Multi-GPU World Tour Part 7: Uncommon Benchmarks 2

Age Of Empires 3

Age of Empires III offers gamers the next level of realism, with advanced battle physics and unparalleled visual detail. The new game picks up where Age of Empires II: Age of Kings left off, placing gamers in the position of a European power determined to explore, colonize and conquer the New World. This time period features stunning scenes, from towering European cathedrals to courageous tribes of Native Americans, and spectacular combat with Industrial Age units like rifled infantry, cavalry and tall ships bristling with cannons. In addition to technology upgrades, Age of Empires III also features a slew of new game-play elements, including the concept of a “Home City,” new civilizations, units, technologies and an immersive new single-player campaign that spans three generations.

The Age of Empires III’s design team at Ensemble Studios promised a breathtaking advance in RTS graphics, and they have definitely delivered. AoE III features a heavily modified Bang! engine. By doing this they have been able to use the Havok 2 physics engine, Vertex Shader 3 and Pixel Shader 3 to create stunning graphics that push systems pretty hard. Let’s take a look and see how our three platforms do with the latest and greatest cards from ATI and NVIDIA.

Low End:

Right off the bat here we see the 7600GS SLI smoking the pair of X1600 Pro’s at every test setting in Age of Empires 3.

Mid End:

With the Mid End systems Nvidia continues to lead in our testing. Keep in mind that we are testing with the XFX “XXX” Edition 7950GX2 which no doubt helps it out against the pair of X1900GT’s.

High End:

So close….Nvidia is unable to complete the sweep in Age of Empires.