And of course Quake3. I wasn't going to include this page, but what the heck. I asked for it right? Normal settings with texture compression enabled along with high quality sound. No pics. Just numbers.
Quake3 Performance - 16-Bit Color
The GeForce2 MX does a good job of hanging in there with FSAA disabled and at a 1.5x1.5 setting. At a setting of 2x2 the GeForce2 MX manages 54.1fps, but that comes with an 84% decrease in performance when compared with FSAA disabled (99.8fps). The GeForce2 GTS and Ultra don't even flinch at these settings.
Quake3 Performance - 32-Bit Color
Unfortunately, enabling FSAA in 32-bit color takes a huge toll on the GeForce2 MX. Compared with FSAA disabled, performance of the GeForce2 MX drops by 78% at a 1.5x1.5 setting and a whopping 180% at 2x2. Even the GTS takes a 72% decrease in performance (from 103.8fps to 60.2fps).
The GeForce Ultra shows its muscle in this test getting over 80fps at 1280x1024 with no FSA and at 640x480 with 2x2 FSAA. Keep in mind this is with high quality sound enabled!
This has been an interesting, and time consuming, article to put together. It all started when I began playing around with Flight Simulator 2000. As I said before, FS2000 was the first flight sim I ever played and while I was shocked by its sub-par performance, FSAA does wonders for the game.
On the other hand, Mercedez-Benz Truck Racing and Motocross Madness II look great with 3x3 FSAA enabled, but personally I would rather play them at higher resolutions. The primary reason is that these two games move at such a faster pace than FS2000 that you really don't notice the benefits of FSAA.
First person shooter games also move at such as fast pace, that the benefits of FSAA are barely noticed during actual gameplay as well. With three of us (me and two kids) playing first person shooters, we opt to play games such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, and Soldier of Fortune at 1280x960. All three GeForce2 cards can handle it.
As for the X-Isle demo, FSAA looked great as the movement was slow enough that you could appreciate the difference. However, I was disappointed by the GeForce2 Ultra as it only performed on par with the GeForce2 GTS.
The GeForce2 Ultra was clearly superior to the GeForce2 MX and GTS in MDK2 and Quake3 using 32-bit color. This includes performance at 1280x960 and at 2x2 FSAA. But is the performance worth the price? It may not be. A recent poll (dated 8/22) indicated that visitors to nV News are satisfied with what they have as 77% of them are awaiting the NV20.
Is FSAA an important feature for you? Head on over to the forum and let us know.
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