 Unreal Tournament 2003 |
Source: Epic |
|
Unreal
Tournament 2003 is the sequel to 1999's multiple 'Game of the Year' award
winner. It uses the very latest Unreal Engine technology - where graphics, sound and game play are
taken beyond the bleeding edge. Unreal Tournament 2003 employs the use of Vertex
as well as Pixel Shaders and it's recommended that you use a DirectX 8 videocard
to get the most out of the game.
If you're
into FPS games, you'll going to be happy with the Albatron GeForceFX 5700
Ultra GDDR3's performance for sure!
Enter the Next DDR -
GDDR3...
If it's one company that can learn
from their mistakes, it's nVIDIA. Instead of testing out new technology on their
flagship products like the NV30, the company is testing out new technology on
less critical mainstream products. How else can you explain nVIDIA releasing a
GDDR3 version of the GeForceFX 5700 Ultra so late to the game?
The regular GeForceFX 5700 Ultra was already a pretty
decent mainstream videocard, with GDDR3 memory, a lower overall power
consumption, and lower heat production, things are even sweeter.
The new GDDR3 memory offers manufacturers many things;
first and foremost is a lower overall voltage. This can help ease up on
videocard power requirements that really spiraling out of
control. GDDR3 also generates a lot less heat than DDR2, in fact it's
possible to run GDDR3 memory modules without any passive cooling. Lastly GDDR3
scales higher than DDR2, although with a small latency performance
penalty.
If you're looking for a new videocard, the Albatron GeForceFX 5700 U3
is a nice deal - retailing for $260 CDN ($193 US). For that price you
get a pretty quiet videocard that will run all the latest games at moderate
resolutions, with absolutely no problems. The software package is a bit thin
with only WinDVD/WinCreator, Duke Nukem MP and a five game demo CD but at least
Albatron include all the cables you'll need to connect the PC to the TV.
Overall performance of the Albatron GeForceFX 5700U3 was
good, and it was decent at overclocking too. In those tests the core reached 571
MHz, and the memory 1020 MHz. Those of you who are allergic to noise will be
happy to hear that the card is almost silent, thanks in part to Albatron's
custom Wise Fan II cooling system. I was generally quite happy with the
performance of the Albatron GeForceFX 5700U3, but with next generation
cards around the corner, it might be best to wait and see what is on the horizon
before you buy.
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