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3D Spotlight : Hardware : Powercolor GameBoard DreamCode review

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Powercolor GameBoard DreamCode review
Posted by Julio Franco on May 2, 1999 - Page 2/3

Integrated Video performance
The on-board TNT chip was running at the default 90mhz, I didn't try overclocking it but it's important to notice that the chip came with a fan mounted so I'm sure you'll be able to get higher speeds without problems.

But, I know what you're thinking, Voodoo3 and TNT2 cards from a few manufacturers are now available in stores, consider that the TNT is still a very fast chip with rock solid Direct3D and OpenGL performance, actually, one of the few cards with a complete OpenGL ICD.

Also remember that the DreamCode is part of a family of motherboards with video and audio integrated, Powercolor has planned to release two new mobos, one of them based in the Voodoo 3 chip (DreamSaga) and another one based on S3's upcoming Savage4, (DreamPop) both with 16mb SGRAM, these are going to be very very interesting products, specially if the price isn't too high.

Back to the DreamCode...

Remember that you're not buying a TNT card but a complete motherboard+video+audio solution, the DreamCode is an excellent performer.

  • Using nVIDIA RIVA TNT technology & chipset
  • On-board 16MB SDRAM with 100/125MHz operation
  • 128-bit 2D engine, 250MHz RAMDAC
  • 128-bit VGA core & 128-bit memory interface

Benchmarks
I ran the benchmarks in a Celeron @ 450mhz, 128mb ram, Maxtor 8.4GB HD, sound turned on (high quality), and with the TNT chip running at default speed using the latest Detonator drivers.

  Quake 2 demo1 (OpenGL)

640x480

800x600 1024x768

73.2 fps

55.9 fps 35.7 fps
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  Unreal 224 Castle demo (OpenGL)

640x480

800x600 1024x768

32.57 fps

28.91 fps 23.40 fps
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  Turok 2 TMARK (Direct 3D)

640x480

800x600 1024x768

51.3 fps

52.9 fps 45.7 fps

As you can see, the DreamCode is an overall, very fast solution but as I said if you always want the best performance possible and like to have the latest 3D card installed in your system, the DreamCode isn't what you're looking for.


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