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Some Unreal Tournament 2003 Demo numbers before we hit the non 3D tests. First up, the Flyby part of the benchmark.
UT2003 Flyby performance
We are pretty much graphics card limited in the Flyby test hence the grouping of scores in the systems that use the Radeon. At the other end of the scale we see more evidence of TwinBank going to work and giving us a boost when using the onboard core. 2 sticks good, 1 stick bad.
The botmatch test is more a test of CPU and subsystem power. Look for the Leadtek to keep up with the Asus here.
UT2003 botmatch performance
Our prediction holds true, the XP2700+ in the Leadtek helps it keep pace with the identically equipped Asus. Again, the interesting part of the graph is the IGP performance using the onboard core and the performance penalty for not using TwinBank. Without doing too much math, 30% performance loss is the order of the day when you are relying on the onboard core during a heavy system load and you don't have TwinBank helping you out.
So what about some non 3D tests? Let's have a peek at something that's almost entirely CPU bound, MP3 encoding using LAME 3.92MMX. We load up RazorLame with U2's Pop album in .wav format, set to 192KBit/sec CBR and stand well back while the CPU gets nice and toasty. Razor's cool logging facility tells us how long it took.
MP3 encoding performance
True all out CPU limitation, the Leadtek, even in cripped single channel mode and < 256MB available system memory and the IGP graphics core to run manages to beat out the Asus and even the Gigabyte and 2.8GHz P4. It's the slimmest of margins but it shows you that your CPU is the most important thing when doing MP3 encoding and the Athlon XP's FPU is no slouch.
Pifast and DivX encoding before we take a look at some odds and ends and then the conclusion.
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