Unreal Tournament 2004

Unreal Tournament 2004 is a multiplayer first person shooter that combines the kill-or-be-killed experience of gladiatorial combat with cutting-edge technology.

Ten game modes - both team-based and "every man for himself" -- provide even the most hardcore gamer with palm-sweating challenges through unbelievably detailed indoor arenas and vast outdoor environments.

As the ultimate techno-gladiator of the future, players will take their fates into their hands, battling against up to 32 other players online in action-packed, frag-filled arenas

- Unreal Tournament 2004 Benchmark

Many new features and maps are available in Unreal T. 2004. Also the gameplay has changed in many of its game types. For example there is the Onslaught game type where you have to take over the enemy base using warmachines and vehicles in a massive map. For this reason we included an Onslaugh and a Capture The Flag (CTF) map.

As with the other games we conducted the benchmark using our timedemos in the 1024x768, 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 resolutions. All tests were done with the maximum detail settings selected. 2 bots were used on the Ons-Torlan map and 8 bots on the CTF-Bridge of Fate map. First let's see the Onslaught game type test on the Torlan map.

Good results for all cards. It is worth noting that at the 1600x1200 resolution Aeolus indicated good performance with 60 fps.

With the Anti Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering quality settings enabled, Aeolus depleted it's performance. This is apparent at the 1600x1200 resolution where Aeolus returned 33 fps.

Except from the Onslaught game type, unreal T. 2004 also has the following game types: Assault, Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch, Double Domination, Bombing Run, Mutant, Invasion and Last Man Standing. We also used a Capture the Flag timedemo with the same high quality settings.

CTF it's our most favorite, so we couldn't resist including a CTF timedemo in our benchmark suite. The CTF map we picked it's the Bridge of Fate with 8 bots.

Minor performance differences between Aeolus and the other cards. Let's see what happens when enabling AA and AF quality settings.

Now we have a more clear picture. As usual R9800 XT is not a match for Aeolus 5900 XT, but the second one returned very good fps even at the highest resolution.

- Unreal Tournament 2003

In the latest Unreal Tournament series, the player models contain a very high polygonal count. They are extremely detailed from the heads to the feet and they all look totally different from all the other players. The character animations are the most impressive. From running, jumping, and all the death animations.

Thanks to the new karma psychics system, every death is handled in a different way that corresponds to the surrounding environment. If players are shot with a rocket, they will be on fire, or if they die and are on the edge of a cliff, they will roll down according to the bumps of the cliff.

- Unreal Tournament 2003 Benchmark

To test the Unreal T. 2003 we used the deathmatch map dm-antalus with 5 bots. Below you can see the average fps resulted with the same resolutions and quality settings used in UT 2004.

Even though Unreal Tournament 2003 uses the same graphics engine as the 2004, it seems that it not a challenge for the latest cards. Even at the high-definition 1600x1200 resolution AOpen's Aeolus FX 5900 XT returned 63 fps.

Judging by the above chart, we recommend not to play Unreal 2003 at the 1600x1200 resolution with AA and AF on if you have a GeForce FX. Although a 32 fps score on on the limit, keep in mind that these are the average fps. There were times the frames dropped under 25.