Techware Labs - Reviews - Albatron GeForce 4 Ti4280PV

Albatron Medusa Series
GeForce 4 Ti4280PV
Reviewed by Shadrach 12.17.2002

Serious Sam Demo

The Serious Sam engine is not new by any means, the game has been out for a couple of years at least. The benchmarking part never really took off. Not much media went to the benchmark side of it. For this review, it was worth a shot.

GeForce 4 Ti4280

GeForce 3 Ti200

Some Beautiful Graphics

Let's see how it performs with the GeForce 4...

800x600

Originally recorded: 6046 frames in 59.5 seconds =>
101.6 FPS average.
Without excessive peaks: 5858 frames in 56.5 seconds =>
103.7 FPS average.
High peak: 155.4 FPS
Low peak: 70.4 FPS
High sustained: 143.7 FPS (14 frames in 0.1 seconds)
Low sustained: 80.1 FPS (105 frames in 1.3 seconds)

Triangles per frame (with and without excessive peaks):
World: 458.0 / 450.3
Model: 7017.1 / 6916.0
Particle: 193.7 / 192.0
rest (2D): 277.8 / 278.6
--------------------
TOTAL: 7946.6 / 7836.9

1024x768

Originally recorded: 6062 frames in 59.5 seconds =>
101.9 FPS average.
Without excessive peaks: 5933 frames in 57.1 seconds =>
103.9 FPS average.
High peak: 157.0 FPS
Low peak: 66.0 FPS
High sustained: 145.1 FPS (13 frames in 0.1 seconds)
Low sustained: 79.2 FPS (80 frames in 1.0 seconds)

Triangles per frame (with and without excessive peaks):
World: 458.2 / 453.7
Model: 7021.6 / 6960.6
Particle: 195.4 / 193.3
rest (2D): 277.3 / 278.1
--------------------
TOTAL: 7952.5 / 7885.7

And now for the GeForce 3...

800x600

Originally recorded: 6065 frames in 59.5 seconds =>
101.9 FPS average.
Without excessive peaks: 5966 frames in 57.7 seconds =>
103.5 FPS average.
High peak: 154.7 FPS
Low peak: 67.6 FPS
High sustained: 140.8 FPS (12 frames in 0.1 seconds)
Low sustained: 80.6 FPS (101 frames in 1.3 seconds)

Triangles per frame (with and without excessive peaks):
World: 457.9 / 453.0
Model: 7019.1 / 6950.5
Particle: 193.5 / 192.4
rest (2D): 277.9 / 278.4
--------------------
TOTAL: 7948.4 / 7874.3

1024x768

Originally recorded: 5863 frames in 59.5 seconds =>
98.5 FPS average.
Without excessive peaks: 5630 frames in 55.5 seconds =>
101.4 FPS average.
High peak: 155.4 FPS
Low peak: 66.9 FPS
High sustained: 143.9 FPS (15 frames in 0.1 seconds)
Low sustained: 80.3 FPS (66 frames in 0.8 seconds)

Triangles per frame (with and without excessive peaks):
World: 464.2 / 457.6
Model: 7067.1 / 6966.2
Particle: 194.8 / 193.1
rest (2D): 277.1 / 277.8
--------------------
TOTAL: 8003.3 / 7894.8

A very strange occurrence in this Serious Sam benchmarking session, the GeForce 3 performed as well as the GeForce 4 card did, even better in some of the readings. This is exactly the point that was trying to be made on the previous page. Just because you have purchased the biggest baddest video card on the market, does not mean that you will hold the advantage in every form or media. Some cards perform better in certain environments. It would have been very nice to have thrown an ATI card into the mix, unfortunately that was not possible at this time.

Conclusion

It is always nice to have the newest and greatest hardware available, it give you some kind of wholesome feeling of completeness. The Albatron GeForce 4 Ti 4280 performs moderately better than the GeForce 3 Ti 200 that it was pitted against. Depending on the price range that the Ti 4280 can be acquired for, it may be worth the money. Though the preferred route would be saving the money until a higher performance card, like the Ti 4600 can be purchased. The 8X option is a big performance boost, but is just lacking higher end clock and memory speed. If the Ti 4280 is what you have in your budget, you should be reassured that you will be getting a great card for your money. Considering Albatrons market longevity and renewed vigor to bring the latest and greatest products to consumers while taking the time to make sure they are doing it right (by acquiring ISO standardization) should be very encouraging.

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