched (almost) every card with 3DMark06 whose results represent the general windows performance.
So let's go, here are the results:
Ati Radeon X300SE (64MB DDR2)
Timedemo Vista: 0.1798347fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 0-0-0
Timedemo XP: CRASH at startup
3DMark06 scores Vista: 274 (overall), 127 (SmartShaders 2), -/- (SmartShaders 3)
3DMark06 scores XP: 296 (overall), 137 (SmartShaders 2), -/- (SmartShaders 3)
This card quite sucks, but no wonder, it's old, weak and crappy. However, you're still able to play with that card at low settings. The timedemo which is originally 90 seconds ran for almost 3 hours lol
MSI Radeon HD2600Pro (256MB DDR2)
Timedemo Vista: 33.3572015fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 17-36-74
Timedemo XP: 36.4038348fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 19-39-71
3DMark06 scores Vista: 2737 (overall), 1053 (SmartShaders 2), 1319 (SmartShaders 3)
3DMark06 scores XP: 2789 (overall), 1077 (SmartShaders 2), 1355 (SmartShaders 3)
I never considered this one as a good choice. After this test, I'm thinking quite different. It's got the same passive cooling elements the 8600GTS has. While the Radeon stayed below 70°C, the Nvidia heated up to more than 100°C. Amazing. The only passively cooled card in the test that keeped cool. Very good performance, considering the fact that the price for cards like this is partially down to only 25 Euros (as for germany)!
MSI Radeon HD4650 (512MB DDR2)
Timedemo Vista: 38.4677354fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 20-42-98
Timedemo XP: 46.7873503fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 24-51-120
3DMark06 scores Vista: 3873 (overall), 1674 (SmartShaders 2), 2110 (SmartShaders 3)
3DMark06 scores XP: 3934 (overall), 1734 (SmartShaders 2), 2151 (SmartShaders 3)
A representative of the newest Radeon generation. I was quite surprized how hot this card got after a while in 3D-mode. My Geforce 9600GT is twice as fast and keeps cooler. Nothing serious, but I definately don't want to have this one passively cooled! Apart from that, a nice card at about 60 Euro bucks. Exordinary screen quality even on a Sub-D connected TFT display. Performance isn't everything, right?
Gainward Geforce 7600GT (256MB DDR3) - 169.25/169.21
Timedemo Vista: 40.8757250fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 21-45-97
Timedemo XP: 39.1720000fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 26-52-104
3DMark06 scores Vista: 2825 (overall), 1283 (SmartShaders 2), 1185 (SmartShaders 3)
3DMark06 scores XP: 2865 (overall), 1311 (SmartShaders 2), 1205 (SmartShaders 3)
Gainward Geforce 7600GT (256MB DDR3) - 178.24/178.13
Timedemo Vista: 40.6945776fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 21-44-96
Timedemo XP: 49.0952087fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 26-53-103
3DMark06 scores Vista: 2825 (overall), 1290 (SmartShaders 2), 1185 (SmartShaders 3)
3DMark06 scores XP: 2849 (overall), 1302 (SmartShaders 2), 1195 (SmartShaders 3)
The 7600GT is the Nexuiz hero among all cards I tested! Compared to the performance it generally provides in windows games (or look at the 3DMark scores), the speed in Nexuiz is awesome! This card is THE CHOICE for people with systems from 2004 – 2006. The great phenomenon of this workaround was the Nexuiz bench on XP with the 178.13 driver. I couldn't believe and repeated the timedemo over and over. On my Core2 machine at home, the performance was pretty poor which confused me even more.
