Dell Dimension 8400 review

3D gaming performance (in fps) (Longer bars indicate better performance)

Unreal Tournament 2003 Flyby-Antalus 1600 x 1200 4x AA 8x AF

Unreal Tournament 2003 Flyby-Antalus 1024 x 768

Dell Dimension 8400 (ATI Radeon X800 XT)

115.1

223.2

Alienware Area-51 (Nvidia GeForce FX 5950 Ultra)

63.0

231.0

Dell Dimension 8300 (ATI Radeon 9800 Pro)

53.5

188.4

Polywell Poly 939VF-FX53 (Nvidia GeForce FX 5900XT)

47.7

211.7

Cyberpower Gamer Infinity 8000 (Nvidia PCX GeForce 5750)

22.4

98.2

To measure 3D gaming performance, we use Epic Games' Unreal Tournament 2003, widely used as an industry-standard benchmark. We use Unreal to measure a desktop's performance with the DirectX 8.0 (DX8) interface at a 32-bit colour depth and at a resolution of 1024x768 and 1600x1200. Antialiasing and anisotropic filtering are disabled during our 1024x768 tests and are set to 4x and 8x respectively during our 1600x1200 tests. At this colour depth and these resolutions, Unreal becomes an excellent means of comparing the performance of low-end to high-end graphics subsystems. We report the results of Unreal's Flyby-Antalus test in frames per second (fps).

Performance analysis written by CNET Labs technician David Gussman

System configurations:

Alienware Area-51 Extreme
Windows XP Professional; 3.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition; Intel 875P chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce FX 5950 Ultra; two WDC WD740GD-00FLX0 74GB 10,000rpm Serial ATA; integrated Intel 82801ER SATA RAID controller

Cyberpower Gamer Infinity 8000
Windows XP Home; 3.6EGHz Intel Pentium 4; Intel 915G chipset; 512MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 128MB Nvidia PCX GeForce 5750; WDC WD1600JB-00EVA0 160GB 7,200rpm

Dell Dimension 8300
Windows XP Home; 3.2EGHz Intel Pentium 4; Intel 875P chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 128MB ATI Radeon 9800 Pro; Maxtor 6Y250M0 250GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA

Dell Dimension 8400
Windows XP Home; 3.6EGHz Intel Pentium 4 560; Intel 925X chipset; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 256MB ATI Radeon X800 XT; two Seagate ST3160023AS 160GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA; integrated Intel 82801FR SATA RAID controller

Polywell Poly 939VF-FX53
Windows XP Professional; 2.4GHz AMD Athlon 64 FX-53; Via K8T800 Pro chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce FX 5900XT; two WDC WD740GD-00FLX0 74GB 10,000rpm Serial ATA; integrated WinXP Promise FastTrak 579 controller

Edited by Matthew Elliott
Additional editing by Nick Hide