So September could be considered to be CPU month, with the release of the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition and the Athlon 64 and if you call it that, then October would definitely be Graphics month. If you haven't guessed already, Derek (new CPU/GPU guy here at AT) and I have been spending a lot of time benchmarking graphics stuff over the past several days. We've ended up with no less than 10 new games as a part of our new graphics test suite; we're both over at the lab right now starting our final tests on the suite for a review sometime this week. Unfortunately we are very short handed on Athlon 64 parts (and our CPUs on order have yet to come in) so the first comparison with this new suite will be done on either a 2.8GHz Intel processor or a Pentium 4 3.2 Extreme Edition. We're making the call now and you'll most likely find out which CPU we used when the review hits.
For those of you looking for benchmarks on more CPUs, have no worries as we'll be doing a CPU comparison under the new test suite very soon. Our first priority is to get the video cards compared on the fastest platform possible (thus doing a pure video card comparison) and then worry about CPU scaling.
Speaking of video card stuff, we're hoping to have the Half Life 2 benchmark soon to do an updated comparison with NVIDIA's latest drivers. I'm hearing that the latest Detonators NVIDIA is working on fix the issues that Gabe outlined in his list of complaints and improves performance significantly. It seems like the 5900 Ultra is now slightly slower than the Radeon 9800 Pro with AA/Aniso disabled, and slightly faster with it enabled; I'm hoping to see for myself shortly. I haven't heard anything about how the 5600/5200 perform with the latest drivers, but I'm guessing the performance isn't as competitive.
That's all for now, I've got two tests tomorrow morning (I love making up work after being absent to cover IDF) so I'm going to be busy with that tonight as well as helping Derek with this review. Derek and I will be co-writing this review as it will be his first major GPU review, but he will be doing the majority of the analysis (I'll just be keeping a watchful eye over him).
Take care
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Derek Wilson - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
mmmm ... nv38, 52.xx dets, and a "2.8GHz Intel Processor" ... :-) I really enjoyed working on this review :-)Morten - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
Well now we know why it was late :D Good job on the review Anand and Derek :)This review just reminds me why I love Anandtech so much.
GTaudiophile - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
Or worse: their Radeon 9800XT melted and exploded before their very eyes and they have nothing to bench with...yikes!GTaudiophile - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
I know Anand being late is uncharacteristic, but keep in mind that we have no idea what's going on behind the scenes: Anand could be benching with the HL2 demo, official DET 50.XX and/or CAT 3.8 drivers. Or, since we know from Anand himself that the lab is such a mess, he or Derek could have slipped, hit his head, or cut himself on silicon and needed to be rushed to the ER. Hopefully it's not the latter, but I'm just saying, we never know. It'll be up when it's up.Anonymous - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
No offense to any of the hard-working folks at AnandTech, but being a day late with a review of a video card is not something we've come to expect from a "Tier-1" review site. I hope that you guys were able to test with Cat 3.8s or have the NV38 in the test as well, or something. Something to make up for the fact that your review is this late.Anonymous - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - link
Not all, but I don't think anyone would question that SOME are. And I've read a few of them today.Anonymous - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - link
Well he said 10 new games added to the test suite, that's quite alot to get through. Most the reviews around are still with the same 5 benchmarks we always see.Anonymous - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - link
#15: You claiming that all other reviews are biased?I have no doubt, they are saving the best for last.
Anonymous - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - link
#15:SHHHHHHHHHHHH!
The whole point is to make Derek feel bad with his first review being late!
:p
Anonymous - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - link
But no one will have one as thorough and unbiased as AT either. It's worth the wait.