Gaming: Aquamark 3, 3DMark 2001SE (Synthetic tests)
3DMark 2001SE
3DMark 2001SE is one of those often overlooked tools. Though it’s not too useful as a benchmark these days, I personally find it more useful as a system diagnostic. Running 3DMark 2001, you have a certain expectation of the results and when they fall far below that, you generally know something isn’t right – which is always useful to know. Though 3DMark 2001SE only employs DirectX 8 and lower (versus the DirectX 9 games we see today), it still remains a good way of comparing CPU and graphics performance across multiple systems.
Given the results on the previous page, this wouldn’t be too surprising. The Dragon 2 once again is essentially equal to the nForce 2 Ultra400. But for those who have run 3DMark 2001SE on the same system multiple times, a 100 mark difference is insignificant since scores fluctuate up or down 500 points.
Aquamark 3
Unlike 3DMark 2001SE, Aquamark is a DirectX 9 benchmark and is a slightly better reflection of performance you would see in some newer games today.
Much like 3DMark 2001SE and some of the previous tests, the Dragon 2 comes very close to matching the nForce 2 Ultra400. But let’s see how this translates into real-world game performance shall we?
