Synthetic Benchmarks

Futuremark 3DMark03, build 350

Not so long ago a 3DMark03 score of 10 000 points was viewed as an enormous achievement, but modern top-end graphics cards have no problems overcoming this barrier. Moreover, the RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition even steps above the 13 000 mark, without any tricks or overclocking.

Let’s see what this result is comprised of.

Game Test 1

The first game test is very simple as it lacks any modern technologies and uses the capabilities of DirectX 7 only. NVIDIA’s cards are usually better here, but this time the GeForce 6800 GT makes a draw with the RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition.

Enabling full-screen antialiasing and anisotropic filtering we give an advantage to ATI’s cards: the GeForce 6800 GT is slower than the RADEON X800 XT as well as the RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition. The difference between the graphics cards is rather small, though. It’s 11-20fps while the absolute speeds are something like 150-300fps.

Game Test 2

The second game test has traditionally been favorable towards NVIDIA’s cards, but the RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition has an excellent performance here, leaving the GeForce 6800 GT behind. Once again, you should keep in mind that these two cards belong to different categories. We just hadn’t a PCI Express version of the GeForce 6800 Ultra for these tests, while the available GeForce 6800 sample just refused to overclock to the frequencies of its elder mate.

The GeForce 6800 GT feels more confident in the eye candy mode, being a little faster than the RADEON X800 XT. The RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition retains its top position.