ATI Radeon VE 32MB

CPU Scaling Performance

It is clear that the Radeon VE likes high performance machines. The Radeon VE performs best in the Pentium III 800 MHz range and above, leaving the Duron 750 MHz and below processors running a bit slow.

The performance gain going from the Duron 750 MHz to the Pentium III 800 MHz was 29%. In contrast, going up 200 MHz from the Pentium III 800 MHz to the Pentium III 1 GHz provided only 6% increase in speed. It is not that the Radeon VE dislikes the Duron platform, as the card performed fine on both our Athlon-C 1 GHz as well as Thunderbird 1.1 GHz systems (used in the tests), it is just that the Radeon VE likes a high powered system.

This can likely be attributed to the Radeon VE's lack of T&L. Cards without a T&L component are forced to turn to the CPU for these function. As a result, CPU power is consumer much more readily in systems without a T&L capable card.