3D Fuzion GeForce 7600 GS

Battlefield 2

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Battlefield 2 features an all-new game engine based on the DirectX 9.0 API. There is no Shader Model 3.0 support, but the majority of hardware will use a Shader Model 2.0++ mode that includes support for Normal Maps, Parallax Mapping, Full-Resolution Dynamic Shadowing, Post Processing and Fog.

The game will look the same on both NVIDIA and ATI hardware, so there is no advantage of choosing one over the other in image quality related circumstances. The only major difference is that Ultra Shadow 2 is utilised on NVIDIA's hardware, while the shadowing on ATI hardware is done using a slightly different technique.

We patched the game to version 1.3 and then played three five-minute segments of the 'Strike at Karkand' map, reporting the median frame rate. We found that there was no ready way to duplicate testing situations manually in this game, so we felt that taking a typical slice of action from the game was the best way to report our findings. We controlled anti-aliasing from inside the game, while anisotropic filtering was set to 8xAF when the 'Texture Filtering' option was set to 'High'.

The tables turned in Battlefield 2, as the ATI Radeon X1600XT delivered the best gaming experience out of the cards on test. With both GeForce 7600 GS video cards, we were unable to turn anti-aliasing on without it severely hampering our gaming experience. The game didn't look pretty with everything set to medium quality and no anti-aliasing enabled, but the frame rates were acceptable and 'playable' on the larger internet servers.

We must also mention that we saw texture shimmering in this title on the two NVIDIA cards. It's not as much of an issue as it is on a higher-end card, hence why we've stuck to using the default quality settings. This is because the end user is prepared to make compromises when they're not spending a lot of money on their video card.

With ATI's Radeon X1600XT, we were able to turn 2xAA on and still maintain higher frame rates than those delivered by the two different GeForce 7600 GS's. In much the same way that Quake 4 was dominated by NVIDIA, Battlefield 2 is firmly in ATI's court at this price point.