NVIDIA GeForce3 Roundup - July 2001

Performance

One can only expect speed differences on the order of a few percent between cards based on the same chip, so why did we test the performance of each GeForce3 included in this roundup? We wanted to ensure that all the cards were performing on the same level. We choose Serious Sam as the benchmark of choice, and the following graphs show how each card did at our standard test resolutions.

At 640x480x32, the 7 cards tested all performed within 6% of one another. The top scoring card was the Gainward CARDEXPERT GeForce3 PowerPack !!!, which outperformed the next closest card by 2%. The vast majority of cards fell at around 95 FPS at 640x480x32. The differences between cards are likely caused by BIOS revisions used and normal variations between runs. The Gainward CARDEXPERT GeForce3 PowerPack !!! does seems to hold a clear advantage, albeit a small one.

Scores really seem to normalize when the resolution is increased to 1024x768x32. At this resolution in our tests we found that the top scoring Gainward CARDEXPERT GeForce3 PowerPack !!! was only 2% faster than the "slowest" card of the bunch: the Absolute Multimedia Morpheus GeForce3. Variations on the level of 2% can be considered almost nonexistent, since variations between runs can be around this level normally. The average framerate was around 82 frames per second at this resolution.

The performance difference between cards is small again at 1600x1200x32, with the spread between cards only measuring 3%. Once again, we find the Gainward card on the top of the charts, sustaining a small performance advantage over its competitors. The average framerate of all the cards at this resolution was about 43.3 frames per second.

As the above graphs show, no one card holds a large advantage over the others in terms of performance: all are pretty much on the same level, which is what we should expect. The graphs also show that no one card is left behind; once again, something we have come to expect from card utilizing the same chip. It is, however, better to be safe than sorry.