X-bit labs

S3 GammaChrome S18 Pro Graphics Adapter Review (page 16)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin

[ 04/19/2005 | 07:19 PM ]

Performance in Semi-Synthetic Benchmarks

Final Fantasy XI Official Benchmark 3

The GammaChrome S18 is slightly behind the RADEON X300 in this semi-synthetic test. The GeForce 6600 has an even smaller result due to the problems with NVIDIA’s cards on the PCI Express platform – this result shouldn’t be considered correct, of course.

Performance in Synthetic Benchmarks

Futuremark 3DMark03

Surprisingly enough, the GammaChrome S18 has got an excellent 3DMark03 score, being more than 500 points better than the RADEON X600 PRO. Where does this high total score come from?

The four vertex processors must be the main contributing factor to the advantage the GammaChrome has over the RADEON X600 PRO in the first test. The GeForce 6600 is on top, but don’t forget that it is an eight-pipelined solution, while the other cards have only four pixel pipelines each.

The S3 GammaChrome S18 is the slowest card in the “eye candy” mode due to the same reason – its way of doing full-screen anti-aliasing is too resource-consuming.

The second test usually runs faster on NVIDIA’s cards, but the GammaChrome isn’t the worst performer here, approaching the GeForce 6600 closely in 1600x1200. The new GPU from S3 is aided greatly by its four vertex processors as well as by its efficient use of the Z buffer. Besides that, it is equipped with memory clocked at 350 (700DDR) MHz – the highest memory frequency among the participating cards.

The advantages of the GammaChrome that helped it in the second game test outweigh the disadvantages of super-sampling, and the card gets the second place, after the GeForce 6600.