Test Methodology And Configuration
We ran two parallel testing platforms - one was an Athlon 1200 system and the other was a Pentium 4 platform clocked at 1500 MHz. Note: these benchmarks are not intended as a comparison between two competing CPUs.
The benchmarks focus on the graphics cards. We have published results obtained with the Athlon and the Pentium 4 for every category.
We pretty much limited our resolution settings to 1024x768 and the real bandwidth-chomper 1600x1200. The only time 1600x1200 wasn't possible was during the 3DMark tests. In their stead, we've listed results obtained with 1280x1024.
In this test we used factory-supplied drivers, i.e. the manufacturers' drivers and not the NVIDIA reference driver. Anyone wanting to use the NVIDIA driver will probably lose the manufacturer's add-on tabs.
| Hardware | |
|---|---|
| CPU AMD platform | AMD Athlon 1200 MHz/133 MHz FSB (DDR) |
| CPU Intel platform | Intel Pentium 4 1500 MHz/400 MHz FSB (quad-pumped) |
| SDRAM | 2x 128 MB DDR SDRAM |
| Hard disk | 12 GB, ST313021A, DMA 66, (Seagate)5400 U/min, 512 kB Cache |
| Motherboard | ASUS A7M266 |
| GeForce3 Graphics cards | |
| GeForce2 GTS | v12.00 Ref. |
| GeForce2 PRO | v12.00 Ref. |
| GeForce2 ULTRA | v12.00 Ref. |
| ASUS AGP - V8200 | ASUS v12.10 Beta |
| Visiontek GF3 | v12.00 Ref. |
| ELSA GLADIAC 920 | ELSA v12.40 Beta |
| Hercules 3DP 3 | v12.00 Ref. (Vendor driver n/a) |
| Gainward CARDEXp. | Gainward Driver Release v12.00 |
| Leadtek WinFast GF3 | Leadtek Driver Release v12.00 |
| MSI StarForce 822 | MSI Drivers Release v12.00 |
| Driver and Software | |
| IDE/AGP driver | VIA 4 in 1 V4.29 Final |
| DirectX Version | 8.0a |
| Operating Systems | Windows 98 SE, Version 4.10.2222 A |
| Benchmarks and Settings | |
| Quake III Arena | Retail Version 1.16command line = +set cd_nocd 1 +set s_initsound 0Graphics detail set to 'Normal'Benchmark using 'Q3DEMO1' |
| Evolva | DirectX 7, T&L |
| MDK2 | OpenGL, HW Lighting |
| Aquamark | v2.1 DirectX 8, T&L, Pixel & Vertex ShaderGeForce3 Settings: Pixel Shader = YESGeForce2 Settings: Pixel Shader = NO |
| Quake 3 | v1.17 OpenGL, HW TransformationNorm Setting: Quake 3 Standard NormalHQ+T Setting: Quake 3 High Quality & Max. Texture Resolution |
| DroneZ | OpenGL, Pixel & Vertex ShaderGeForce3 Settings: GeForce3 BumpGeForce2 Settings: GeForce2 Bump (n/a) |
| MBTR | v1.09 DirectX 7, No T&LSettings: TNT/GeForce, Ansiotropic |
| 3D Mark 2000 | v1.1 DirectX 7 T&LSettings: T&L, Athlon 3D Now |
| 3D Mark 2001 | DirectX 8 T&L, Pixel & Vertex ShaderGeForce3 Settings: Pure HW T&L, Athlon 3DNowGeForce2 Settings: T&L, Athlon 3DNow |
