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No video
card review would be complete without a sampling of
Quake III benchmarks. We tested the Abit Siluro
T400 using Quake III's built-in timedemo, Demo001, at
a variety of resolutions and color depths...
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| Quake 3 Arena (16
and 32-Bit) |
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Standard
OpenGL Benchmark... |
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QUAKE III ARENA:
At Quake
III's "Fastest" setting, the Siluro T400 performs
admirably, breaking 100FPS up to 1024x768. The
"Fastest" setting is pretty ugly though, let's up the
ante and take a look at some numbers using the maximum
"High Quality" setting.
As you can
see, on average the performance of the Siluro T400 is
about 20% lower at the "High Quality" setting.
However, considering the price of this card, playable
framerates at 1024x768x32 may not turn off many users.
We also
overclocked the Abit Siluro T400 to try and make up
some of the ground we lost in the "High Quality"
tests. With the card in it's completely stock
configuration, we were able to overclock our T400 all
the way up to 220MHz. Core and 210MHz. memory without
any ill effects. Considering this card is not
equipped with active cooling, we think this is a very
respectable overclock. Let's see how it affected
the performance though...
With the
Abit Siluro T400 overclocked, we saw performance gains
at all resolutions. With some basic cooling
modifications, tweakers will most likely be able to
squeeze even more performance out of the T400.
At the
time this article was written, the Abit Siluro T400
with TV-Out was available for less than $80. The
overall performance of the GeForce 2 MX400 may not get
power users excited, but budget gamers should be more
than content. Technically there are no real
drawbacks to owning the Abit Siluro T400, but there is
one factor that should be taken into
consideration...the Kyro II. On similarly
configured systems, the Kyro II consistently
outperforms the GeForce 2 MX400 and costs only
slightly more. If you're in the market for a
budget card and know you want an nVidia powered
product, we can recommend the Abit Siluro T400 with a
clear conscience. However, if you're open to
something new, the Kyro IIs are probably the better
choice for most. Based on it's excellent price,
good overclocking potential, quality construction and
decent performance, we give the Abit Siluro T400 a
HotHardware Heat Meter rating of...
You
think you know your hardware?
Then get into the Forum and Strut your Stuff!
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