Ahh, Unreal Tournament 2004. Evolving on the absolutely classic deathmatch style game, UT2004 is the pinnacle of gaming on the Mac. This is the 4th generation of Unreal game for the Macintosh, and by far the most demanding on your system. If you don't have at least a 1.2GHz G4 upgrade and a fast graphics card, you're at a serious disadvantage when playing this game online against the competition. Don't be shamed and humbled by people online because your SYSTEM is too slow- upgrade your Mac today and play with the big boys! :>)
Performing a timedemo is a simple automated procedure, when using the great tools provided by SantaDuck (yes, that's his name, even Apple uses his demo to compare systems!). This demo was performed on the Asbestos deathmatch level at 1024x768, max detail.
400MHz Apple G4 Procesor (Stock) (100MHz AGP Gigabit Ethernet)
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-Scores of 0 FPS indicate either processor or video card were unable to execute the timedemo-
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400MHz - Stock Processor (100MHz AGP Gigabit Ethernet) |
FPS |
nVidia GeForce4MX 64MB |
11.48
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ATI RADEON 9000 128MB |
11.335
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ATI RADEON 9000 64MB |
11.222
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nVidia GeForce3 64MB |
11.041
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nVidia GeForce4Ti 128MB |
11.005
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ATI RADEON 8500 64MB |
10.828
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ATI RADEON 9800 128MB |
10.289
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nVidia GeForce2MX 32MB |
9.745
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nVidia GeForce4MX 32MB |
9.484
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ATI RADEON 9200 128MB (PCI) |
7.726
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ATI Rage 128 Pro 16MB |
0
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Ouch, this would be a very unpleasant gaming experience with any graphics card. Time to upgrade! |
900MHz OWC Mercury Extreme G4 (100MHz AGP Gigabit Ethernet)
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-Scores of 0 FPS indicate either processor or video card were unable to execute the timedemo-
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900MHz OWC Mercury Extreme G4 (100MHz AGP Gigabit Ethernet) |
FPS
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ATI RADEON 9000 128MB |
16.951
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ATI RADEON 9000 64MB |
16.865
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nVidia GeForce4MX 64MB |
16.315
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ATI RADEON 8500 64MB |
16.22
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ATI RADEON 9800 128MB |
15.996
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nVidia GeForce4Ti 128MB |
15.656
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nVidia GeForce3 64MB |
15.555
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nVidia GeForce2MX 32MB |
12.88
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nVidia GeForce4MX 32MB |
12.144
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ATI RADEON 9200 128MB (PCI) |
7.938
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ATI Rage 128 Pro 16MB |
0
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Don't let these low framerates scare you too terribly, unless you're playing a level with 8 or 10 opponents, it's not going to be as bad as it looks. The game is playable, especially in the single player version with this card. If you turn the details down to a more minimum level, it's even better. |
1.2GHz OWC Mercury Extreme G4 (100MHz AGP Gigabit Ethernet)
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-Scores of 0 FPS indicate either processor or video card were unable to execute the timedemo-
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1200MHz (1.2GHz) OWC Mercury Extreme G4 (100MHz AGP Gigabit Ethernet) |
FPS
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ATI RADEON 9000 128MB |
19.115
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ATI RADEON 9000 64MB |
18.988
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ATI RADEON 8500 64MB |
18.45
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nVidia GeForce4MX 64MB |
18.316
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ATI RADEON 9800 128MB |
18.184
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nVidia GeForce4Ti 128MB |
17.45
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nVidia GeForce3 64MB |
17.395
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nVidia GeForce2MX 32MB |
13.774
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nVidia GeForce4MX 32MB |
13.119
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ATI RADEON 9200 128MB (PCI) |
7.941
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ATI Rage 128 Pro 16MB |
0
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Now we're starting to see better numbers. Anything over 18FPS with Unreal on this demo seems to be good enough to play with full details. The same rule applies as above, unless you're playing a level with a lot of opponents, it's not that bad. |
1.4GHz OWC Mercury Extreme G4 (100MHz AGP Gigabit Ethernet)
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-Scores of 0 FPS indicate either processor or video card were unable to execute the timedemo-
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1400MHz (1.4GHz) OWC Mercury Extreme G4 (100MHz AGP Gigabit Ethernet) |
FPS
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ATI RADEON 9000 128MB |
20.39
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ATI RADEON 9000 64MB |
20.31
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ATI RADEON 8500 64MB |
19.635
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nVidia GeForce4MX 64MB |
19.493
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ATI RADEON 9800 128MB |
19.415
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nVidia GeForce4Ti 128MB |
18.66
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nVidia GeForce3 64MB |
18.528
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nVidia GeForce2MX 32MB |
14.097
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nVidia GeForce4MX 32MB |
13.551
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ATI RADEON 9200 128MB (PCI) |
7.935
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ATI Rage 128 Pro 16MB |
0
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It's quite interesting to see that the Radeon 9000 cards fared as well as they did in this test, besting even the top of the line 9800 card. If we were to turn up the resolution to 1280x1024 you'd see that lead evaporate as the 9800 really shines at higher resolutions, which is critical for people with super-sized displays. But, for most gamers, 1024x768 is adequate to play on. |
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