MSI FX5950 Ultra - Page 11

Unreal Tournament 2004

Unreal Tournament 2004 is a multiplayer first person shooter that combines the kill-or-be-killed experience of gladiatorial combat with cutting-edge technology.

Ten game modes - both team-based and "every man for himself" -- provide even the most hardcore gamer with palm-sweating challenges through unbelievably detailed indoor arenas and vast outdoor environments.

As the ultimate techno-gladiator of the future, players will take their fates into their hands, battling against up to 32 other players online in action-packed, frag-filled arenas

- Unreal Tournament 2004 Benchmark

Many new features and maps are available in Unreal T. 2004. Also, the gameplay has changed in many of its game types. For example, there is the "Onslaught" game type where you have to take over the enemy base using war-machines and vehicles in a massive map. For this reason, we included an Onslaugh and a Capture The Flag (CTF) map.

As with the other games, we conducted the benchmark using our time demos in the 1024x768, 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 resolutions. All tests were done with the maximum detail settings selected. 2 bots were used on the Ons-Torlan map and 8 bots on the CTF-Bridge of Fate map. First, let's see the Onslaught game type test on the Torlan map.

Here, MSI's Ultra managed to keep a low profile but with a stable performance under all three resolutions.

Enabling the Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering settings, the FX5950U keeps the performance above 65 with 1024x768 and 1280x1024, but finally collapses to 45 when the resolution is upped to 1600x1200. Even though that is still acceptable, it's almost half the rate of the X800XT.

Except for the Onslaught game type, unreal T. 2004 also has the following game types: Assault, Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch, Double Domination, Bombing Run, Mutant, Invasion and Last Man Standing. I also used a Capture the Flag time-demo with the same high quality settings.The CTF map I picked is the Bridge of Fate with 8 bots.

Both cards here performed equally well. With the framerate hovering at around 110, nothing can prevent you from having a nice Capture the Flag match with your buddies. We'll increase the image quality and re-examine the performance.

Excellent performance by both cards. With a small decrease of around 8 fps under 1024x768 and a framerate of 70 at 1600x1200, there's nothing you can do to bring the FX5950U to its knees.