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 |
|
Unreal 224 Castle demo (OpenGL) |
|
640x480 |
800x600 |
1024x768 |
|
32.57
fps |
28.91
fps |
23.40
fps |
|
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.