Review: Stuart
"Veridian3"
Davidson
Editor/Design: Allan "Zardon"
Campbell
3dmark2001 SE is a very popular benchmark that has been broadly used
to evaluate Microsoft's Direct X 8.0 and 8.1 graphics hardware. This
test is primarily composed of fixed-function DX7-style rendering,
with a selection of DX8-style pixel shaders included on a few specific
tests.
Whilst not phenomenal scores from the Volari
they are by no means bad. For example, in out review of the 5950U
and 9800XT they scored 17000 (FX) and 19000 (XT) on the Opteron 146
(2.0ghz) system that we used. (1024x768 0xaa 0xaf)
Driver Issues with 3Dmark01?
None to report really, based on the several runs through that we performed
everything appeared acceptable. The IQ wasn’t as good as ATI
or Nvidia’s however it was by no means bad.
3dmark03 is the newest
benchmark from Futuremark, and the only benchmark in common use that
is designed specifically for Direct X 9.0 graphics hardware.
This test is especially challenging in that it exerts a heavy pixel
shader and vertex shader load on the graphics adapter. Today's popular
game titles still tend to use a fixed-function DX7 style of rendering,
with a few optional shaders thrown in for special effects. While the
current crop of game-based benchmarks can be made to create a heavy
fillrate load (by increasing resolution and adding AA and/or AF),
they do not stress the portions of the graphics processor that will
become critical in next-generation titles - the shader engines.
3dmark03 contains multiple scenes
that are completely shader-driven and as such is highly valuable as
a forward-looking benchmark test.
For the 3D Mark 03 tests we have
used build 340 of the benchmark. Currently there are no Futuremark
approved Reactor drivers for the Volari. This means that Futuremark
have not been able to categorically say there are no illegal optimisations
in the drivers. With this in mind, here are the scores for the Volari
The scores in 3dMark2003
were a little disappointing, not even close to 9800XT or 5950Ultra
scores (both over 5500).
Driver Issues
with 3Dmark03?
There was one main issue in running the 3dMark03 tests the card struggled
to complete any benchmark run at 1600x1200. Each time game test 3
was run the card became unstable and froze the test system requiring
a hard reset this was tested with the CPU both at stock and overclocked.
On one occasion we were able to gain a valid 3dmark score and it is
shown above. IQ was neither good nor bad however Game test 2 was overly
dark when compared to ATI or Nvidia cards.
