Nvidia GeForce3 Ti 500 Preview (Page 6/6)

Posted: October 1, 2001
Written by: Dan "Tweak Monkey" Kennedy

3DMark 2001

3DMark 2001 @ 1280 x 1024 x 32bpp; 4X FSAA enabled

GF3 10.40 - {failed}
GF3 21.85 - 3060
GF3 Ti500 - 3422

For some reason I could not get the GF3 to pass this test without crashing using Windows 2000 and the early drivers. This Direct3D test for the GF3 and GF3 Ti500 with equal drivers does not show a large improvement, but it is likely that future drivers will squeeze even more from the card. Current games like Max Payne run flawlessly at almost any setting with Direct3D anyway.

3DMark 2001 @ 1600 x 1200 x 32bpp; FSAA disabled

GF3 10.40 - {failed}
GF3 21.85 - 3812
GF3 Ti500 - 4189

For kicks I ran the test again at 1600x1200x32bpp with FSAA disabled. As you can see, the GF3 Ti500 barely edged out the plain GF3 (9% improvement).

Overall the performance is as expected. With equally developed drivers, the card is only as fast as the clock speed allows. Nvidia claims massive performance increases in Windows XP, so we can assume the benefit of using the newest drivers in XP is even greater. However, that test will have to wait for another day.

Evaluation, Pricing, and Conclusion

The GF3 Ti500 is definitely the fastest video card for games that we've tested to date. It does not really have any new features, and you've read about the GF3 for the last seven months, so I don't think we really need to explain what this card is all about. There are two key reasons why someone would want to buy this video card: (1) To have the absolute fastest card for games, regardless of price, or (2) To play games at 1600x1200x32bpp, with FSAA and minimal slowdowns.

Pricing is as follows:
GeForce3 Ti 500 will initially be priced at approximately $349
GeForce3 Ti 200 will initially be priced at approximately $199
GeForce2 Ti will initially be priced at approximately $149

The GF3 Ti200 will offer GF3 performance for a bit cheaper. The GF2 Ti will offer approximately the same performance as a GF2 Ultra for much cheaper. We'll have further coverage of the other Titanium cards when we get a chance to test them out.

I think that covers all the bases. Thanks for reading, and look forward to seeing the GeForce3 Ti500 (and its Titanium siblings) on store shelves very soon.

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