Benchmark Site Ready for Review

[Skuzzy]

I have complated the skeletal frame work for the benchmark site and included the frame work and results for the ATI Rage Maxx video card CPU comparisons.
This card was the simplest to get setup for the WEB site.

I would appreciate feedback from the community, before I go to work and add the remaining 475 charts of data.

The site is http://www.benchdata.com/

Keep in mind this is a frame work, and I have much more data to add, besides just the raw benchmark items (i.e. hints/tips, fact/fiction....)

Those that have seen AppLink's home site will recognize the similarity, and it was very intentional.

Thank you, looking forward to complaints and suggestions.

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Roy "Skuzzy" Neese
President, AppLink Corp.
http://www.applink.net
skuzzy@applink.net

[Skuzzy]

Ooops, me bad  .

I forgot to tell you, press the "16 Bit Color" button on the Rage Maxx benchmark page to see what the results formats look like.

I should try to sleep when I am supposed to.

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Roy "Skuzzy" Neese
President, AppLink Corp.
http://www.applink.net
skuzzy@applink.net

[bloom25]

Looks great Skuzzy!    It will be very interesting when finished.

(One tiny little error I noticed.  DX version *.0716 is DX 7a.)



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bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

[Skuzzy]

Thanks bloom25.  I was using the major version number for everything and showing the full version to the left.
Makes for less reworks as time moves forward.

Putting up the rest will be pretty fast once I am satisified the frame work of the WEB site will work for users to view it.

Lot of technical stuff in the site.  I asked my wife what she though of the layout,.."Well,..it would be helpful if I understood it".
Might have to look at more links to detailed explanations of things.

The BDPoints was a two-fold creation to solve some problems.  One) Putting all the charts on one page made the page way to large. Two) It gave me a way to measure the other performance aspects of video cards, besides the 3DMarks, which only represents a small portion of the data from the 3DMark2000 benchmark.

I will wait a few more days for comments before putting up the rest of the information.  Thanks again.

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Roy "Skuzzy" Neese
President, AppLink Corp.
http://www.applink.net
skuzzy@applink.net

[Sky Viper]

oops...

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Sky Viper

[This message has been edited by Sky Viper (edited 03-12-2001).]

[Sky Viper]

BDPoints = (Game1LowFPS + (Game1MediumFPS*2) + (Game1HighFPS*3) + Game2LowFPS + (Game2MediumFPS*2) + (Game2HighFPS*3)) * 8

HUH?
Why (Game1MediumFPS*2) and (Game1HighFPS*3) etc?
Why are you multiplying by 2, 3, then the whole by 8?

Will you be taking inputs from the world, or the AH comunity, or just your bench?

What would I be coming to your site for?  Am I looking to see what the best video card is for my money?
If so, then I probably need a more simplified means of reading your results.
Perhaps an overall BD Point chart that shows the top 10 Cards. Then a BD Point chart that shows the Top 10 Cards/in the Top 10 System configurations.
That way, if I am technicaly challenged or only wish to know which systems yeild the best results before I go buy one, I only have to look at 2-3 charts.  I will trust that your BD Point formula, test methods, and math skills are sound.
I'm not saying you should get rid of the statistical description pages that you have now, but as your wife pointed out...simplify and you reach will grow.

BTW, are you hand crunching all of this, or do you plan to go to an automated Database/html generator?  Something like MySQL/PHP.



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Sky Viper

[Skuzzy]

In another section of the site the point system will be explained.

The weighting is given due to a problem with the current 3DMarks.  Example:

Vid #1
Heli Low: 100
Heli Med: 75
Heli High: 50
Adv Low: 100
Adv Med: 75
Adv High: 50

This would yeild a 3DMark score of 5400.
BDPoints would be 6400.

Vid #2
Heli Low: 80
Heli Med: 75
Heli High: 70
Adv Low: 80
Adv: Med: 75
Adv High: 70

This also yeilds a 3DMark score of 5400.
BDPoints would be 7040.
The "8" multiplier is arnitrary.  I ran 3DMark2000 on a low end video card, then created the BDPoint formula so that it matched the 3DMarks result.

I actually ran into a scenario very close to this one during my benchmarks.
So I created a weighting that would favor cards that did better under higher loads.

The 3DMark2000 benchmark only scored the one set of benchmaarks which simulated the games.  I added the other BD rankings so I people would not have to download 20 charts to get all the data.

No I will not be taking data from outside of what I run.  In order to do proper comparisons, benchmarkcs must be run in a controlled environment.

What is up on the site right now is just a frame work.  It does show how the rage maxx would run in 2 different cpu combinations.

This is one of the tings I am addressing.  Answer the question, "how much better would xyz run if i bumped the cpu speed?" or "why isn't this xyz card running faster in my 100 mhz cpu system?".

In another area of the site (Comparisons), will be comparions of the various video cards in various systems (i.e. 5 video cards in 4 different systems, currently).

The "top" ranking might be something I could add.  I would have to show the top ranking on a per cpu basis, as the speed of the cpu does effect the speed of the benchmarks, and how well a card performs.

Right now, I am aware of how technical the site is, and do understand many people would be lost.  I will be adding more information to explain things via links from the pages.

