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BUDGET VIDEO CARD ROUNDUP 2003
"In this article we compare four budget (sub £80) video cards which are the Gainward GeForce4 MX440, Visiontek GeForce3, Sapphire Radeon 9000 and Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro. They were tested using the powerfull AMD Athlon XP 1700 (Thoroughbred) processor and Asus A7S333 (SIS745) motherboard. Software used for benchmarking was 3dmark 2001 SE, Quake 3 Arena, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Serious Sam SE and Unreal Tournament 2003."
GENERAL SYSTEM INFORMATION
SERIOUS SAM SE
GAINWARD GEFORCE4 MX440 SAPPHIRE RADEON 9000
VISIONTEK GEFORCE3 SAPPHIRE RADEON 9000 PRO |
BENCHMARK SETTINGS
Elephant Atrium
Fullscreen Enabled
Extreme Quality Settings
Large Texture Size
Optimal Texture Quality
Detail Textures Enabled
COMMENT - "The Gainward GeForce4 MX440 starts off strongly in second place but manages to finish last, a poor performance. Sapphire Radeon 9000 manages good performance across all of the resolutions. Not a huge victory but the Visiontek GeForce3 managed to win every resolution. The Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro stayed in second behind the Visiontek GeForce3."
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UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2003 FLYBY
GAINWARD GEFORCE4 MX440 SAPPHIRE RADEON 9000
VISIONTEK GEFORCE3 SAPPHIRE RADEON 9000 PRO |
BENCHMARK SETTINGS
Antalus Benchmark
Character Shadows Enabled
Decals Enabled
Dynamic Lighting Enabled
Detail Textures Enabled
Projectors Enabled
Foliage Enabled
COMMENT - "A good performance by the Gainward GeForce4 MX440, it easily beat the Sapphire Radeon 9000 and was very close to the Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro. The Sapphire Radeon 9000 delivered a poor result and finished last in all of the resolutions tested. Another great performance by the Visiontek GeForce3, it's clearly faster than the other video cards which is impressive. The Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro finished way behind the Visiontek GeForce3 and only slightly ahead of the Gainward GeForce4 MX440 which made for a disappointing result."
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UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2003 BOTMATCH
GAINWARD GEFORCE4 MX440 SAPPHIRE RADEON 9000
VISIONTEK GEFORCE3 SAPPHIRE RADEON 9000 PRO |
BENCHMARK SETTINGS
Antalus Benchmark
Character Shadows Enabled
Decals Enabled
Dynamic Lighting Enabled
Detail Textures Enabled
Projectors Enabled
Foliage Enabled
COMMENT - "A good solid result for the Gainward GeForce4 MX440, finished ahead of the Sapphire Radeon 9000 at all of the resolutions tested. Another poor result for the Sapphire Radeon 9000, finished in last place again. The Visiontek GeForce3 is clearly the better video card for Unreal Tournament 2003, was the only video card to get 30+ fps at 1280x1024. The Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro started off strongly but at 1280x1024 lost to the Gainward GeForce4 MX440 but only by 1fps."
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AMD ATHLON XP 2000
PERFORMANCE
RETURN TO CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2003 BOTMATCH VISIONTEK GEFORCE3 (XP1700) VISIONTEK GEFORCE3 (XP2000)
SAPPHIRE R9000 PRO (XP1700) SAPPHIRE R9000 PRO (XP2000) |
COMMENT - "We have selected the Visiontek GeForce3 and Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro to be tested with the AMD Athlon XP 2000 processor which is 13% faster than the AMD Athlon XP 1700. With Quake 3 Arena using the Athlon XP 2000 processor results in a 3% gain for the Visiontek GeForce3 and a 2% gain for the Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro. Using the Athlon XP 2000 with Return to Castle Wolfenstein results in a 7% gain for the Visiontek GeForce3 and a 3% gain for the Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro. Using the Athlon XP 2000 with Serious Sam SE results in a 5% gain for the Visiontek GeForce3 and a 5% gain for the Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro. Using the Athlon XP 2000 with Unreal Tournament 2003 using Botmatch results in a 12% gain for the Visiontek GeForce3 and a 14% gain for the Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro. The Visiontek GeForce3 and Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro video cards both gained performance from the faster processor but not the expected 13% performance gain."
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FINAL RESULT
GAINWARD GEFORCE4 MX440 SAPPHIRE RADEON 9000
VISIONTEK GEFORCE3 SAPPHIRE RADEON 9000 PRO |
COMMENT - "The Gainward GeForce4 MX440 gave good performance considering it's a budget video card and won it's battle against the Sapphire Radeon 9000. The Sapphire Radeon 9000 delivered only average performance and usually finished behind the Gainward GeForce4 MX440 so it's a disappointing result. The Visiontek GeForce3 finished 101fps ahead of the Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro to claim first place. Although the Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro came second it's performance was pretty hit and miss."
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CONCLUSION - "It was an interesting result, the Gainward GeForce4 MX440 and Visiontek GeForce3 both won their battles against the Sapphire Radeon 9000 and Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro. It wasn't an easy victory for the Nvidia cards and the performance of the Sapphire Radeon 9000 and Gainward GeForce4 MX440 was close. However the Visiontek GeForce3 was shown to be clearly superior to the Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro apart from when anisotropic filtering. The performance of 2x and 4x fsaa was clearly superior with the Gainward GeForce4 MX440 and the Visiontek GeForce3. The downside for the Gainward GeForce4 MX440 is it's lack of Pixel Shaders which limited it's score with 3dmark 2001 SE. However it was seen that the lack of this feature didn't limit it's performance in games."
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