 |
| ATI's
Test System |
| Standard
fair... |
|
Pentium
III 866MHz., Asus CUBX Motherboard (BX chipset,
BIOS 1005), 128MB PC-133 2-2-2 RAM, SoundBlaster
PCI 128, WD 10GB HD and 3Com NIC
 |
| Benchmarks
with the Radeon |
| Oh
yeah, we dig this... |
|
Quake
3 Arena Tests
Now
for the Grand Daddy of all OpenGL testing, Quake
3. First
we ran DEMO001 with Quake 3 set like the hardcore
"LAN Party Guys" like it…
Anytime
you see over 100fps at 1024X768 in Quake 3, you
should be impressed.
Next
we ran DEMO001 with 16 bit color, but using 32 bit
textures for better image quality while still
maintaining high frame rates.
Again,
impressive numbers especially at high resolutions.
Quake
3’s “FAST” setting also yielded good
results. All
items under Game Options were turned off for this
test.
Next
we used Quake 3’s “Normal” setting, again
with all items under Game Options turned off.
We
threw in some FSAA scores for good measure.
When we asked what procedure the Radeon
uses to perform FSAA, ATI responded with, “We do
it just like nVidia”, so no jittered sub-samples
like the Voodoo5.
This method produces decent results, but I’ve
been spoiled by 3dfx’s technique.
We would have liked to include screenshots
to show you exactly what ATI’s FSAA
implementation looks like, but were unable to
capture any quality shots using both Q3’s
capture method and Hypersnap.
For now, here’s a supplied shot…we’ll
follow up with our own soon.
Let’s
really start to stress the Radeon now…this first
High Quality test has the items under Game Options
turned off.
The
more tests we ran, the more we could tell these
initial drivers are optimized for higher
resolutions.
The
next set of High Quality tests were run with all
items turned ON under Game Options except for
simple items. Texture quality and Geometry were at maximum.
There
are some FSAA numbers thrown in here also, but in
my opinion, nothing was playable above
800X600. You can again compare notes to
the GeForce2
and Voodoo5
here.
Now
for the ultimate Quake 3 testing.
NVidia released a custom Quake 3 level
recently to showcase the power of the GF2, let’s
see how the Radeon handles NV15DEMO.
The
Radeon’s Hyper-Z memory compression technique
and overdraw reduction helps out in this test.
According to ATI the Radeon outperforms the
Geforce 2 with nVidia’s own test!
We’ll let you now for sure when we run
our own side-by-side tests.
Although
3D Mark 2000 gave us some fits, stability with the
Radeon was generally excellent.
Through out OpenGL testing we didn’t
encounter any major problems.
Keep in mind all testing was done on a
HIGHLY overclocked AGP slot.
We did however find one driver problem when
running Quake 3 in 16 bit color.
Click the image to
see the entire screenshot ( this is the lower
right corner only)
Notice
the vertical lines.
We were told there would be a fix available
to download before the first retail card is sold.
Should
you be impressed with the Radeon?
Yes, we think so. The combination of high performance with the most complete
feature set seen to date should satisfy even the
most power hungry gamers out there.
We’ll know more when we complete our next
set of in-house tests but if ATI can deliver
mature drivers, they’ve got a winner on their
hands. That
is a BIG “IF” however.
The last 2 ATI cards we reviewed (the Xpert
2000 and All-In-Wonder 128 Pro) both had driver
“issues”.
We even went through 3 different sets of
drivers with the All-In-Wonder before we could
complete the review.
When we confronted ATI with their history
of driver problems, they acknowledged a problem
existed and that “it’s being addressed”.
We sure hope so… Having a third
competitor for the 3D Crown can only do us good.
Speak
your piece about this article in the HotHardware
Conference Room!
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HotHardware !
|
