To evaluate AMD 690G 3D performance we installed two low-end video cards on Foxconn A690GM2MA: GeForce 6200 TurboCache with 64 MB and 64-bit interface (from XFX) and GeForce 6200 with 128 MB and 128-bit interface (from Leadtek).

We also installed a high-end video card, an overclocked GeForce 8800 GTS from MSI, on it and compared its performance to a high-end motherboard with the same video card installed, ASUS M2N32-SLI De Luxe. The goal here was to see if by installing a high-end video card the reviewed board achieved the same performance level of a high-end motherboard.

We ran several programs, as you will see on the next pages. The amount of RAM memory the chipset “steals” from the main RAM memory to be used as video memory was left on the motherboard default value, which was 128 MB for the reviewed motherboard.

The first one, 3DMark2001 SE, measures 3D performance by making DirectX 8.1 simulations, and the results you can see below (we ran it using its default configuration). All the listed video cards were installed on Foxconn A690GM2MA.

On 3DMark2001 SE Foxconn A690GM2MA was 3.99% faster than ECS GeForce6100SM-M, but other motherboards with on-board video were faster: Abit AN-M2 (GeForce 7025) was 5.52% faster, MSI K9AGM2 (AMD 690G) was 6.78% faster, ECS AMD690GM-M2 (AMD 690G) was 7.29% faster and, funny enough, ECS RS485M-M (ATI Radeon Xpress 1100) was 9.00% faster.

The problem is that even the “worst” PCI Express video card is a lot faster than on-board video solutions: GeForce 6200 with 64-bit memory interface and TurboCache technology was 77% faster than Foxconn A690GM2MA. This is a huge difference. GeForce 6200 with 128-bit memory interface was 155.87% faster.

When we installed our overclocked GeForce 8800 GTS on the reviewed board it achieved the same performance level of ASUS M2N32-SLI De Luxe, what is great.