Benchmark on NFSU 2

Although it's a bit old, I tend to see how my system performs on Need For Speed Underground 2. I played it roughly a year back, just beforeI got married (I never completed the game till today, but I keep the savegame just in case I want to continue playing it later!). In this benchmark, I just use the NFSU 2 Demo, as I'm lazy to install the full version, and actually not feeling to complete the game yet.

The experience however was different than before. When I played this game a year back, I was using ATi 9800 SE unlocked to 9800 Pro. The result was okay, but I didn't switch on the full graphics setting (I think I turn off motion blur and only use the lowest AA setting and run at 800x600). Now I turn on every settings in the graphics department and run it at 1024x768 res (I have a decent 17" CRT). The game played smoothly and I enjoyed every second of it. I guess now I realize how important it is that we gamers must play to to the experience intended by the game developer (The way it is meant to be played?).

The Setup

To simplify, my system is:

AMD 64 3000+ Venice (stepping E6) at 2.25 GHz (250 HTT*9)
2X512 MB DDR Kingston Value RAM
40 GB IDE Maxtor
Sapphire ATi X800 GTO at 500/550 (1.1 G)
Win XP SP2

I ran the first benchmark using High Quality setting, with 'Application Preference' selection at Display Properties of the video card. I used FRAPS to benchmark the game. The benchmark was run for 60 seconds and then averaged.

I actually wonder what is the level of Anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering applied in the game when every setting is maxed out. Therefore, I decided to make another run but this time, I forced the AA and AF level at the driver to 4X AA and 8X AF respectively.

Finally, just for the fun of it, I made another run with forced AA and AF, but this time, I switch on the SMARTSHADER on the driver using 'Classic' mode.

All benchmarks above are performed at 1024x768.

Results

Setting	Min. FPS	Max FPS	Avg. FPS
High Quality	25	65	45.5
Forced 4X AA, 8XAF	33	46	41.3
Forced 4X AA, 8X AF with SMARTSHADER turned ON	34	46	42.1

There it goes. Obviously, High Quality setting impliments lower AA and AF quality and 4X AA and 8X AF. The SMARSHADER also affected the FPS obtained by a little margin, considering the max fps is the same with that in no-SMARTSHADER benchmark.

Overall, I am satisfied with this result, considering the game is more than a year's old. I'm not gonna be too much infatuated by it, however I learn something useful in gaming: play the game the way it is intended to be played!

Screenshot: