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Since this game doesn't support application controlled anisotropic filtering, we have to forced AF from the driver control panel. Under this setting, we can see texture shimmering on the GeForce 6800GT Quality settings. But even so, the GeForce 6800GT under Quality setting is still significantly slower than the Radeon X800XL. As we move to higher resolutions, the difference grew more and more. Using High Quality incurs a huge performance drop, to the point of not playable (AA and AF at 1024 x 768). Hopefully, the new Forceware 81.85 will solve texture shimmering issues under Quality settings in this game (and better overall performance).

	GeForce 6800GT				Radeon X800XL
	Quality		High Quality		Default
	Default	4x AA 16x AF	Default	4x AA 16x AF	Default	4x AA 16x AF
<30 fps	0	3	0	70	0	1
30-45 fps	1	76	1	20	0	13
45-60 fps	34	11	29	1	14	58
60-90 fps	55	1	59	0	72	19
90-120 fps	1	0	2	0	5	0

We used a battle record for the fps progress graph, so the scores are different than our benchmark results. Here you can see the Radeon X800XL is certainly the faster card. It doesn't dip below 30 fps until we push the card really hard with smoke and high detailed objects. While there is a performance hit with AA and AF, the Radeon X800XL frame rates are still very acceptable. On the other hand, the GeForce 6800GT frame rates are not - it is really struggling here. Here we see a reversal of Brothers in Arms - you simply have to use Quality settings on the GeForce 6800GT with Battlefield 2. To avoid texture shimmering, you might want to consider dropping AF and trilinear optimization in the drivers.

Conclusion:

On DirectX 8 games, the Radeon X800XL offers about the same performance as the GeForce 6800GT. There are two advantage it has over its rival: better anti aliasing and generally higher minimum fps (especially with AA and AF), which is great because you can actually crank up the details to the max, turn AA and AF on and still have playable frame rates. The GeForce 6800GT can be faster in some games, but it does consistently have a larger performance hit with AA and AF enabled than the Radeon X800XL. On newer games, particularly with some shader heavy games (Brothers in Arms), the Radeon X800XL is slower. However, this does not ring true for all new games. Battlefield 2 is certainly not enjoyable on the GeForce 6800GT under High Quality with AA and AF.

Overall, we like the Radeon X800XL better - it's a more efficient solution compared to the brute force approach of GeForce 6800GT. The Radeon X800XL is also providing consistent higher minimum fps under 60 fps. Anti aliasing is also better on the Radeon X800XL, while keeping anisotropic filtering quality similar (or better) than the GeForce 6800GT under Quality and High Quality.

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