Test Setup
ASUS P5AD2 Premium: Intel Pentium 4 560 (3.6GHz), 2 x 512MB Corsair XMS5400 ProSeries DDR2 (4-4-4-12), MSI PCX5750-TD128, 120GB Seagate SATA, Windows XP w/SP1, ForceWare v61.77.
Test Software will be:
Unreal Tournament 2003
Unreal Tournament 2004
Halo
Far Cry
Return To Castle Wolfenstein
Quake 3: Arena
Call of Duty
Doom 3
Due to time constraints, we do not have comparison PCIE products for review, but we will in the coming weeks. I had debated running benchmarks against AGP based products, but due to CPU clock differences, let alone different chipsets and ram, I decided against it. In the future, as our PCIE review portfolio expand, things will be back to normal around here.
All tests were run a total of three times, with the average results displayed here. A combination of , internal scripts, and built-in timedemos were used to gather our numbers. The driver settings were manually configured for AntiAliasing and Anisotropic Filtering (on or off), and set to "Quality". All games were set to their highest allowable game settings, except for Doom 3, where we chose high, rather than Ultra.
Unreal Tournament 2003 - Antalus
|
1024x768
|
1280x1024
|
1600x1200
|
| No AA/AF |
90.67
|
56.72
|
39.07
|
| 4xAA/4xAF |
50.98
|
31.20
|
21.05
|
| 4xAA/8xAF |
49.46
|
30.35
|
20.55
|
With no AA/AF enabled, UT2003 should be very playable at 1024 and 1280. 1600x1200, despite what the timedemo results show, was not very playable in our real-world experience. It was fine for deathmatch, but CTF was very choppy. When enabling AA/AF, 1024 is the sweet spot, as any other higher resolution was too much for the card.
Unreal Tournament 2004 - as-convoy
|
1024x768
|
1280x1024
|
1600x1200
|
| No AA/AF |
62.57
|
44.07
|
33.68
|
| 4xAA/4xAF |
39.44
|
24.66
|
19.59
|
| 4xAA/8xAF |
36.76
|
23.37
|
18.54
|
Like we've seen in UT2003, 1024 is the ideal resolution for image quality and framerates. 1280 is playable, but only without any AA/AF enabled.
Halo - Default Demo w/Shader 2.0
|
1024x768
|
1280x1024
|
1600x1200
|
| No AA/AF |
27.48
|
18.15
|
13.20
|
As some of you may know, there are AA issues with this game engine, thus we've omitted those tests. 1024, again, is the only resolution I would consider using for gameplay when it comes to Halo.
Far Cry - Fort
|
1024x768
|
1280x1024
|
1600x1200
|
| No AA/AF |
21.90
|
14.45
|
5.99
|
| 4xAA/4xAF |
17.41
|
11.81
|
3.85
|
| 4xAA/8xAF |
16.46
|
11.26
|
3.79
|
I think it's plain to see that 1600x1200 is out of the question here. In fact, at this resolution, we experienced severe texture drops and tearing, even with AA/AF disabled. 1024 with AA/AF disabled is the only setting I would consider at maximum game settings.
Return To Castle Wolfenstein - Checkpoint
|
1024x768
|
1280x1024
|
1600x1200
|
| No AA/AF |
149.5
|
121.7
|
90.5
|
| 4xAA/4xAF |
101.1
|
66.1
|
43.0
|
| 4xAA/8xAF |
97.4
|
64.0
|
41.2
|
The Quake 3 engine is pretty old, but can still produce some nice visuals. Wolfenstein uses a modified engine, but the PCX5750 has no problem with this game across the board. 1600 with AA/AF enabled is still playable in single player, but it was too choppy in multiplayer for my tastes.
Quake 3: Arena - Demo Four
|
1024x768
|
1280x1024
|
1600x1200
|
| No AA/AF |
239.5
|
157.1
|
112.5
|
| 4xAA/4xAF |
133.4
|
85.6
|
57.7
|
| 4xAA/8xAF |
128.0
|
82.9
|
56.2
|
There are still plenty of Quake 3 gamers out there, and if you're considering a low cost PCIE card for your Q3 box, the PCX5750 should have you covered.
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