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Athlon XP/2600+: gaming performance

DirectX 8In tests with MadOnion’s 3DMark 2001 SE, the new Athlon XP/2600+ just about matches the 2.53GHz Pentium 4.
Written by Kai Schmerer, Contributor

DirectX 8
In tests with MadOnion’s 3DMark 2001 SE, the new Athlon XP/2600+ just about matches the 2.53GHz Pentium 4. However, the performance differences between the processors are too small to be noticeable in practice.


When running the DirectX 8 game Aquanox, the processors deliver almost identical results. Obviously with this game the graphics card -- even though it’s based on nVidia’s GeForce4 Ti 4600 -- is the limiting factor.

With Comanche 4 the differences are somewhat larger. No matter which type of memory is used, the Pentium 4 comes out on top in this test.

OpenGL
The Vulpine test also reveals no significant differences in performance between the Athlon XP and Pentium 4 processors.


The influence of memory type is clear with Quake 3’s NV-15 demo. The Pentium 4 with PC1066 Rambus memory comes out on top, but with slower memory the chip loses its lead. Interestingly, the Pentium 4 with PC800 Rambus memory is slower than the Athlon XP/2600+ with DDR333 memory. When fitted with the same memory type as the Athlon XP, the Pentium 4 is slightly faster.

A similar picture is evident in the Quake 3 test using the texture-intensive Quaver demo.



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