OpenGL - Quake 3: Arena

These results were a little more interesting. We ran tests at both 640x480 and 1152x864, and at 16 and 32bit colors, this way we can see how performance scales with an increase in resolution. We used the Q3A test demo001 as the baseline benchmark.

Not too bad. There was barely a performance hit at all, I'd say 640x480x32 with FSAA and all visual quality options on running at 73.8FPS isn't too bad. Let's try 1152x864.

The higher resolution is where we clearly see FSAA taking its toll. Though, it seems that the OpenGL portion of Nvidia's FSAA drivers are a little more mature, taking only a 50-60% performance hit. This is MUCH better than the 85+% hit that D3D games incurred.

FSAA is definitely the way of the future, just as 32bit to 16bit color was just one year ago. Who gets there first, and with the smallest performance hit is the question. Stay tuned.

by Ryan Wissman

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