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.
It should
be no surprise to anyone that the botmatch framerates stay about the same. With
the flyby we see that AA affects framerates quite a bit, if you use anything
above 4x AA you really do not have playable framerates. 4x AA with 8x AF makes
the picture look silky smooth!
Inexpensive, purple, and
Fast!
Looking back, I think a lot
of consumers were quite surprised by the release of the GeForceFX 5900XT GPU -
it seemed like a desperate move by nVIDIA to try and recapture the mainstream
market from ATI. Fortunately for nvidia, and consumers, it worked and worked
extremely well! Don't take my word for it though, check out some other computer
hardware publications and you'll no doubt see the same thing; GeForceFX 5900XT
based videocards rock!
In the computer industry, AOpen manufacturers pretty
much everything from motherboards to soundcards, cases, optical drives and even
videocards. Despite that diversity, AOpen's level of quality and service is
still near the top of their class!
The GeForceFX 5900XT GPU (and memory) typically runs
with a stock speed of 390/700MHz, but the AOpen card is overclocked by default
at 420/700MHz. As you can guess, the higher core speed definitely translates
into higher real world framerates!
Any card based around the GeForceFX 5900XT will be fast,
and the AOpen GeForceFX 5900XT is no different. Performance at
stock speeds was very good, and when the card was overclocked to 466/845, things
were simply that much sweeter. In fact, the card was as fast or faster than an
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro or GeForceFX 5950 Ultra videocard!
Those of you who are looking for a huge software bundle
will probably be a bit disappointed as the Aopen GeForceFX 5900XT comes only
with PowerDVD 5 and a driver CD. However, the $239 CDN ($175
US) retail price is among the lowest we've ever seen, and is
certainly much more compelling than a copy of Serious Sam. With the money you
save, you can go buy yourself a copy of FarCry or UT2004! ;-)
Remember, just because you're looking for a mainstream
videocard doesn't mean you cannot get top of the line performance, the AOpen's
GeForceFX 5900XT certainly proves that!
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