Jedi Knight is the newest Quake 3-based game and many would say it is the most resource hungry. In fact, it's been nicknamed the "best reason to own a GeForce4 Ti" and supplies us with another excellent way of measuring high-end gaming performance. In this particular instance, the processors have been tested using standard High Quality detail settings with the resolution increased to 1024x768.
Jedi Knight II is another very close race, and here the Athlon XP 2700+ takes a split decision against Intel. AMD's performance numbers do surpass those of the RDRAM Pentium 4-2.8 GHz, but once the SiS 645DX and DDR33 are brought in, AMD moves ahead into second place.
The Comanche 4 benchmark from Novalogic gives us an opportunity to use an actual flight sim for performance testing. Flight sims are notorious for their CPU-dependence, and this makes the Comanche 4 benchmark potentially a better CPU test than it is for 3D video cards. The reliance on the CPU shows itself off in the benchmark, and even the slightest difference in framerates could pay off in significantly enhanced game framerates. For our processor comparison, all testing has been performed at 1024x768, 32-bit with audio disabled.
The Athlon XP 2700+ continues to close ground in every benchmark, but our Comanche 4 testing indicates that its performance continues to fall just shy of the Pentium 4-2.8 GHz. Any score over 50 fps is great for this hard-nosed flight sim, but by the same token, even a 2-3 fps difference suggests a lot of CPU juice.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein is another Quake-based game, but with some notable differences. The basic game engine may be the same, but the graphics, gameplay and stress it puts on a processor are very different. Until the next Quake game appears, RtCW is the next best way to determine high-end Quake engine performance. We have used the Checkpoint MP demo using the default High Quality detail settings and have upped the resolution to 1024x768.
In Return to Castle Wolfenstein benchmarking, the Athlon XP 2700+ demonstrates higher relative performance than 266 MHz Athlon XP models, but it's still not enough to surpass either the DDR or RDRAM-equipped Pentium 4-2.8 GHz.
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