Benchmarks III
Let's now turn our attention to gaming to see how the MSI fares. We'll first benchmark MadOnion's 3DMark 2000 at its default resolution of 1024x768x16. I still feel that this benchmark is relevant today as many games still run under DX7 or earlier versions of DirectX.
The MSI 645E Max-LRU topples all other chipsets once again at 100FSB, the improved memory controller and PC2700 support make provide a potent combination. At 133FSB, we see it trailing the I845E simply due to a lack of bandwidth. If we could run the RAM at 200MHz, we're sure the 645DX would outdistance the I845E comfortably. Let's see if the situation is any different under 3DMark 2001SE.
Much the same here, the MSI 645E leads the pack once more at 100FSB and is close behind the I845E at 133FSB, again, bandwidth is all important here.
Let's now have a look at the bandwidth-hungry Valley of the Jaguar benchmark contained within the publicly available edition of Croteam's excellent first person shooter, Serious Sam 2. Settings are 1024x768x32 Normal preferences.
The above demo is characterised by a reliance on bandwidth, that's why we see the 3DMark2001SE's positions mirrored. We must note that the differences between chipsets at 100FSB is minimal, ~3% between highest and lowest, this has been the trend in all of our benchmarks thus far, illustrating just how close they are in real terms. The extra clock speed that accompanies a 133FSB (2133MHz) shows just how effective it is in this context.