The Comanche 4 benchmark from Novalogic gives us an opportunity to use an actual flight sim for 3D video testing. This is a different game engine that we've ever used before, so don't be put off by the relatively low framerates. Just like the high fps of Quake 3, a card's relative position is the most important factor. These tests were run in both 16 and 32-bit modes, with sound disabled.
The Comanche 4 benchmark scores show a very nice separation between the cards, though there is some bunching due to the low framerates. The GeForce3 Ti 500 does fall back quite a bit, especially at higher resolutions, and as expected the MSI G4Ti4600-VTD takes the crown.
In moving to the 32-bit settings, the most telling scores are at 1600x1200. Here, only the MSI G4Ti4600-VTD and GeForce4 Ti 4400 keep up the pace, while the 64-MB boards fall back quite noticeably.
Jedi Knight is the newest Quake 3-based game and some would say it is the among the most resource hungry. In fact, it's been nicknamed the "best reason to own a GeForce4 Ti" and gives us with another excellent way of measuring high-end 3D gaming performance. In this particular instance, the video cards have been tested using standard Normal and High Quality detail settings.
The Jedi Knight II Normal detail scores maintain previous trends at lower resolutions, with more separation happening as these are raised. Once again, 1600x1200 testing show off the power of each card best, with the MSI G4Ti4600-VTD putting in a greater-than 100 fps score.
The High Quality scores are also consistent and right at the levels we expected. As with Normal testing, the most startling results are at 1600x1200 and it's here where we see the real difference between the 128-MB GeForce4 Ti 4600/440 and the 64-MB GeForce3 Ti.
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