Falcon Northwest FragBox SLI: Dare to Dream
by Jarred Walton on May 3, 2006 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2
The Source Engine games so far show similar and yet different performance. The games are largely CPU limited except at the highest resolutions. The major difference is that where HL2 ranges from 110-170+ FPS depending on level, DODS tops out in the high 60s, and the Lost Coast level strikes something of a middle ground. DODS and Lost Coast also include a form of HDR support - we say "a form" because they don't use FP rendering, allowing them to do both antialiasing and HDR even on older hardware. At present, only ATI's X1000 series cards support AA+FP rendering, which unfortunately means that most games aren't even looking at supporting the feature. I decided to focus on DODS and the original HL2, so no Lost Coast numbers this time. (It's only one level, so I can't really consider it a true game benchmark.)
Half-Life 2 is pretty much completely CPU limited, even at the highest resolutions. 2048x1536 does begin to show some slight separation, but essentially all of the tested setups are more than fast enough. Day of Defeat: Source is in a similar situation, only with much lower frame rates. However, at 1920x1200 and 2048x1536, the GTX SLI configurations take a clear lead. What happens when we enable sound?
Being CPU limited at most of the tested resolutions, we basically see a mirroring of the earlier results. At the lower resolutions were the CPU is the bottleneck, enabling sound has a substantial impact on performance -- at 10 to 20% performance drop, roughly. At the higher resolutions with the GPU starts to become the bottleneck again -- and this is illustrated best by the 7900 GT scores -- enabling sound doesn't have nearly as much of an impact.
The Source Engine games so far show similar and yet different performance. The games are largely CPU limited except at the highest resolutions. The major difference is that where HL2 ranges from 110-170+ FPS depending on level, DODS tops out in the high 60s, and the Lost Coast level strikes something of a middle ground. DODS and Lost Coast also include a form of HDR support - we say "a form" because they don't use FP rendering, allowing them to do both antialiasing and HDR even on older hardware. At present, only ATI's X1000 series cards support AA+FP rendering, which unfortunately means that most games aren't even looking at supporting the feature. I decided to focus on DODS and the original HL2, so no Lost Coast numbers this time. (It's only one level, so I can't really consider it a true game benchmark.)
Half-Life 2 is pretty much completely CPU limited, even at the highest resolutions. 2048x1536 does begin to show some slight separation, but essentially all of the tested setups are more than fast enough. Day of Defeat: Source is in a similar situation, only with much lower frame rates. However, at 1920x1200 and 2048x1536, the GTX SLI configurations take a clear lead. What happens when we enable sound?
Being CPU limited at most of the tested resolutions, we basically see a mirroring of the earlier results. At the lower resolutions were the CPU is the bottleneck, enabling sound has a substantial impact on performance -- at 10 to 20% performance drop, roughly. At the higher resolutions with the GPU starts to become the bottleneck again -- and this is illustrated best by the 7900 GT scores -- enabling sound doesn't have nearly as much of an impact.
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Pirks - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
Thanks, but that's still very far from what I was asking. If all the PC is made of were just ONE SINGLE ABIT MOBO, then yeah it'd be a close shot :Pislandtechengineers - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
small and powerful; like another has stated; Build my own. being rich and able to let someone else do the work for you = lazy , but i wouldnt mind putting it in my car if i had cash to throw out...Inkjammer - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
"Performance nerd-vana" may have to be one of the best quotes I've seen in a while. =DMissing Ghost - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
What's so special about it?unclebud - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
the review was still interesting, as alwayswhat i was saying is that another group of journalists reviewed the fragbox before and they encountered a very different type of experience... it's also interesting that they sent a fragbox with an evga board now and not the msi/ati 480~
Gary Key - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
I cannot answer directly for Jarred in this case, but my previous experiences with Falcon Northwest have shown they do listen to their customers and will correct any product issues immediately.unclebud - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
"I can't really evaluate the support that comes from Falcon at this time."imagine that...
JarredWalton - Thursday, May 4, 2006 - link
They put a customer sticker on every system. This one is for "AnandTech" - too bad I have to send it back.daftpunkit - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
My parents got me a Falcon NW for college, 4 years later it still runs pretty sweet, and 4 years in the computer world means it's ancient.The support was outstanding too I would say. They are quick too. I think the original had a MSI mobo but it blew up or something about a year into me owning it and I shipped it to them they replaced it with a nice ASUS mobo and got it back pretty quick.
Ryan Norton - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
Man, I remember when I was 10-14 or so and my dad still picked out the family computer, guaranteeing slowness and poor Doom II performance... he subscribed to Computer Gaming World and the Mach V ads always made me drool! I would never buy a FNW system when I can build my own so much easier, UNLESS I get rich one day... then man, I'm gonna beat a path to their door for whatever octo-SLI quad-CPU 32GB RAM madness reigns in the future.