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oZone3D.Net OpenGL benchmarks
OpenGL Soft Shadows Benchmark

» Download
» Technical Data
» Comparative Table
» ChangeLog
» BackLinks



Download


Soft Shadows Benchmark Exe - zip package - (4138k)
Version: 1.5.4 - Release date: January 22, 2007
For any bug report or feedback, please send an email to
jegx AT ozone3d DOT net and add "[BENCHMARK FEEDBACK]" to the subject.

Recommended configuration:
  • Operating System: Windows XP SP1 or SP2
  • Processor: Pentium 4 or AMD64 and up processor - 2.6 GHz and up.
  • Memory: 512M RAM and up
  • Graphics Controller: ATI Radeon X1000 and up (with the latest Catalyst drivers) or GeForce 6000 and up (with the latest Forceware drivers)
  • Resolution: 1280x1024 - 32 bits/pixel


Technical Data

This benchmark is linked to the following tutorial: 3D Pipeline of SM3/DX9 GPUs.

This OpenGL benchmark is focused on the pixel processing unit (pixel pipelines). A 3D scene with 5 objects and 3 dynamic lights is rendered. Each object casts soft shadows and the filtering of soft shadows is performed by a 7x7 filter. The benchmark exploits the latest 3D features like the vertex buffer objects (VBO), the framebuffer objects (FBO) and a GL 2.0 codepath. This benchmark is based on an experimental branch of the oZone3D engine (v3.x).

The filtering of the shadow edges is the biggest difficulty of soft shadows and it is a very GPU power consuming task. So this benchmark can be used to quickly know the performances in OpenGL 2.0 of the new graphics cards generation. Besides, the benchmark has two modes of running: with and without dynamic branching in the pixel shader. The mode with dynamic branching is new and allows to see the impact of this fundamental functionality of the shader model 3.0.

The benchmark is started by executing the oZone3D_SoftShadows_Benchmark.exe file. The following interface appears (from the version 1.5.0):

There are two Run Mode:

  • Benchmark: starts the benchmark in performance measure mode. It is the default mode.
  • Stability Test: starts the benchmark in stability test mode. This mode is useful to test your graphics card during your overcloking sessions. In this mode, the 3D scene is rendered until the user presses the [ESC] key.

In Benchmark Mode, the performance measure lasts 1 minute. At the end of the benchmark, just read the o3Marks score in the following dialog box:



The o3Mark score is simple: it is the number of frames that have been displayed during the benchmark. So the higher the score, the more powerful the graphics card.

In order to exploit the SLI or Crossfire systems, the benchmark runs in fullscreen mode with a resolution of 1280x1024 / 32 bits.

The benchmark offers two Options:

  • Use Dynamic Branching: enables the dynamic branching in the pixels shaders.
  • Fullscreen: starts the benchmark in fullscreen mode. In Benchmark Mode, the Fullscreen option is automatically selected.

Due to the large number of texture lookup in the pixel shaders, the Soft Shadows Benchmark requires at least a GeFORCE 6*** and higher or a Radeon X1*** and higher.



Some technical details

The filtering of the shadow edges uses a 7x7 convolution kernel (see the following tutorial for further information on convolution kernels: Image Filtering). The convolution kernel parameters are passed to the pixel shader via the GLSL uniform arrays. Currently, this version works fine on nVidia Geforce 6*** and 7*** and on ATI X1*** graphics controllers. Some old graphic controllers based on the Radeon R300 or R400 GPU (like the X700 for example) can not execute this benchmark because this kind of GPU supports only 32 texture fetches per pixel shader. The benchmark needs at least 49 texture fetches.

The soft shadows module uses a 2048x2048 / 24 bits depth map. This depth map (or shadow map) is attached to a framebuffer object (FBO) for the render to texture (RTT). Since ATI's GPUs do not support linear filtering of depth maps, only a nearest filtering is performed on depth map.

The meshes use the vertex buffer objects (VBO) to speed up the rendering.

The gpu-shaders codepath uses the new GLSL API of OpenGL 2.0. The new oZone3D engine does not use anymore the old ARB functions of the OpenGL Shading Language API.



Comparative Table

This table is updated regularly with scores found in the forums over the web. You can also post your result in the following thread: [OpenGL Benchmark] Soft Shadows.



Results - Branching: ON
Intel Core 2 Quad CPU oc @ 3.6 GHz / 2GB / NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra PCIExp (default clocks) / Forceware 97.92 / WinXP sp2
7920 o3Marks|

Core2Duo 6600 oc @ 3.45 GHz / Mobo nForce 590 SLI for Intel (NV reference) / 2GB 2X2048-6400C3 Corsair / NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX SLI PCIExp - (default clocks) / Forceware 97.02 / WinXP sp2
7611 o3Marks|

Core2Duo 6600 oc @ 3.45 GHz / Mobo nForce 590 SLI for Intel (NV reference) / 2GB 2X2048-6400C3 Corsair / NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX PCIExp - (default clocks) / Forceware 97.02 / WinXP sp2
5526 o3Marks|

