Our next run is with another favorite, Need For Speed: Most Wanted.  Our frame rates here were taken from the NFS World Loop map.  Screen resolution was set to 1024 x 768 with all other settings (except V-Synch) set to max.

Again we see incredible performance with frame rates NEVER dipping below the threshold of perception, 30fps.  For a $250 card, HIS's X1800 GTO IceQ3 Turbo sure dishes out the numbers.

Next up is another older game, Half Life 2.  Testing here was done in the Route Kanal area with settings all set to high, FSAA at 4x, Anisotropic Filtering at 8x with resolution again set to 1024 x 768.

The performance shut out looks to not be dramatic here.  Let's move on to another standard, Quake 4.

Our last graph is from Quake 4 recorded in the MCC Landing Area.  Settings were kicked up to high with FSAA at 4x and resolution to 1024 x 768.  Quake 4 has an in game frame limit of 60fps as you can see in the graph below.  The key is to hang at or as close to that line as much as possible.

As we saw with Half Life, Quake 4 didn't show up the pull away from the pack type of performance we saw in our first two games.  Both the first games are a bit more advanced, particularly NFS:MW where the eye candy is everywhere requiring much more horsepower from the VGA card.  It's not all about speed though.  Let's look at Image Quality.