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Now we have more Quake 3
testing, but this time we enabled anti-aliasing. There
is no reason to sacrifice image quality, with the
performance levels this generation of video cards are
capable of.
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| Quake 3 Arena |
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More at 32 Bit
Color with AA |
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Even with 4X anti-aliasing
enabled, with every graphic option turned up to their
maximum, the MSI Starforce 822 and Visiontek GF3 performed
excellently, with 60+ frames per second scores.
Personally I prefer using the Quincunx AA method...image
quality is about the same, with slightly better performance.
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VulpineGL OpenGL |
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More Goodness... |
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VulpineGL Mark is comprised of
highly detailed indoor and outdoor environments. We enabled
the "GeForce 3" setting and ran through this benchmark in
full screen mode.
VULPINE
GLMARK:
We don't see a clear performance
advantage for either card (which is to be expected), but
they both handled VulpineGL Mark very well. Let us
move onto another OpenGL test...
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Dronez OpenGL |
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32 Bit Color with
Shaders |
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Next we have the Dronez
benchmark. Dronez is a "Next-Gen" OpenGL game that makes
use of the advanced features available in the GeForce 3.
There is a ton of overdraw and the textures are of very high
quality...
DRONEZ:
There was obviously not much of
a performance difference between these two GeForce 3s.
Both cards performed very well, and had excellent image
quality. Even with a game as graphically rich as
Dronez, playability is maintained all the way up to
1600x1200x32.
Our overall
experience with the MSI Starforce 822 was superb. This
card comes with a very complete software bundle, excellent
cooling, composite video in and out, TV out and is backed by
one of the most well respected manufacturers in the
business. Our Starforce 822 was very overclockable,
remained stable and performed very well throughout testing.
With the introduction of the GeForce 3 Ti500, prices on the
original GeForce 3 have dropped off sharply. The ViVo
version of the MSI Starforce 822 can be found on-line for
about $260 US. This relatively low price, coupled with
the performance and complete feature set of the Starforce
822 make it one of this reviewers favorite video cards.
We have no problem recommending the MSI Starforce 822 to
anyone looking for a high-end video card. If it
shipped with some games that take advantage of the GeForce
3's features, the Starforce 822 would have received a
perfect score, but in it's current state we give it a
HotHardware Heat Meter rating of...
Are you
talkin' ta me? Didn't think so! But get into the HotHardware Conference Room and say something
anyway!
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