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With an
advanced gaming engine and awesome graphics, Unreal
Tournament 2003 truly taxes the performance of a video
card. We look forward to seeing the next generation
of gaming metrics with the release of Doom 3, but until
that day arrives, UT2K3 is the measuring stick. For
these tests we perform a fly by using the Antalus map.
Here are the numbers...
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Unreal Tournament 2003 Benchmarks |
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Current, Mainstream Direct X 8 Game play |
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The GFFX5200
led the way in both resolutions with and without
antialiasing enabled. We were unable to complete a
run of benchmarks at 1024x768 with 4X AA enabled in UT2K3
with the Radeon 9200 card. We believe the issues lie
within the latest release of ATI's v3.4 Catalyst drivers.
Once the issue is resolved we will be able to update this
article with the AA numbers for the Radeon 9200 video
card.
SAPPHIRE
RADEON 9200 ATLANTIS 128MB
To view this
card in its proper perspective, we have to draw our
conclusion with the money conscious user in mind.
Although most of us would love to have a Radeon 9800 or
GFFX5900 Ultra sitting in our machines, that reality is
far fetched since those cards weigh in at over $400.
What the enthusiast likes to see, is a graphics card that
can play today's games at reasonable resolutions and still
produce playable frame rates at 60 fps or better.
While the Sapphire Radeon 9200 managed to play a couple
games meeting these criteria, we feel it is not a "serious
gamer's" card. With any sort of quality settings
enabled, performance dropped to unplayable levels.
Playing a game at 800x600 with no quality settings enabled
is acceptable to some, but enthusiast gamers will pass by
Radeon 9200 standard variant, at least opting for the
"Pro" version of the card. A quick search on price
puts the Sapphire Radeon 9200 Atlantis 128MB graphics card
at $79 compared to $68 for its GeForce FX5200 counterpart.
Since the GFFX5200 card outpaced Sapphire's hardware and
comes in cheaper, why would anyone want the
"Powered-by-ATI" Sapphire Atlantis? Because it's a
great card for everyday use, and an occasional gaming
experience is not out of the question. Throw in the
fact that the Sapphire card comes with 128MB of RAM,
offers 8X AGP support and boasts VIVO functionality and
you have good bang for the buck here. So while this
card may not appeal to most gamers, it's a more than
capable home-theater PC card that will do everyday jobs
just fine. If you're in the market for a very low
cost card that offers quality graphics and a slew of
functionality for the price, then the Sapphire Radeon 9200
Atlantis card is for you. If you're in the market
for a great gaming experience we feel there are other
options that would better suit those needs. In light
of those arguments, we're giving the Sapphire Radeon 9200
Atlantis 128MB graphics card a HotHardware heat meter
rating of...
Are
you are Poly Pushing, Anisotropically Filtered Gaming
Ninja?
Then Speak your mind in the
HotHardware Forums!
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