Test Setup
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Test Systems |
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| CPU |
AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 [Check Prices] |
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| Motherboard |
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe (nForce4 SLI) [Check Prices] |
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| Chipset Drivers | NVIDIA nForce4 Standalone Kit 6.53 | |||
| RAM | 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 DDR400 RAM
(OCZ Platinum Rev 2) [Check Prices] |
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| Network | Integrated | |||
| PSU |
Tagen TG480-U01 480W Silent PSU [Check Prices] |
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| Video | Club 3D S3 GammaChrome S18
Nitro 256MB [Check Prices] |
ATI Radeon X600 PRO 128MB [Check Prices] |
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 128MB [Check Prices] |
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 128MB [Check Prices] |
| Video Drivers | 6.14.10.1960-15.15.08c | Catalyst 5.4 | Forceware 71.89 | |
| OS | Windows XP
Professional SP2 [Check Prices] |
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| DirectX Runtime | DirectX9.0c | |||
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Benchmarks |
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Fill-Rate Benchmark |
Various Tests used 1024x768x32 |
| D3D RightMark | Multi-Texture Test 256x256 Texture Size VS1.1, Fixed Function Pixel Pipeline Bilinear Filtering 1024x768 Resolution |
| Geometry Test High Geometry Profile Difuse + Specular Lighting Profile Windowed |
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| Pixel Shader tests Arithmetic Operation 1024x768 Resolution |
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| ShaderMark | V2.1 1024x768 Resolution Default Settings |
| GL_Reme | 1024x768 Resolution |
| VillageMark | Default Settings |
| 3DMark03 | Game Test 2 |
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Games Benchmarks - DirectX |
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| Unreal Tournament 2004 [Check Prices] |
Firingsquad Custom
Demo used Full Detail Settings 3323 Patch Application Anisotropic Filtering Control Panel FSAA |
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Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory |
Lighthouse Timedemo |
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Far Cry [Check Prices] |
Custom Firingsquad demo V1.3 "Very High" Graphics Settings Highest Applicable Shader Model Application Anisotropic Filtering Application FSAA |
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Half Life 2 |
Internal Beyond3D Demo Recording |
| All games benchmarks using 32bit colour and 32bit textures (where applicable) | |
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Games Benchmarks - OpenGL |
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Doom 3 |
Internal Beyond3D Demo Recording |
| All games benchmarks using 32bit colour and 32bit textures (where applicable) | |
Due to no other S3 boards being available to us at present, and to help understand where S3's GammaChrome is and is not competitive, we're comparing the board against a few PCI Express boards from ATI and NVIDIA. We're told that S3's aim is around the X600 PRO price / performance range, however NVIDIA currently have nothing that directly matches that. Looking at current, at time of writing, prices on Pricewatch we see the following:
- RADEON X600 PRO 256MB - $103
- RADEON X600 PRO 128MB - $89
- GeForce 6600 256MB - $113
- GeForce 6600 128MB - $111
- GeForce 6200 128MB - $58
Although S18 is not targeted towards the 6600's, another chip in the GammaChrome series is supposed to be set for that task, we can see that there is a significant price difference between the low end 6600 and the 6200 and the 256MB X600 PRO is not that far off the pricing of the 6600. When GammaChrome S18 is in mass production and released it will have to compete somewhere within this range of boards and prices.
