Serious Sam: TSE
Serious Sam 2 reinforces the notion that has built up over the past few pages. It's not a total criticism of the card, because one should expect a lower clocked card to be slower. Our concern has more to do with the increased cost and little advantage that 256MB of video memory currently has on a midrange card. You really need a card that can make use of it, a la the FX 5900 Ultra.
Card-swamping time begins again in earnest.
And now all midrange cards are drowned with the sheer number of operations that must be conducted to run at these exotic settings. We should remember that these cards' forte lies in and around 1024x768 with a modicum of image enhancement. It's natural that performance inadequacies will present themselves when tested at 16x12 4x AA / 8x AF. Even the 9800 Pro 256MB and FX 5900 Ultra 256MB begin to come unstuck here.
