Integrated Graphics Performance: It's all in the chips

Serious Sam - The Second Encounter

The "Serious" engine is based on OpenGL but also supports Direct3D. Technologically it too belongs to the DirectX 7 generation, meaning it does not yet employ pixel and vertex shaders. As it uses shadow maps and high-res textures, it can still bring even high end cards and CPUs to their limits when testing with maximum details enabled. Which is, naturally, just what we did.

Although its data sheets claim that SIS' Real256 comes with a full OpenGL ICD, this driver refused to cooperate with the SIS651. The results shown here were therefore obtained using the DirectX engine. The test itself consisted of the game's own benchmark mode and the "Valley of the Jaguar" demo.

None of the integrated chipsets were convincing in Serious Sam. While NVIDIA's nForce 2 was once again roughly twice as fast as either the i865 or the SIS651, this time it was unable to come close to the Radeon 9200. The Radeon 9800's performance lead shrunk in the face of the higher CPU load this game put on the system. In 1600x1200, Serious Sam didn't return a result for the i865, as too few frames were rendered.