MadOnion's
3DMark 2001 DirectX 8 benchmark stresses modern 3D Graphics
Hardware to its fullest potential, with scenes from Remedy's
Max Payne engine. Pixel and Vertex shaders are
exercised as well as many modern rendering features like
environmental bump mapping etc.
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MadOnion's 3DMark 2001 Benchmark |
DirectX 8
Performance Comparison |
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So, the moral of
the story that the above charts tell, is what? You can
crank the clock speed and even the memory interface but
there is no substitution for pixel and vertex shaders (which
the GeForce4 MX 460 does not possess) when it comes to
DirectX 8 titles or benchmarks that use them. In this
one 1280X1024 test (no AA was used in any of the above
tests), we decided to show you what a comparably priced
GeForce3 Ti 200 can do. 3DMark scores a test run
lower, if it can't complete certain DirectX 8 testing
feature which enables vertex and pixel shaders.
Truly a GeForce
4 ? Perhaps a little of everything...
Which brings us to
another point of debate that is buzzing around the web
community as of late, that being NVIDIA's branding of the
GeForce4 MX. It has no vertex or pixel shaders and is
not fully DX8.1 compliant, yet they call it a GeForce4?
Well, our take on this whole issue is that NV can call the
product whatever they please. However, it is slightly
miss leading and confusing to the general consumer public
who may not be aware of the differences.
Regardless, frankly it would be hard to properly brand this
card a GeForce 3, 2 or 4 MX, since it is somewhere in the
middle and in between. It has all the performance of a
true "GeForce4" value card, when it comes to Anti-aliasing
for example but will be a little less "future proof" without
DX8.1 compliance. Enough about this. Let's keep
the benchmarks rolling here.
Here we've run
the test at MO's default 1024X768 resolution with 32 bit
color. We then tested 2X and 4X mode AA, since
Quincunx should be somewhat comparable if not very close to
2X performance. The Radeon 8500 loses its lead to the
GeForce3 Ti 500 here, the GeForce4 Ti 4600 smokes past all
cards with a healthy 25 - 35% edge and the GeForce4 MX 460
brings up the rear by a significant margin. Remember
however, most all other cards in this test are hundreds more
from a price standpoint, on the retail shelf, than the
GeForce4 MX 460. Lastly, we show you the impact of the
4XS mode for the G4 Ti 4600, which is minimal at around 4%.
Serious Sam Second Encounter Benchmarks
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