3D Blaster GeForce
- — 21 December, 1999 15:56
The GeForce 256 GPU features a 256-bit QuadPipe rendering engine, consisting of four independent 3D rendering engines working in parallel to improve graphics without dropping performance.
The bottom line is that the new processor will take away a considerable amount of 3D graphics processing traditionally performed by your computer's CPU and perform it on board the graphics card to vastly improve 3D graphics on your screen.
We ran several benchmarks on the 3D Blaster and were pleasantly surprised by some of the results. In fact it's fair to say we were pretty excited.
We used two machines as test platforms - an Intel PII 300MHz with 64MB of RAM and an AMD Athlon 550MHz with 128MB of RAM. We assessed 2D graphics performance using PC World Bench 98 and discovered no real differences there between the GeForce card and cards based on TNT2, Voodoo3 and G400. When we moved to the 3D arena, things began to change.
3DMark99 Max didn't yield much difference, as its emphasis is not based on the graphics card processor, but rather more towards overall system performance. It came down to the nitty gritty when we ran Quake II and KingPin frame rate tests. To give a gauge to measure against, the best recorded frame rates on the Intel-based test platform at 1024 x 768 with a 32MB TNT2 card, were 61fps for Quake II, and 31fps for KingPin.
The GeForce bettered these rates convincingly, returning a Quake II frame rate of 78fps and 44fps for KingPin. The frame rate performance gap widened more so on the Athlon 550. Once again a TNT2-based card had recorded the highest frame rates in both Quake II (69fps) and KingPin (56fps). The GeForce proved its like of powerful systems by returning respective Quake II and KingPin frame rates of a whopping 119 and 86!
Clearly, 3D gaming is the big winner making the 3D Blaster GeForce an object of desire for the gaming enthusiast.
3D Blaster GeForce
Price: $599
Distributor: Creative Pacific
Phone: (02) 9906 8887
URL: www.cppl.com.au