Right now I am working with an overall scoring system for the data.  This would give me the chance to do a ranking, per cpu basis.

Thank you for the input.  It is appreciated.


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Roy "Skuzzy" Neese
President, AppLink Corp.
http://www.applink.net
skuzzy@applink.net

[Lephturn]

This is looking really good Skuzzy.

The importance of the CPU, especially at resolutions of 1024x768 and above (I don't think anybody rund 800x600 anymore, or at least they don't buy a video card intending to run that) is really key.  It's information you don't tend to find all in one place that's for sure.  

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Sean "Lephturn" Conrad - Aces High Chief Trainer

A proud member of the mighty Flying Pigs
http://www.flyingpigs.com

Check out Lephturn's Aerodrome for AH articles and training info!

[Skuzzy]

The first set of comparison charts are up now.  Benchmarks->Comparisons->Intel 600E->16 Bit.

Going to be adding data daily to the site, until I am done, so let me know what ya think.

Thank again.

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Roy "Skuzzy" Neese
President, AppLink Corp.
http://www.applink.net
skuzzy@applink.net

[Sorrow[S=A]]

I like skuzzy- but I feel oblidged to point out your Radeon DDR 32 meg card is not using it's latest driver revision. This is going to hurt it as Radeon drivers are still maturing at a faster rate than Gforce ones are.

[Skuzzy]

 

Originally posted by Sorrow[S=A]:
I like skuzzy- but I feel oblidged to point out your Radeon DDR 32 meg card is not using it's latest driver revision. This is going to hurt it as Radeon drivers are still maturing at a faster rate than Gforce ones are.

When I ran the benchmarks, I used the current released drivers.  As new *released* drivers come out I will re-run the tests and post the information.  Oh, the verion number I am using is the one that is reported from DXDIAG, not the manufacturers version number.  I did this, because oddly enough, I have a couple of video cards that do not show the version number of the driver anywhere else.
Got my work cut out for me.



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Roy "Skuzzy" Neese
President, AppLink Corp.
http://www.applink.net
skuzzy@applink.net

[bloom25]

Found a typo:  On the 32 bit Radeon page, you have a paragraph about anti-aliasing.  There is a typo, you say "the images took on a software quality."  

No big deal, but I thought you'd like to know.

(BTW:  Are you planing on testing on any Athlon based systems.  They should be able to blow out the P3 in DX based games very easily. Be aware that you do need to set them up correctly, or else you get a falsely low 3d mark rating.  Most of the benchmarks I've seen have the Athlon 800 Tbirds beating out the P3 933s in all but SSE optimized quake benchmarks.  On this one they are even. )

 

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bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

[bloom25]

Overall I really like the site Skuzzy, though one thing is bugging me.  Why seperate the 16 and 32 bit.  Just make the results 16 bit first, then 32 bit.  If possible also include a graph for just the fastest CPU comparing the hit you take going to 32 bit.  This varies greatly from card to card.



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bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

[Skuzzy]

All in all bloom25, the site is pretty young and the framework is the only thing that is goin up right now.
I have plans on adding comparative information between 16 bit and 32 bit, as well as an overall BDPoint Top Vid Score, which will take all the data and form one chart for each 16 and 32 bit.
I originally wanted to put the 16 and 32 bit charts side byt side on one page, but the page was horrifically slow to load, especially if you have a 56K modem, so I compromised and decided to end up creating a round-up page, which is not up yet for each card/CPU comparison.
There is still a lot to do, but I wanted to get the data up as soon as I could as I have read so many posts here talking about "waiting for Skuzzy to finish site before purchasing" that I tought I should plow ahead with what I have.

I intend on getting to the AMD parts, I just have to take a breather for a moment as I spent a ton of money on all the hardware just to get the data I have.
I went ahead wth Intel first as it is still pretty much the dominant CPU in the market and I need to study which would be a good choice motherboard for AMD parts (i.e., the one that is used quite a bit and has good upgrade potential).

Once I get the site to the point that folks find it helpful, then I will start looking at AMD and getting results for them as well.

With MadOnion releasing 3DMark2001 and those results not being comparable to the results from 3DMark2000, I am going to have to restructure the site a bit to accomodate the results.  I hope to create a BDPoint system that will allow me to compare both benchmarks, or sum the two together for a score.

More studying,..more work,...more money.

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Roy "Skuzzy" Neese
President, AppLink Corp.
http://www.applink.net
skuzzy@applink.net

[Sorrow[S=A]]

Ahh, well in that case it's still not quite cut and dried. Which driver release are you using Skuzzy? Because the last "official" driver set released by ATI doesn't even use dx8 compliant components. However- the latest ones certified by Microsoft are DX8a compliant and the difference between is high in many cases. As I mentioned ATI is playing it ultra conservative about their official drivers- but to be fair using the ATI special drivers page latest version would be the best solution.

It's a bit like Detonator- remember when everyone had their latest Det drivers? But the last "official" release was archaic for almost a year? ATI is nowhere near as mature in their driver set and it would be unfair to compare their Dx7.9 designed drivers with the latest Detonator set.