Benchmarks III
Here is where I expect the on-board graphics to really suffer. First up is the old favourite, 3DMark 2001SE, benchmarked at its default resolution of 1024x768x32.
I'm being a little unkind by punishing the SiS315 graphics like this, it was never designed to play the latest games. 1615 marks indicates that we need to drop the resolution for smooth gaming. Putting in a GeForce4 Ti 4200, however, changed the complexion of the test completely. We get almost 10,000 marks, with best image quality enabled, from such a small, quiet box. Remarkable. If you want a chuckle, you can compare your score with my on-board score http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=4012968
I'll punish the on-board graphics even further by attempting to benchmark Serious Sam 2. I must have a sadist streak in me. Settings are 1024x768x32 Normal preferences. Valley of The Jaguar Timedemo. OpenGL is used.
The 10.9 FPS says it all. Running with a Ti 4200 gives us an almost identical score to a highly-tuned ABIT BD7II motherboard equipped with the same card. Can you now see another possible use for this diminutive box if used with a decent graphics card ?. I can, it screams LAN gaming at me.
Comanche 4, my usual DX8 benchmark refused to run with the on-board video, so it won't be included here. I just have to include benchmarks from Quake 3, one of my all-time favourite games. Benchmarked at 1024x768x32 MAX quality (a bit harsh on the SiS315, I know.)
34.2 FPS was just about playable. The bottom line on 3D performance is if you are seriously entertaining notions of playing the latest games, ditch the on-board graphics for something a little more substantial.
