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| Benchmarks
and Comparisons Continued... |
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More Quake 3 and The Winstones... |
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When it comes to OpenGL
benchmarking, there is probably no benchmark more popular
than the Quake 3 Demo 001. The question is, can you
really expect to play OpenGL games such as Quake 3 with
on-board graphics? Well, we gave it a test with both
the "Fastest" and "High-Quality" settings to cover both ends of
the spectrum. Let's take a look.
Quake 3:
Clearly, the nForce graphics
have no trouble playing Quake 3 at 1024x768x16, reaching a
respectable 83.2 FPS. In fact, the A7N266-E performed
equally with the reference design in this test.
Next we'll turn it up to
"High-Quality" and let it ride.
Ok, so maybe we're asking a bit
too much of the new nForce graphics, but with a little
over clocking the nForce may just push 1024x768 past the
60FPS barrier. Now that we've got the gaming
benchmarks out of the way, let's move on to the business
side of things with the Winstone Suite. Our first test
will be Business Winstone 2001. Below is the description
of what Business Winstone 2001 does from the
Etesting Lab's
website:
"Business Winstone is a
system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a
PC's overall performance when running today's top-selling
Windows-based 32-bit applications on Windows 98 SE, Windows
NT 4.0 (SP6 or later), Windows 2000, Windows Me, or Windows
XP. Business Winstone doesn't mimic what these packages do;
it runs real applications through a series of scripted
activities and uses the time a PC takes to complete those
activities to produce its performance scores. The CD-ROM
that contains Business Winstone includes all the files and
application portions you need to run the benchmark."
Business Winstone 2001:
When it comes to Business
applications, The Asus A7N266-E performed quite well,
slightly passing the reference system.
Next we'll run
Content Creation 2002. Below is
Etesting Lab's
description of how Content Creation tests a system:
"Content Creation Winstone is
a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a
PC's overall performance when running top, Windows-based,
32-bit, content creation applications on Windows 98, Windows
2000, Windows Me, or Windows XP. Content Creation Winstone
2002 uses the following applications:
- Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1
- Adobe Premiere 6.0
- Macromedia Director 8.5
- Macromedia Dreamweaver
UltraDev 4
- Microsoft Windows Media
Encoder 7.01.00.3055
- Netscape Navigator
6/6.01
- Sonic Foundry Sound
Forge 5.0c (build 184)
Following the lead of real
users, Content Creation Winstone 2002 keeps multiple
applications open at once and switches among those
applications. Content Creation Winstone 2002 is a single
large test that runs the above applications through a series
of scripted activities and returns a single score. Those
activities focus on what we call "hot spots," periods of
activity that make your PC really work--the times where
you're likely to see an hourglass or a progress bar."
Content Creation 2002:
This time around, the Asus
A7N266-E fell behind the reference nForce system, although
clearly both of them are quite capable of running the most
intensive multimedia applications on the market. No
matter how you look at it, the A7N266-E is a very capable
motherboard in all aspects of computing.
After giving the ASUS A7N266-E
motherboard a thorough workout, I'm quite comfortable in
stating that we have a winner. nVidia has done a great
job at bringing new life to integrated video. For the first time we are seeing a
motherboard with integrated components that actually
performs capably in all areas. Whether you are looking
for an excellent workstation computer or a complete personal
rig capable of running both games and business applications,
the A7N266-E is ready for the job. If you are a casual
gamer that wants decent performance without having to
purchase a $300 video card, then look no further. This
board aims to please a wide range of users and probably
will.
When it comes to overclocking, our experience was luke-warm at best, with
only modest gains achieved. Then again, if you are a
hardcore overclocker, chances are you aren't running a
board with integrated components anyway.
Our overall experience with the
ASUS A7N266-E was very good, with only a few issues to
complain about. There is no doubt that this product is
the complete package with all the key components needed for
a well-rounded, good performing system. With that
said, we give the ASUS A7N266-E a Hot Hardware Heat-Meter
Rating of a 9!
HotHardware's PC Hardware Forum is all the rage! Are
you in?
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