3D Mark 2001SE

Another new release by , we'll be replacing the old 3D Mark 2001 in favor of this one. There are some bug fixes, and better Direct X 8 support, depending on what video card you have. Here's their blurb...

3DMark®2001 Second Edition, is the latest installment in the 3DMark® series. By combining DirectX®8.1 support with completely new graphics, 3DMark2001 SE continues to provide benchmark results that empower you to make informed hardware assessments.

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We used a resolution of 640x480, and 16Bit colour. FSAA was off, and decided that these settings will allow the benchmark to tax the main subsystem as much as possible. It was a surprise to me that the MSI board won here, as the Asus scored better at the memory and CPU benchmarks with SiSoft. The difference isn't much, but since we're talking pure numbers, it's there nevertheless. Let's see if the trend continues for Quake 3...

Quake 3: Arena

Although it's getting long in tooth, the Quake 3 engine is still a useful tool in gauging overall system performance. Like our 3D Mark benchmark, 640x480 resolution was used, and set to the "Fastest" setting. We used the v1.31 point release, and the timedemo was demo four.

The MSI wins again by a whopping 2fps. Now, for the record, we ran the benchmark 5 times, and the Asus board scored consistently in the 222 - 228 range, whereas the MSI consistently scored 226 - 228.

Final Words

Although we were generally satisfied with the KT3 Ultra-ARU, there are a few notes you should consider before investing in the KT333.

As you may have heard, the PC2700 specification is ratified. The majority of PC2700+ ram you see right now though, probably are not certified for PC2700. Manufacturers have been pumping out this overclocked ram for several months now, and I seriously doubt online resellers are going to dump their stock in the trash immediately. From the current crop of PC2700, it's very hard to run at tweaked memory timings, and the performance gain over overclocking the KT3 Ultra-ARU with tweaked PC2100 is minimal, if not worse in some cases.

On the topic of overclocking, we were simply unable to overclock past 146. Any attempt would force us to reset the CMOS. I have seen reviews of 160+ speeds, so I would certainly welcome any suggestions. FSB speeds of 145 would lockup 3D Mark, but run Windows alright.

You should keep in mind that the KT333 is still handcuffed by the Athlon processor, which itself is still a 266FSB part. It's only capable of 2.1GB/sec, and the KT333 (2.7GB/sec) is left twiddling it's thumbs. Unlike the KT266, the KT333 is a solid chipset, and may not need the "A" revision we're accustomed to with VIA.

That being said, the board is rock solid at stock speeds, and at 143, we are not having any problems. In fact, since our extreme FSB attempts weren't successful, I went back to the normal multiplier of our XP 2000+, and all is well at 12.5x143.

MSI:

Pros: Good performance, extra USB ports, including USB 2.0, solid construction, stable, good software bundle.

Cons: Long boot times with RAID enabled, performance not as high as anticipated.

Bottom Line: Feature-wise, MSI does not skimp here. USB 2.0 is coming in a big way, and until chipset manufacturers add native support, the NEC chip soldered into the KT3 Ultra-ARU is there waiting for you. The onboard sound is great, and the extras like RAID and LED diagnostics are nice additions to the board. Stock speeds, or overclocked, the KT3 Ultra-ARU withstood our abuse with nary an issue. It didn't quite run away in our benchmarks, but it was right up there with the fastest boards we've had the chance to test. For the money, you'll be hard pressed to find a better, all-round package.

Plus, red is sexy.

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