The ATI Radeon 9000 Pro is targeted at the low to mid-range market, so we're going to be putting it up against cards from both areas. These include the value-priced GeForce4 MX 440 and MX 460, along with both GeForce3 Ti 200 and 500 boards, and then finishing up with higher-end GeForce4 Ti 4200 results for comparison. In a basic sense, the ATI retail version of the Radeon 9000 Pro is positioned as a GeForce4 MX-killer for a bit more money, but in reality, the GeForce3 Ti 200 is almost its exact twin on the NVIDIA side.
Our reference platform is comprised of a Pentium 4-2.53 GHz processor, a SiS 645DX motherboard and 512-MB of high-end Crucial PC2700. This is a very popular enthusiast configuration, and now that Intel has raised clock rates and lowered prices, Pentium 4-2.26-2.53 GHz range is not outside the budget of many Pentium 4 system buyers.
The ATI Radeon 9000 Pro uses the latest Catalyst 2.3 (7.76) driver release, while the NVIDIA cards feature the latest Detonator 30.82 WHQL Certified drivers. For game benchmarking, we've included the old favorites like Quake 3: Arena, 3DMark 2001SE and Return to Castle Wolfenstein along with newer games such as Jedi Knight II, Comanche 4, Serious Sam; The Second Encounter and Code Creatures. We've also spiced the competition up with full benchmark results using the new Unreal Tournament 2003 Demo.
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