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FIC AN11 Stealth Socket A Motherboard Review
FIC AN11 Stealth Socket A Motherboard Review - PCSTATS
The AN11 Stealth is powered by VIA's much loved KT266A chipset, which practically guarantees that the board is going to be a great performer.
 80% Rating:   
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: FIC Mar 14 2002   C. Sun  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > FIC AN11 Stealth

Gaming Benchmarks & Conclusions

3DMark2001 SE Source: MadOnion

3DMark2001 SE is the latest installment in the 3DMark series by MadOnion. By combining DirectX8 support with completely new graphics, it continues to provide good overall system benchmarks. 3DMark2001 SE has been created in cooperation with the major 3D accelerator and processor manufacturers to provide a reliable set of diagnostic tools. The suite demonstrates 3D gaming performance by using real-world gaming technology to test a system's true performance abilities. Tests include: DirectX8 Vertex Shaders, Pixel Shaders and Point Sprites, DOT3 and Environment Mapped Bump Mapping, support for Full Scene Anti-aliasing and Texture Compression and two game tests using Ipion real-time physics. Higher 3DMark scores denote better performance.

3DMark 2001 SE Benchmark Results
Motherboards 3DMarks Ranking
1. AN11 - 133 MHz FSB 8210
2. AN11 - 140 MHz FSB 8462

Being able to break 8000 3DMarks is quite a feat, especially at stock speeds! Overclocking doesn't really improve things that much which is odd, but then again we did do much of an overclock.

Quake III Arena

Source: ID Software

Quake III Arena is a First Person Shooter (FPS) that revolutionized gaming as we know it. Using multiple light sources and having graphics textures that can fill videocards, even after 3 years it's still able to bring a cutting edge system to its knees.

Quake III Arena Fastest demo001
Motherboard FPS Ranking
1. AN11 - 133 MHz 254.7
2. AN11 - 140 MHz 273.1

Quake III Arena Fastest nv15demo
Motherboard FPS Ranking
1. AN11 - 133 MHz 72.3
2. AN11 - 140 MHz 75.5

With the fastest settings enabled, the AN11 scores some very nice numbers.

Quake III Arena MAX 1024x768 demo001
Motherboard FPS Ranking
1. AN11 - 133 MHz 182.3
2. AN11 - 140 MHz 196.4

Quake III Arena MAX 1024x768 nv15demo
Motherboard FPS Ranking
1. AN11 - 133 MHz 53.7
2. AN11 - 140 MHz 55.2

As the resolution is turned up, the videocard becomes the limiting factor. Still, it's a gamers heaven to be able to play Q3 at 1024x768 with everything on while still pulling about 200 fps.

Conclusion:

It's a guaranty that any board based on VIA's KT266A chipset will perform well and while the FIC AN11 Stealth does put out some nice numbers, there are no large performance gains to separate itself from the rest of the pact. The feature set is good but with USB2.0 on the cusp of wide implementation it comes up short. In terms of stability, the AN11 Stealth performed admirably during our tests - it did not BSOD once even with all three DIMM slots populated with double sided DDR RAM.

In terms of value, for just under $100USD the AN11 Stealth does come with a host of onboard features, such as IDE RAID, which we were happy to see. Onboard audio is taken care of by VIA's AC'97 codec, not the best onboard audio solution but one that does the job if you're not looking for anything spectacular.

It was interesting that our unlocked AthlonXP 1900+ was detected as a 2000+, but that may have been a BIOS issue. Being the speed freak I am, I was a little disappointed to see that the AN11 didn't have many overclocking options. Also, the close proximity of so many large capacitors will limit many users from using larger heatsinks.

Overall we were pretty pleased with the AN11. It's not a board for the overclocking enthusiast, or night time tweaker, but for anyone look for good value, a fair set of features, and utmost reliability the AN11 Stealth won't disappoint from what we have seen.

< Previous Page © 2023 PCSTATS.com Motherboards Reviews...»

 

Contents of Article: FIC AN11 Stealth
 Pg 1.  FIC AN11 Stealth Socket A Motherboard Review
 Pg 2.  Around the Socket: Heatsink Clearances
 Pg 3.  VIA KT266A Chipset and BIOS
 Pg 4.  Benchmarks, lovely benchmarks!
 Pg 5.  — Gaming Benchmarks & Conclusions

 
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