Performance

The ATI Radeon 9000 Pro is targeted at the low to mid-range market, so we're going to be putting it up against cards from both areas. These include the value-priced GeForce4 MX 440 and MX 460, along with both GeForce3 Ti 200 and 500 boards, and then finishing up with higher-end GeForce4 Ti 4200 results for comparison. In a basic sense, the ATI retail version of the Radeon 9000 Pro is positioned as a GeForce4 MX-killer for a bit more money, but in reality, the GeForce3 Ti 200 is almost its exact twin on the NVIDIA side.

Our reference platform is comprised of a Pentium 4-2.53 GHz processor, a SiS 645DX motherboard and 512-MB of high-end Crucial PC2700. This is a very popular enthusiast configuration, and now that Intel has raised clock rates and lowered prices, Pentium 4-2.26-2.53 GHz range is not outside the budget of many Pentium 4 system buyers.

The ATI Radeon 9000 Pro uses the latest Catalyst 2.3 (7.76) driver release, while the NVIDIA cards feature the latest Detonator 30.82 WHQL Certified drivers. For game benchmarking, we've included the old favorites like Quake 3: Arena, 3DMark 2001SE and Return to Castle Wolfenstein along with newer games such as Jedi Knight II, Comanche 4, Serious Sam; The Second Encounter and Code Creatures. We've also spiced the competition up with full benchmark results using the new Unreal Tournament 2003 Demo.

Test System

General Settings:
Desktop Resolution: 1024x768
Color Depth: 16-bit
V-Sync: Disabled

SiS 645DX - MSI 645E Max 2 Motherboard
Processors: Pentium 4-2.53B
Memory: 512 MB Crucial PC2700 DIMM
Motherboard: MSI 645E Max 2
Motherboard chip set: SiS 645DX
NVIDIA reference drivers: 30.82
ATI reference drivers: Catalyst 2.3/7.76
Hard-Drive: Western Digital 40GB 7200RPM ATA100
IDE Interface: Ultra ATA100
Sound: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live
CD/DVD: Panasonic DVD-ROM
Power Supply: Sparkle 400 Watt
Operating System: Windows XP Pro

Video Cards:
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro Retail (64-MB)
VisionTek Xtasy GeForce4 MX 440
GeForce4 MX 460 (64-MB) Reference
Hercules GeForce3 Ti 200 (64-MB) VisionTek Xtasy GeForce3 Ti 500 (64-MB)
MSI GeForce4 Ti 4200 (64-MB)
VisionTek Xtasy GeForce4 Ti 4200 (128-MB)

Quake III Arena Test Specifics
Version: 1.30 (retail)
V-Sync: Disabled
Sound Disabled
High Quality Defaults

Return to Castle Wolfenstein Specifics:
Version 1.0
High Quality Defaults
Checkpoint MP demo

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter Specifics:
Version 1.05
Elephant Atrium demo

Jedi Knight II Specifics:
Version 1.02 jk2ffa demo

3DMark 2001SE Pro Specifics:
Version 1.0 patched