ATi RADEON XPRESS 200 Series: AMD Platform Chipsets
Next, we did some benchmarking with Epic's Unreal Tournament 2004. When testing with UT 2004, we use a specific set of game engine initialization settings that ensure all of the systems are being benchmarked with the exact same in-game settings and graphical options. Like the other in-game tests, we used a "Low-Quality" setting with UT2004 that isolated CPU performance.
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The RADEON XPRESS 200 performed very well in our custom Unreal Tournament 2004 test. Here, the IGP was able to break the 80FPS barrier when low-quality settings were used. And with a faster graphics card installed, the RADEON XPRESS 200 was able to overtake the nForce3 Ultra based systems by over 10 frames per second.
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For our last game test, we benchmarked all six of the test systems using our custom multiplayer Doom 3 timdemo. We cranked the resolution down to 640 x 480, and configured the game to run at its "Low-Quality" graphics setting. Although Doom 3 typically taxes today's high-end GPUs, when it's configured at these minimal settings it's more CPU / Memory-bound than anything else...
As expected, Doom 3 put the RADEON XPRESS 200's integrated graphics processor through one heck of workout. But the fact that it was able to even run Doom 3 speaks volumes to the usefulness of ATi's IGP, although there did seem to be a problem with how the game was rendered on the IGP. With a discreet card installed though, the RADEON XPRESS 200 was again able to best the nForce3 Ultra, surpassing NVIDIA's chipset by about 7 frames per second in this test.
