The first test is simple: DirectX 7 only and no pixel shaders. No wonder the GeForce 6800 Ultra feels better than the AX800 XT here.

The ASUS strikes back in the eye candy mode, though. This card is better than the GeForce 6800 Ultra but the gap is diminishing in higher resolutions to become almost unnoticeable in 1600x1200. Overclocking is of tiny effect.

The second game test is NVIDIA’s territory, but the ASUS AX800 XT doesn’t give up and accelerates to the speed of the GeForce 6800 Ultra, even outperforming it at overclocking. That’s an excellent result, considering the “foreign turf” – the test uses rather simple version 1.4 pixel shaders, but the rendering algorithm is favorable to NVIDIA’s GPUs that can process shadows quickly thanks to their optimized Z buffer.

And here’s the proof that the NV40 architecture is better suited to the conditions of the second test than the R420 architecture: the GeForce 6800 Ultra outperforms the ASUS AX800 XT. The latter is ahead at the overclocked frequencies, though.