Video 2000 MPEG Encoding

While many of the tests included in Video 2000 may be of questionable use (especially for performance testing) it does have one gem. The MPEG encoding portion of the suite is a pure CPU subsystem test that encodes frames in an MPEG animation and then displays a final framerate.

The benchmarks favor the Athlon XP 2000+ by a very slight margin, but this is as much a statement on the nForce's excellent design, as it is a win for AMD. The scores the Pentium 4-2.2 GHz and Athlon XP 2000+ posted are exceptional, and well ahead of the competition. It may be here that the higher-bandwidth nForce really makes full use of the Athlon XP and really puts the pressure on the i850.

3DMark 2001 Pro

Since MadOnion's 3DMark 2001 is turning into quite a popular 3D benchmark tool, it makes sense to include it in this benchmarking roundup. It also fills the dual role of doing some ad hoc prediction as to which processor may be the best fit for upcoming DirectX 8.0 games. Benchmark testing was performed at 1024x768 using both 16 and 32-bit color/textures, and set for Pure Hardware T&L support.

In 16-bit testing, the Pentium 4-2.2 GHz/i850 system proved too much for the competition, while the tables were turned in 32-bit scores where the Athlon XP 2000+ came out ahead. If you examine the benchmarks closely, the Pentium 4 seems to entail a greater hit when moving to 32-bit mode, while the XP 2000+ shaves less off the 16-bit score and actually overtakes the competition.