16 bit vs. 32 bit Performance

Full Screen Anti-Aliasing is very playable with the MX400 on 16 bit mode. The difference ( frame rate ) of the 32 bit and 16 bit FSAA ( and non-FSAA )modes however have not been presented in detail. Instead of having to compare one chart to another, combining both graphs that shows the performance of both modes ( 16bit and 32bit ) side by side would make it easier "visualize" the performance delta.

We start off with Quake 3 with several different resolutions.

The solid bar represents the 32bit performance, while the 16bit performance is represented by the clear bar. Also, the purple bars represents the Geforce2 Ti's performance and the the teal ones belong to the MX400.

At 640x480 switching to 16 bit boosts the MX400's frame rate by 20% The Geforce2 Ti gains less than 10%. On 1024x768 close to 60% is gained by the MX400 when switching to 16 bit ( fastest ). The Geforce2 Ti, still delivering over a hundred frames per second on either modes, "steals" a small 12% when switching to 16 bit.

On higher resolutions the MX400's gains skyrocket when switching to 16bit. At 1280x1024 switching to 16 bit enhances the MX400's performance no less than 70%! And who'd have ever think that the MX400 could be playable at 1600x1200? Increasing from 27.2 frames per second to 52.3 frames per second when dropping from 32 bit ( 92% increase ) , makes the MX400 a lot more playable.

At 1280x1024, the Geforce2 Ti, like the MX400, appreciates a switch to 16 bit ( gain of 41%). It also breaks the 100 frames per second mark when switching. At the next resolution, 1600x1200, switching to 16 bit, again, enables the Geforce2 Ti to break the 100 fps barrier.

At 1024x768 the MX400 gains 27% when switching, while the Geforce2 Ti gains a mere 6%. At 1600X1200, the MX400 gains an impressive 77% when switched to 16bit. The Geforce2 Ti gains 50% pusing its performance to 56.6

Game 3 : Lobby results are similar to the first 3dMark2001 game.

Unlike the settings used in Quake 3, where the "quality" switch involved many factors ( e.g. texture quality, bilinear/trilinear filtering, lighting ), the 3dMark 2001 chart is a purely color depth ( 16 bit to 32 bit ) change.