NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go

Performance - Serious Sam: The Second Encounter

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter Default Quality: 640x480x32 Desktop GeForce4 MX 460 Desktop GeForce4 MX 440 GeForce4 440 Go Max Performance Mobility Radeon 7500 (1.7GHz) GeForce4 440 Go Balanced GeForce4 440 Go Battery Desktop GeForce2 MX 117.3 114.6 110.8 103.3 59.9 30 29.5 | 0 | 23 | 47 | 70 | 94 | 117 | 141

We were quite impressed with the GeForce4 440 Go's performance in Serious Sam: The Second Encounter at 640x480x32. At this resolution the chip was able to put out 110.8 frames per second, making it 7.3% faster than the Mobility Radeon 7500 system and maintaining its crown as mobile performance king. Again, performance of the mobile chip was not far off the desktop GeForce4 MX 440.

One thing we first noticed while running the system in Serious Sam: The Second Encounter was that frame rates were limited when PowerMizer was switched to anything but Maximum Performance mode. Frame rates in the Balanced mode were limited to 60FPS while frame rates would not break 30FPS while in Maximum Battery mode. NVIDIA implemented this feature to prevent unnecessary battery drain. By limiting how much the GPU is doing at a given time, NVIDIA can save power consumption of the chip.

As a result, our performance in both balanced and maximum battery life mode are limited at 640x480x32. They did provide enough power to play the game without a glitch, however.

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter Default Quality: 800x600x32 Desktop GeForce4 MX 460 Desktop GeForce4 MX 440 GeForce4 440 Go Max Performance Mobility Radeon 7500 (1.7GHz) GeForce4 440 Go Balanced GeForce4 440 Go Battery Desktop GeForce2 MX 108.9 101.2 97 87.6 59.8 30 20.6 | 0 | 22 | 44 | 65 | 87 | 109 | 131

We were equally impressed with the GeForce4 Go 440's performance in Serious Sam at 800x600x32. The chip gained an even larger performance advantage over the Mobility Radeon 7500. Here, the GeForce4 Go 440 performed 10.7% faster than the ATI product. Again we find that in balanced as well as maximum battery mode the GeForce4 Go 440 is limited to 60FPS and 30FPS respectively.

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter Default Quality: 1024x768x32 Desktop GeForce4 MX 460 Desktop GeForce4 MX 440 GeForce4 440 Go Max Performance Mobility Radeon 7500 (1.7GHz) GeForce4 440 Go Balanced GeForce4 440 Go Battery Desktop GeForce2 MX 86.9 73.9 69.3 66.9 46.5 29.9 13.1 | 0 | 17 | 35 | 52 | 70 | 87 | 10

The performance advantage of the GeForce4 440 Go over the Mobility Radeon 7500 starts to level off at 1024x768x32. This time NVIDIA's mobile part performed 6.6% faster than ATI's. 1024x768x32 marks the first time that the GeForce4 Go 440 is not limited in balanced mode by the frame rate limiter: the chip is down to 46.5FPS from its max of 60. In balanced mode, the chip still remains at NVIDIA's imposed limit of 30FPS. Even at 1024x768x32, Serious Sam: The Second Encounter is very playable with the GeForce4 Go 440 in maximum battery life mode.

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter Default Quality: 1280x1024x32 Desktop GeForce4 MX 460 Desktop GeForce4 MX 440 Mobility Radeon 7500 (1.7GHz) GeForce4 440 Go Max Performance GeForce4 440 Go Balanced GeForce4 440 Go Battery Desktop GeForce2 MX 57.8 47.8 46.9 45.5 30 15 7.6 | 0 | 12 | 23 | 35 | 46 | 58 | 69

1280x1024x32 sees the GeForce4 440 Go beaten by the Mobility Radeon 7500, although by a small 1.9%. The speed advantage the Mobility Radeon 7500 is able to gain at this resolution is almost certainly a result of the faster CPU this system was running on (1.7GHz compared to the GeForce4 440 Go's 1.6GHz notebook). There is little doubt in our mind that an apples to apples comparison at this resolution would show the GeForce4 440 Go on top yet again.

Pushing the resolution up this high also decreased the performance of the chip in the PowerMizer modes. In balanced mode, the chip performs 51.7% slower than the chip in high performance mode and in power saving mode the chip is exactly half as fast as the the chip in balanced mode.

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter Default Quality: 1600x1200x32 Desktop GeForce4 MX 460 Desktop GeForce4 MX 440 GeForce4 440 Go Max Performance GeForce4 440 Go Balanced GeForce4 440 Go Battery Desktop GeForce2 MX 41.1 33.4 32.3 23.5 12.7 4.4 | 0 | 8 | 16 | 25 | 33 | 41 | 49

Pushing the resolution up to 1600x1200x32 did not leave us disappointed. The GeForce4 440 Go remained on par with the desktop GeForce4 MX 440, about 27.2% slower than the GeForce4 MX 460. The chip was still able to output slightly over 30FPS, keeping the game playable. Even in balanced mode, performance is not so bad: 37.4% slower than chip in maximum performance mode. Maximum battery mode does leave the chip fairly crippled, however.