Asus C90S 8600gt GDDR3 vs GDDR2 HG:L Tested

I got around to doing my test as promised to compare the performance of the 8600gt's for the c90. The 512 DDR2 vs the 256mb GDDR3.

I used Hellgate London for the test because it has unusually high recommended specs for memory with 3gb system memory and 756mb gpu memory recommended its a big memory hog.

I did the test with 3gb system ram which is a plus for the GDDR3 card due to the fact it can use alot of turbo cache.

Well it went like this:

8600GT 512mb DDR2 @ 500/500 forceware 169.01 low 30, avg 50, max 130
8600GT 256mb GDDR3@ 500/700 forceware stock asus disk low 40, avg 65, max 160.

It was clear that the GDDR3 was about 10-30% faster depending on the area, I was surprised because of the lesser memory and all but hey it worked. It ran abit hotter and all that. I didnt even overclock the memory on it tho so it has even more room to grow.

Hellgate London prooved to be a perfect test for my comparison tho because not only did it have the best chance of showing a chance for the 512 card to have an advantage it also was a perfect example of the reason I complane about the GDDR3 card, the Drivers!

As you may already know the GDDR3 card is only working correctly with the stock drivers, if you update the drivers performance goes 1/2. I tested it in game and sure enough it was slower than the DDR2 card. You say just stay with the stock drivers? Well I thought about it and thought about it.... finaly it happened I found a game that wont work properly on the stock drivers.

HG:L would not let me select any 16:10 aspect resolution besides full native of 1680x1050 so I had to settle for 1200x700 ish what ever it was it was a 16:9 resolution and it was stretched to fit the screen. So the old drivers would not let me use the right resolution (1280x800) also even worse maybe is the fact that aspect scaling is not an option, its blocked out in the control panel unlike all the new drivers that let you use it.

Aspect scaling is VERY important to me because there are alot of times a game only works in 4:3 and I do not want it streched to fill the screen.

So while it pains me still to say this I am keeping my DDR2 card and giving up the performance boost of the GDDR3 card just for this reason. At least tho I have some good solid reasons for it.

The game was so pretty, at the settings I had going (higher than my desktop) and the GDDR3 card would have let me go up even higher. I cant wait till I get a new desktop and can play this game at max settings.

 

Off subject but I really like the asus dogtags...sweet work!

 

If you haven't already I'd let Flagship Studios (Hellgate London) and Nvidia know about the situation. Its possible Flagship might patch the game (to fix the aspect ratio problem), or bug Nvidia to correct the issue at the driver level. Its also possible (yes I know unlikely) that Nvidia may also correct the issue on their own based on your information. If neither one of them learns of the problem then neither will know it needs to be fixed.

As far as the drivers you tested. Its possible that the newer ones you tested may have a feature enabled that was disabled (or at a different setting) by default in the old driver. Did you compare the default GPU settings in Windows to see if the new drivers enabled/disabled or changed any of the values compared to the old drivers?

 

Its a driver issue not a game issue, the new drivers have scaling options unlocked the old ones dont.

the old drivers are not working correctly with the game and I would wager they wont with alot of other games especially newer ones too. This is the reason Asus needs to do something fast with the GDDR3 card in the c90 so we can use new drivers.

 

Officia notebook version of 156.xx just got released.

They are on laptopvideo2go, you might try them

 

Good work Viscious....now we need to hear back from Ken re the stock drivers...of course Asus needs to give us an updated driver. Viscious, have you tried the driver JCMS pointed out?

 

here

I just noticed that it's the Quadro drivers though. Transforming it into a FX 570M might work but I'm not familiar with them

 

Has anyone tried the Drivers on Asus's site for the G1S? They are different slightly in nomenclature than ours.

 

I didnt try those drivers, I already went back to my 512mb card and I think I am done with it. I cant hold the GDDR3 card forever until I find a fix so I have to choose which I want.

With all I have done and tested, I feel the DDR2 card is a safer bet. I dont have alot of faith in asus for fixing this since they have no reason to give us support for forgin drivers.

So I lose some performance... but gain the ability to use new drivers, save some money, and have a cooler running notebook.

HG:L BTW is a very cpu intensive game, at least with my summoner it is. My C90 Plays the game much better than my desktop so it has to be the cpu, this evidence is further supported by the fact that the fans are on constantly while playing and we know the fans are cpu bound.

I really need an upgrade to my desktop :/

 

Great work viscious. Its good to know the sacrifices one has to make with the ddr3 card. Also, I was wondering where did you get the ddr3 card from?

 

HG:L Seems too buggy and poorly optimized to be used for benchmarks, as far as I've seen.

Anyways it'd be interesting to see comparisons with other games, so see how the gap changes.

 

I can post some screens of Company of Hereos, Oblivion, STALKER, Supreme Comander, Half Life Episode 2,ME2 :TW, Jericho, Overlord, and much more if you guys want to see how they all run... Im just sitting around studying so it wouldnt be a problem.

 

Yeah, if I already had the ddr2 card, I'd just get the newest drivers and overclock a little and call it done I am however looking for an ATI card to come out, not holding my breath and hoping I'll be pleasantly surprised. I do like the gddr3 card btw, I play mostly strat games and HL2 and it's great.