Sorry to be cliché, but Quake3 is still the best fillrate limited OpenGL benchmark out there. It's also one of the most popular games on the web, so here comes the onslaught of demo001 numbers. I decided to show you the numbers with the out-of-the-box drivers vs. the Detonator3's.
Despite 3D Turbo's great functionality, the Detonator3 drivers are a must for any GeForce2 owner. Let's get to the other de facto standard in Direct3D benchmarks, 3D Mark 2000.
There has been a lot of back and forth conversations in the discussion groups on how to benchmark for a review. I personally take the stand against CPU limited benchmarks in a video card review. I also take a stand against the 3D mark 2000 "magic number" that appears after running the benchmark. What I do like about 3D Mark is the result browser, which allows you to see how the card does in each section of the test. The numbers taken seperately, allow the readers to see the performance differences from card to card, caused by bandwidth limits or polygon throughput.
And now in 32-bit color...
As of late, MSI has gained a reputation for overclocking results. However, the reputation has been limited to their motherboards ability to overclock CPU's. In a way, MSI helped to fuel Abit's resurgence as the OC'ers best friend by applying pressure. But what about the video cards?
Not bad. The StarForce GTS had very similar results to my Annihilator2, achieving 230MHz core and 372MHz memory. As with the Annihilator2, I could take it higher for a single benchmark, but two or three runs it would lock. Here is a chart that shows the bonus frames per second that come with moving the clock sliders to the right.
It's the typical 10-15% at fillrate limited resolutions that we have come to expect from GeForce2 cards pushed past the stock specs. As soon as 3Dturbo is updated to 6.18, the overclocking applet will make the MSI driver bundle very attractive, as it is very easy to access, unlike the Det3's used here; i.e. no registry hacks and it is not 12 clicks from the desktop.
Next Page: Wrap it up
