Confusing Reviews at Anandtech

[Helmsman]

Dear Board Members,
Can the benchmark differences in the following two reviews at Anandtech be attributed to the use of "Unreal Tournament 2003 Demo" and "Unreal Tournament 2003"? If not, what could explain the big difference in fps?

As I am about to buy a new computer the first review "Athlon 64 3400..." would without a doubt steer me in the direction of Athlon 64, while the second review "Asus P4S800D..." would make me consider buying a Pentium 4.

Best regards,
Tony Kiiskinen
Stockholm, Sweden


Anantech - Athlon 64 3400+ / Death of the FX-51
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Link to review

Test Configuration:
Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz
2 x 512Mb OCZ 3500 Platinum Ltd
Intel D875PBZ (Intel 875P Chipset)

Benchmarks / DirectX 7/8 Performance

in UT2003 - 1024x768 - Flyby
-Intel Pentium 4 3.2C: 235.2 fps

in UT2003 - 1024x768 - Botmatch
-Intel Pentium 4 3.2C: 78.5 fps


Anandtech - Asus P4S800D-E Deluxe & Gigabyte 8S655TX Ultra - SIS 655TX Challenges Intel's Best
Link to review
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Intel Pentium 4 at 3.2GHz (800FSB)
2x512MB Mushkin PC3500 Level II
Asus P4C800-E (Intel 875P Chipset)

Benchmarks / Gaming Performance

in UT 2003 Demo - Flyby 1024x768
-Intel Pentium 4 3.2C: 245.48 fps

in UT 2003 Demo - Botmatch 1024x768
-Intel Pentium 4 3.2C: 90.29 fps

 

[Confused]

The demo uses Medium quality textures at the highest detail level, whereas the retail version uses full, High quality textures, which are more complex. I agree somewhat that they should use either the demo or the retail, so that you can easier compare results


Confused

 

[Markfw]

You need to look only at reviews that pit one against the other like the Athlon64 review. They try to make everything else even (even if they don't accomplish that successfully) where as the other review was only P4's against each other. There are many sites on the web, and if you read several, a pattern emerges, the Athlon64 is better at gaming in almost every game than the P4.

 

[mrgoblin]

There was obviously some aa/af on and the asus board will perform better than the intel board. It usually overclocks the cpu a bit and there might have been a difference in video card. The muskin will also run at 2-2-2-5 where as the ocz runs at 2-2-2-6. I dont think there was a mistake and I dont know what your trying to imply. Hope your not from tom's hardware...