The Graphics Card - Graphics Benchmark Programs
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The industry-standard benchmark is called 3DMark2001 SE. However, it’s a synthetic benchmark using theoretical game environments, so it’s not often used exclusively. Instead, it’s used with a number of real games that contain frame counters, which are employed to process prerecorded demos and measure how fast your computer is able to display them. Some games, such as Novalogic’s Comanche 4 and Epic’s Unreal Tournament 2003, contain easy-to-run benchmarks, while others require you to input various commands manually to run their benchmarks.
3DMark2001 SE This synthetic benchmark is widely used in graphics and system hardware reviews across the industry. A free version is available for download at www.futuremark.com. It contains a number of tests that use both gamelike environments and purely synthetic throughput and video processing tests to spit out a final, total score, and individual test results.
The easiest way to use 3DMark is simply to start the program and click the Benchmark button. It’ll run its suite of benchmarks at a resolution of 1024×768 at 32-bit color. If you wish to change anything, such as enabling anti-aliasing, you can click a Change button.
Comanche 4 This Direct3D-accelerated game features a free benchmark that you can download from www.novalogic.com. A helicopter simulator (or sim for short), the game pushes large numbers of polygons and textures through the pipe while using pixel shaders for shading and lighting duties.
It’s very easy to use (Figure 3-8). Simply navigate through the Start menu to the Novalogic folder, and click the Comanche 4 Demo Benchmark Test. Select a resolution, a color depth, and any other options you desire. You should elect to disable vsync so that the benchmark score isn’t limited to your monitor’s refresh rate.
Figure 3-8 Comanche 4 is a DirectX 8.1 game with beautiful lighting effects.
UsingVsync -- When you’re not benchmarking, if the frame rate of a game is higher than a monitor’s vertical refresh rate, graphical irregularities will appear on the screen. Use the vsync option in your card’s driver Setup menu to synchronize the game’s frame rate and the monitor’s vertical refresh rate.
Unreal Tournament 2003 Another game with an easily accessible benchmark, Unreal Tournament 2003 (Figure 3-9) is a relatively recent game that features a late generation 3-D engine that strains any system. The benchmark runs two modes, flyby and botmatch, each of which stresses the system with scads of polygons, textures, and special effects.
To run the UT 2003 benchmark, navigate to the game’s SYSTEM directory and find the file called benchmark.exe. Choose your resolution and let the system do the rest. When the benchmark is complete, it returns a score for both its flyby and its botmatch modes.
Figure 3-9 Unreal Tournament 2003 features a sexy engine that strains any system.
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
Croteam’s frenetic sequel to the Doom-style sensation features a beast of a game engine and cutting-edge graphics (see Figure 3-10). Here’s how to run a benchmark:
- Navigate through the Options menu to Video Options, and adjust the graphical settings as you wish. You’ll find more graphics settings, such as bilinear/trilinear filtering settings, in the Advanced Options menu.
- Then pull down the console by pressing the apostrophe (`) key. Type /dem_bProfile=1 and press ENTER. Press the apostrophe key (`) again to close the console.
- Finally, open the Demos menu. Select the Cooperative demo for the best taste of what your graphics card can do.
- When the demo finishes running, pull down the console to find the average fps score.
Figure 3-10 Serious Sam: The Second Encounter uses OpenGL to accelerate its visceral world.
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
This popular Star Wars game is based on the OpenGL-accelerated Quake 3 Arena engine. It represents a sweeping update of the engine, offering new effects, more detailed models, and other new twists (see Figure 3-11).
- Run the multiplayer executable. Before you run the benchmark, make a stop in the System menu and set up the graphical options to suit your needs. You need to jump through a few flaming hoops to run the benchmark.
- Pull down the console by holding SHIFT and pressing the apostrophe (`). Type devmap ffa_bespin and then press ENTER. A multiplayer map will load.
- Pull down the console again, if necessary, and enter timedemo 1 and then disconnect. The map will close.
- Finally, enter demo jk2ffa in the console and the demo will run. When it’s over, pull down the console and press the PAGE UP key to scroll upward until you see a score in fps.
Figure 3-11 Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast is based on the Quake 3 Arena engine.
 This chapter is from Build Your Own High Performance Gamers' Mod PC, by Chen and Durham (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004, ISBN: 0072229012). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now. |
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