Core2Duo 6600 oc @ 3.6 GHz / 2GB / NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS PCIExp - core clock: 600MHz - memory clock: 1000MHz / Forceware 97.44 / WinXP 64 bits SP2
4785 o3Marks|

Core2Duo 6600 oc @ 3.465 GHz / 2GB / ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT PCIExp - core clock: 860MHz - memory clock: 1000MHz / Catalyst 7.7 / WinXP SP2
3563 o3Marks|

Core2Duo 6600 @ 2.4GHz / 2048M DDR2 667 / Mobo Asus P5W / NVIDIA Asus Geforce 7950 GX2 1024M GDDR3 PCIExp non-oc / Forceware 91.31 / WinXP sp2
3473 o3Marks|

Core2Duo 6600 @ 2.4GHz / 2048M DDR2 667 / Mobo Asus P5W / ATI Radeon X1950XTX 512M GDDR3 PCIExp non-oc / Catalyst 7.7 / WinXP sp2
2414 o3Marks|

AMD X2 3800+ / 2048M DDR2 667 / Mobo MSI K9N SLI / NVIDIA Geforce 7600 GS 256M GDDR3 PCIExp non-oc / Forceware 91.31 / WinXP sp2
850 o3Marks|

Intel P4 @ 2.6GHz / 1024M / NVIDIA Geforce 6200 AGP 128M non-oc / Forceware 160.02 / WinXp SP2
204 o3Marks|

Core2Duo 4300 oc @ 3.058GHz / 2048M / ATI Radeon X800 AGP non-oc / Catalyst 7.7 / Win Vista
194 o3Marks|



Results - Branching: OFF
Core 2 Duo 6600 oc @ 3.45 GHz / Mobo nForce 590 SLI for Intel (NV reference) / 2GB 2X2048-6400C3 Corsair / NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX SLI PCIExp - (default clocks) / Forceware 97.02 / WinXP sp2
6083 o3Marks|

Core 2 Duo 6600 oc @ 3.45 GHz / Mobo nForce 590 SLI for Intel (NV reference) / 2GB 2X2048-6400C3 Corsair / NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX PCIExp - (default clocks) / Forceware 97.02 / WinXP sp2
4193 o3Marks|

Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 2.4GHz / 2048M DDR2-667 / NVIDIA Gygabyte Geforce 7950 GX2 1024M GDDR3 PCIExp - core clock 606.0MHz - mem clock 800.0MHz / Forceware 91.47 / WinXP sp2
2752 o3Marks|

Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 2.4GHz / 2048M DDR2 667 / Mobo Asus p5b SLI deluxe / NVIDIA Asus Geforce 7950 GX2 1024M GDDR3 PCIExp - core clock 499.5MHz - mem clock 600.75MHz / Forceware 91.47 / WinXP sp2
2306 o3Marks|

P4 2.6GHz / Mobo MSI Neo 875P / 1024M DDR 400 / Galaxy NVIDIA 6800GT 256M AGP / Forceware 97.28 / WinXP sp2
583 o3Marks|

AMD X2 3800+ / 1024M DDR2 533 / Mobo Asus m2n sli deluxe / Gigabyte NVIDIA Geforce 7600 GS 256M DDR2 PCIExp - core clock 450MHz - mem clock 398.25MHz / Forceware 91.47 / WinXP sp2
510 o3Marks|

AMD X2 3800+ / 1024M DDR2 533 / Mobo MSI K9N SLI / ATI Radeon X1600XT 256M GDDR3 PCIExp - core clock 587.25MHz - mem clock 693.0MHz / Catalyst 6.9 / WinXP sp2
450 o3Marks|



ChangeLog

Version 1.5.4 - January 22, 2007
  • Bugfix: the startup and result dialog boxes display problem is fixed. The problem came from the XP style used. Thanks to TuKo from www.swissclockers.ch for his tests.

Version 1.5.2 - January 9, 2007
  • Bugfix: now graphics memory is correctly freed at the end of the benchmark. You can launch several intances of the benchmark and keep open all score dialog boxes in order to compare the results. Thanks to www.pcgameshardware.de.

Version 1.5.0 - January 7, 2007
  • Feature: Display of system information in the score dialog box.
  • Feature: Added a startup dialog box in order to select the options (benchmark or stability test modes, fullscreen or windowed mode, enabling or disabling dynamic branching).

Version 1.4.0 - December 2006
  • First official release.




BackLinks
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark Contest @ PC Games Hardware Extreme
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark @ adrenaline.com.br
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark @ forums.overclockers.co.uk
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark @ OpenGL.org
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark @ XtremeSystems
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark @ Beyond3D
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark @ forum.hwsw.hu
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark @ forum.giga.de
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark @ forum-3dcenter.org
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark @ prohardver.hu
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark @ 3dwin.net
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark @ inforlandia.pt
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark @ efreesoft.com
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark @ projectlan.de
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark @ forum.pclab.pl
  • Soft Shadows Benchmark @ generation-3d.com


  • GeeXLab demos


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    PhysX 3 cloth demo


    Normal visualizer with GS


    Compute Shaders test on Radeon


    Raymarching in GLSL



    Misc
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