Leadtek PX6800 GS Extreme

Quake 4

Publisher: Activision

We used the full retail version of Quake 4 patched to version 1.0.5. It is the fourth game in the Quake series, based on the technically sound Doom 3 engine. However, unlike Doom 3, we found that the game benefits from at least 2x Anti-Aliasing, and the experience with Anti-Aliasing at a slightly lower resolution was better than increasing the resolution with no AA applied.

Both Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering were controlled from inside the game. When you select "High Quality" mode, 4xAF is automatically enabled, and when the "Ultra Quality" mode is enabled, 8xAF is automatically applied to the scene.

We did a manual run through from a five minute section of the Nexus Hub Tunnels level and found that a minimum of 15 frames per second and an average of 40-50 frames per second in our test section was deemed to be playable across the rest of the title.

Typically, NVIDIA has always done well in OpenGL games, and Quake 4 is no different in that sense. The Leadtek PX6800 GS Extreme delivered the best gaming experience out of the three video cards tested, as it was able to play the game very competently at 1024x768 4xAA 4xAF high quality with all special effects enabled.

It was also possible to play the game at 1280x1024 2xAA 4xAF on the Leadtek 6800 GS Extreme if you didn't mind a bit of slow down in the more graphic intense portions of the game, however, we felt that the average frame rate was particularly low and there would be some areas in the game where you're begging for a higher frame rate - with a bit of overclocking, it was very smooth at 1280x1024 2xAA 4xAF, but there wasn't quite enough juice at default speeds.

Both the reference 6800 GS and the ATI Radeon X850XT were best playable at 1024x768 2xAA 4xAF, but the NVIDIA card had the edge over the X850XT when it came to smoothness - it was just generally quicker and able to maintain a higher frame rate in the critical firefights.

Aside from the improved antialiasing quality on the Leadtek GeForce 6800 GS Extreme, there were no notable differences in quality. However, we've said that antialiasing helps this game look better for some time now. Even more so than in Doom 3, which benefitted more from a higher resolution because the game was very dark throughout. The Leadtek 6800 GS stood head and shoulders above the reference clocked 6800 GS and the Radeon X850XT in this particular title.