3D GameGauge: Real-World Performance Testing

We all know that the real reason to get a 3D accelerator is to play games. So it makes a lot of sense to test 3D graphics cards using real 3D games. Unfortunately, there aren't any established benchmarks for testing 3D cards with PC games. So we created the 3D GameGauge to do just that.

3D GameGauge is a performance index that measures the speed of six popular PC games. We test the frame-rates on a standard demo loop for each game and combine the totals to yield the 3D GameGauge score. We show each card's 3D GameGauge score next to its review, along with a reference number for comparison. We derived the reference number (392) by running the same test on our test-bed Pentium II 450 using a 12MB Voodoo2-based Diamond Monster 3D II. We believe gamers will be most satisfied with a 3D card that either comes close to this score or beats it. If it doesn't, we don't recommend that board for its 3D performance, although it may have other features - video capture, TV tuner, etc. - that appeal to you. The 3D GameGauge score gives you a good idea of how a card will perform on a variety of titles.

The six games comprising the test are Forsaken, Incoming, Turok, Quake II, Quake, and F22 ADF. The games cover a gamut of performance types. For example, Forsaken has a fairly low polygon count, but emphasizes fill-rate. Quake II has a higher polygon count than the other titles (except possibly Incoming) and is a good OpenGL test case. F22 ADF is a flight sim with over 8MB of textures, which can stress the card's ability to move textures across the bus.

We run 3D GameGauge titles at a resolution of 800x600x16 with audio enabled. A graphics card may have higher frame-rates when it has the whole system to itself, but performance is often affected when other things, like sound, are happening. If the card allows it, we disable "wait for V-sync" to get a better idea of the card's rendering "headroom." In the future, we'd like to see more games supporting triple buffering and higher resolutions. This would make testing a lot easier.