|
Tyan
Trinity 400, PIII 733mhz, 256mb Mushkin PC133
ram, IBM 22.4 GB 7200rpm HD, Aureal SQ2500,
Windows 98SE, DirectX 7.0
 |
| Overclocking
The Xpert 2000 Pro |
| Not
this time... |
|
I’m sad to
report that I had a problem when overclocking
this board. Any attempts at changing the default
125/143 clock speeds would cause lockups. Don’t
think that because my board didn’t overclock
well, that yours won’t though. As we are all
aware, Overclocking is not an exact
science.
IMAGE
QUALITY
Before we get into any performance numbers, here’s
an idea of what you can expect Quake 3 to look
like when running on this board. This shot is at
1024x768x32 with tri-linear
filtering.
(click
for a closer look)
As you can see image quality is excellent. There
were occasional flashing textures, but I’m
sure that future driver revisions will clear
that up right away. 2D image quality is also
excellent, I did not notice a perceptible
difference when I swapped out my GeForce for the
Xpert.
 |
| Benchmarks
With The ATI Xpert 2000 Pro |
| Not
too shabby... |
|
I would have liked to include scores from
MadOnion’s 3D Mark 2000, but it would not run
with the current drivers. As soon as I hit
the “Run New Benchmark” button, my system
would hang, forcing me to hit the reset
switch. If I can get my hands on an
updated set of drivers that clear up this
problem, we’ll revise this review.
No video card review would be complete without
some Quake3 benchmarks, so here goes. Quake3 was
run at a variety of resolutions and at both 16
and 32 bit color depths with tri-linear
filtering and low quality sound.
These
are respectable numbers from such an inexpensive
board. I’d also like to throw in that the
drivers for this card are immature as we tested
a PRE-RELEASE VERSION. The 3D Mark
and flashing textures prove that. With
future revisions and tweaks, I am hopeful that
ATI will be able to improve upon, what I think
is already decent performer in it’s
class.
Making
The Grade
There really is a lot to like about the ATI
Xpert 2000. Having been in the hardware
scene for quite some time, small problems seem
not to phase me. I know they will
eventually be fixed. With future driver
revisions, ATI has a strong contender in the
entry level fight. With it’s good performance,
and EXCELLENT DVD playback, the Xpert 2000 is a
winner. If the 2 previous small bugs I mentioned
are fixed, this card is arguably one of the best
buys in it’s class.
We
give the ATI Xpert 2000 Pro a Hot Hardware Heat
Meter Rating of....
Marco
"BigWop" Chiappetta |
