Drivers & test System
Drivers and test systemIn this section we'll quickly show you the drivers looks and settings. As stated we are using default settings. The drivers in question are 42.68 drivers which is a few builds newer than previous reviewers have used. They seem to pick up in performance nicely. Let's take a brief look at them.
As you can see AGP8x is enabled, we have DirectX 9 installed of course. Drivers nicely report 128 MB memory. I bet that one or two of you still have a PC with 128 MB don't ya ? Serously grab some cash and get some more memory.
Standard NVIEW settings for Dual Display options.
This is a much discussed tab. NVIDIA calls this the Performanc and Quality settings tab. Here you can select Anti Aliasing (AA) up-to 8xS skewed grid modes and Anisotrpic Filtering modes (AF) ap to 8x. The Texture sharpening setting will crank up the AF level to the next higher one:
1x AF + TS = 2x AF
2x AF + TS = 4x AF
4x AF + TS = 8x AF
8x AF + TS = still 8x AF
At default Balanced is set which is a quality setting closest to ATI's settings. Aggressive is faster and matches ATI performance settings mode.
The usual DirectX3D settings
OpenGL settings, also nothing new here.
Now it is getting interesting. When we enabled the overclocking tab in the registry we notice that the overclocking tab has a 2D and 3D mode. In 2D the memory is clocked slower at 600 MHz while in 3D mode it'll run at 1000 MHz. The same goes for the core, it's set at 300 MHz while in 3D mode it'll go live at 500 MHz. It makes complete sense and allows FlowFX to run silent. You will not notice this frequency decrease at all in terms of performance in 2D.
This setting is actually hidden, you can enable it by downloading the Hidden Features patch from our Detonator driver file section. As you can see you can check and change AGP settings in here.
The tests - Now, let's see what this videocard has in store for us in terms of 3D performance compared to other videocards.| Test system |
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* disabled while benchmarking |
All tests where made in 32 bit colors in resolutions ranging from 1024x768 up-to the Godfather of all gaming resolutions, the 1600x1200 screen mode with all kinds of performance/quality settings.
