Unreal Tournament 2003: Antalus, Min Detail @ 640
| |
Frames per Second
|
| Albatron PX875P Pro |
268.04
|
| ASUS P4C800-E |
261.98
|
Quake 3: Arena, Min Detail @ 640
| |
Frames per Second
|
| Albatron PX875P Pro |
302.3
|
| ASUS P4C800-E |
300.8
|
In our gaming tests, the Albatron takes both the UT2003 and Q3 tests. The gap is smaller for Q3, with less than 2fps separating the two, but the gap is much wider with UT2003 with almost 7fps between them.
Subsystem Testing - Audio
For our UT2003 audio/framerate tests, we ran dm-Antalus benchmarks at 640x480, minimum detail with sound on and off. This was repeated at 1024x768, but with maximum detail. The reasoning is at low detail and resolution, the work will fall on the CPU and motherboard subsystem. Higher resolution is more representative of actual gameplay for most users
Unreal Tournament 2003: Antalus, Min Detail @ 640
| |
Frames per Second
|
| Sound Off |
268.04
|
| Sound On |
252.23
|
The Albatron loses about 16fps with the sound enabled at low resolution. This is about on par with what we've seen with the Realtek ALC655.
Unreal Tournament 2003: Antalus, Min Detail @ 1024
| |
Frames per Second
|
| Sound Off |
143.22
|
| Sound On |
142.88
|
At 1024x768, there is not much of a performance hit and shouldn't be a factor for gaming. Sound quality was decent though while playing back music on CD, there seemed to be a background hiss that we were eventually able to remove through adjustment. The mic-in test went alright, where recorded voice was relatively clear, but there was a noticeable buzz that we were not able to remove with the built-in software.
Hard Drive Performance
We used HD Tach to gauge read and write performance with our Western Digital SE 120GB HDD, and Seagate 120GB SATA drives. Both disks were freshly imaged, and configured with only one partition.
Read Speeds
|
Min kps
|
Ave kps
|
Max kps
|
| PATA Performance |
27651.4
|
51639.2
|
61243.3
|
| SATA Performance |
28124.4
|
51864.2
|
63351.1
|
Write Speeds
|
Min kps
|
Ave kps
|
Max kps
|
| PATA Performance |
17095.9
|
27534.6
|
62657.5
|
| SATA Performance |
17139.1
|
28182.0
|
63813.0
|
Both the IDE and SATA performed on par, with the edge going to the SATA drive. CPU usage is about the same as we've seen with past Canterwood and Springdale boards, averaging under 10% for both hard drive connections.
Network Performance
We used to test the networking speed, and Windows Task Manager for CPU usage. We copied a variety of install files, totaling 758 MB, varying in sizes of 300kb to as much as 60MB per file to and from the Albatron PX875P Pro machine, to our MSI K8N Neo Platinum. We also performed the same test with an ISO image, totaling 761MB.
Both systems were connected via a CAT-5E crossover cable, which should prevent any bottlenecks that would arise with our standard 10/100 router.
Small Files Test - 758MB Total
|
Time to Copy
|
Ave Transfer mB/sec
|
CPU %
|
| Upload |
1:22.9
|
9.13
|
28
|
| Download |
1:21.5
|
9.45
|
32
|
The 3Com NIC performed on par speed-wise with most other 10/100 controllers we've tested, but the CPU usage was much higher than we would have liked. The Intel CSA is usually about 10% less (as well as being faster), and it's a shame Albatron did not make use of it since it's already built into the South Bridge.
Large File Test - 761MB Total
|
Time to Copy
|
Ave Transfer mB/sec
|
CPU %
|
| Upload |
1:20.5
|
9.25
|
27
|
| Download |
1:19.3
|
9.67
|
30
|
Times were a little better with the ISO file, and CPU usage dropped by a couple percentage points.
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