Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, Massasi Temple

This game uses the latest engine from ID Software. In lower resolutions this game is often indifferent to the graphics card and shows the same speed.

As you see, in lower resolutions of the “raw” mode the game runs with the same speed on any graphics card. The speed is limited either by the CPU, or by some peculiarities of the game engine. But in higher resolutions we see the following picture: RADEON 8500 is in the lead, followed by RADEON 9000 PRO and GeForce4 MX440. RADEON 9200 is the last one here.

The exciting situation takes place in 1280x1024 with enabled FSAA and anisotropic filtering: GeForce4 MX440 beats RADEON 8500, although it is defeated by the latter in all other modes. Maybe RADEON 8500 has a really hard time here because of the higher anisotropy level equal to 8x. Besides, anti-aliasing by R200 and RV250 takes more resources than on NV17/NV18.

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, Grand Cathedral

The engine of this game is more progressive than the one from ID Software. So, we can evaluate the performance of the value cards in present-day gaming applications quite objectively here.

RADEON 9000 PRO outperforms RADEON 8500 thanks to certain optimizations ATI included into RV250, while RADEON 9200 is faster than GeForce4 MX440. Actually, there is no difference in the architecture of RADEON 9000 PRO and 9200, but the latter lacks fast memory: in 1280x1024 resolution it loses its ground, falling just 1.3fps behind GeForce4 MX440.

By the way, Serious Sam can render four textures per pass if the graphics chip allows. In our case, ATI chips do allow this, while GeForce4 MX440 can only render two textures per pass. This fact must have affected the results of the test.