Test System Setup

System Setup

Intel Pentium III 600 processor
Intel Celeron 300A processor
Abit BE6-II motherboard
Apacer PC133 128MB SDRAM
Diamond Viper II Z200 (125/155)
     Driver version 4.11.01.9000-9.00.23
ATI Rage Fury MAXX Engineering Sample
     Driver version 4.11.7909
NVIDIA GeForce 256 32MB DDR SGRAM reference
     Driver version Detonator 3.53
NVIDIA GeForce 256 32MB SDR SDRAM reference
     Driver version Detonator 3.53
Creative Labs 3D Blaster Riva TNT2 Ultra (150/183)
     Driver version Detonator 2.08
Western Digital Caviar 102AA 10.2GB 5400RPM EIDE HD
Windows 98 SE

Benchmarks

Quake II 3.20 Demo1 - 640x480x16
Quake II 3.20 Demo1 - 800x600x16

Quake II 3.20 Crusher - 640x480x16
Quake II 3.20 Crusher - 800x600x16

Q3Test 1.08 - 640x480 Fastest, Normal, High Quality
Q3Test 1.08 - 800x600 Fastest, Normal, High Quality
Q3Test 1.08 - 1024x768 Fastest, Normal, High Quality
Q3Test 1.08 - 1280x960 Fastest, Normal, High Quality
Q3Test 1.08 - 1600x1200 Fastest, Normal, High Quality

Expendable demo - 640x480x16
Expendable demo - 640x480x32
Expendable demo - 1024x768x16
Expendable demo - 1024x768x32

Notes

We decided to throw the Viper up against both GeForce cards, the Rage Fury MAXX, and the TNT2U. Diamond is adamant that the Viper II isn't supposed to compete with the GeForce, but the only three next generation cards out, we can't help but compare.

The Viper, MAXX, and both GeForce cards are still incompatible with the new Winbench 2000. We didn't even bother trying to test the TNT2U.

Also, note that the current Savage 2000 drivers don't support DirectX 7 yet. DX7 T&L will have to wait, but we're not really concerned because T&L intensive games won't appear for a couple more months.