ZOTAC Geforce 8500GT ZONE (256MB DDR2)
Timedemo Vista: 24.9699315fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 22-25-29
Timedemo XP: 31.6413757fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 18-34-58
3DMark06 scores Vista: 2074 (overall), 894 (SmartShaders 2), 795 (SmartShaders 3)
3DMark06 scores XP: 2095 (overall), 899 (SmartShaders 2), 805 (SmartShaders 3)
This card is not recommendable, at least when passively cooled like this model. Apart from the poor performance, it's overheating rapidly in 3D mode, and when it's getting hotter than 95°C, performance starts decreasing. This may explain the bad results. At 105°C the screen starts to flicker heavily (including complete blackouts). The „modern heatpipe technology“ (ZOTAC) doesn't work. However, when not built in the rig, it's a beautiful thing to look at ^^
ZOTAC Geforce 8600GT ZONE (256MB DDR3)
Timedemo Vista: 42.5285565fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 22-46-106
Timedemo XP: 52.4984883fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 26-57-120
3DMark06 scores Vista: sorry! No benches
3DMark06 scores XP: sorry! No benches
MSI Geforce 8600GTS (256MB DDR3) - 178.24/178.13
Timedemo Vista: 43.4002136fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 22-48-124
Timedemo XP: 53.2374502fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 27-59-152
3DMark06 scores Vista: 4093 (overall), 1976 (SmartShaders 2), 2234 (SmartShaders 3)
3DMark06 scores XP: 4377 (overall), 2137 (SmartShaders 2), 2294 (SmartShaders 3)
MSI Geforce 8600GTS (256MB DDR3) - 169.25/169.21
Timedemo Vista: 44.3690764fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 23-49-126
Timedemo XP: 49.0952087fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 27-59-150
3DMark06 scores Vista: 3888 (overall), 1864 (SmartShaders 2), 1966 (SmartShaders 3)
3DMark06 scores XP: 4125 (overall), 2130 (SmartShaders 2), 2016 (SmartShaders 3)
This card is passively cooled as well. I had a variation of this card a while ago, overclocked and actively cooled. Well, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed of the results here. The OCed edition is way faster. Then I have to say, this card is potentially having an overheating issue as well. I can't seriously recommend this model. XP users – keep away from driver releases newer than the 169.21. They're not working properly with 8600 models. Vista users – keep away from this card, rather get a GT or at least buy an actively cooled and overclocked version. Apart from that, the 8600GTS provides a high performance, regarding a price below 50 Euros.
ZOTAC Geforce 9600GT AMP! (512MB DDR3) - 178.24/178.13
Timedemo Vista: 44.0884539fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 22-49-128
Timedemo XP: 54.3277299fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 27-61-172
3DMark06 scores Vista: 4302 (overall), 1883 (SmartShaders 2), 2576 (SmartShaders 3)
3DMark06 scores XP: 4763 (overall), 2282 (SmartShaders 2), 2884 (SmartShaders 3)
The 9600GT is definately not the right board for a 3GHz Sincle Core system. Why? As you can see, there's almost no difference to the next weaker 8600GTS. The 9600GT is the card that's built in my current C2D rig at home. Its performance should be about 100% higher.
Now I'm gonna show you the results of some benchmarks I did at my home rig (Core2Duo E6750, 2GB DDR2/800MHz RAM, Windows XP Pro SP2):
Radeon HD4650:
Timedemo: 47.6558796fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 22-53-101
3DMark06 scores XP: 5036 (overall), 1772 (SmartShaders 2), 2387 (SmartShaders 3)
Geforce 7600GT:
Timedemo: 35.2457050fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 18-38-66
Geforce 8600GTS:
Timedemo: 53.6366189fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 26-59-121
Geforce 9600GT:
Timedemo: 112.5382984fps average / one-second fps min/avg/max: 57-125-339
3DMark06 scores XP: 10720 (overall), 5088 (SmartShaders 2), 4872 (SmartShaders 3)
Now we can see how important the right combination of CPU and GPU is. It's no use to plug a high-wow VGA into an old single core system. Neither is it useful to get an old VGA and a current, strong dual core CPU together running. And especially in Nexuiz a good performance seems to strongly depend on a harmonious team of VGA card and processor. Well, at least valid for Windows systems.
Another thing we can see from the results: Radeons run Nexuiz quite fine, if you use the right driver. On Windows systems.
