Test Descriptions and Settings - AMD Radeon HD 4670: Ruling from Top to Bottom

Test Descriptions and Settings

Age of Conan

For Age of Conan, we opened up the graphics settings and clicked the high button. For added fun we went into the advanced page and upgraded to SM 3.0, though nothing else on this page was changed. We left AA off, as the graphics on this one were a bit tough already, and getting a good experience might require dropping down to medium settings. It's a shame that AoC doesn't allow us to test at 800x600. On an MMO, screen space can be pretty important, so we do understand the decision. Our tests consist of a swim towards Tortage Island and a quick run to the jungle. The test is a straight line run and very repeatable. We used FRAPS to record the average frame rate.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

We recorded a custom net timedemo for this one. All of our tests are done using the highest possible settings with 4xAA. The Doom 3 engine is getting a little outdated and just about everything can run it well. One of the more interesting issues is that we need to quit out of the game every time we change resolution or our scores get really crazy.

Race Driver: GRID

This game plays surprisingly well at lower resolutions on these cards. We used the ultra high settings, but disabled AA here. Some of the shaders this game uses really benefit from AA though, and the 4670 is actually able to handle AA pretty well on this one at 1280x1024. The test for GRID is the first straight (right into a wall) of a track. We start at the back of the pack and start FRAPS running as soon as we take off. FRAPS is stopped when we hit the wall.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

This test has been with us in some way or another for a very long time. The game is DX9, and we use Ultra High default settings for this one. For our AA/AF testing, we force those options through the driver control panel. The test is a straight line run with FRAPS. Even though there's a little age on this game, it is still a great title to get people hooked on gaming. It's open and fun and it doesn't look bad at lower resolutions with the settings cranked up. And these little cards can deliver as well.

Crysis

Yes, the obligatory Crysis test. This one is done using Medium settings across the board and no AA. We were running in DX10 mode and 64-bit as well. Our test is the built-in GPU benchmark run 3 times, and our score is the average of the second two runs. The game does lose some of its luster under Medium settings, but it is still very playable. Depending on the card you have, you would want to spend some time seeing what settings you could get away with pushing up to High.

The Witcher

For The Witcher we crank everything way up. We would have done more AA tests with this one, but there is this annoying new trend of limiting the maximum resolution AA can be enabled on based on framebuffer size. Aside from being annoying in our testing, architecture has a lot to do with AA performance and framebuffer is sort of a naive metric to use. In any case, this is another FRAPS test, but we benchmark one of the early in-engine cut scenes

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