Testbed and Methods

We gathered data on the performance of the Gainward FX Power Pack! Ultra/1300XT on the following testbed:

• CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3400+  (2.20GHz, 1MB L2);
• Mainboard: ASUS K8V Deluxe;
• RAM: OCZ DDR PC-3200 Platinum EB (2x512MB, ÑL2.5-3-2-8);
• HDD: Seagate 7200.7, Serial ATA-150, 8MB buffer;
• Audio: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2;
• Software: Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP1, DirectX 9.0b;
• Drivers:  NVIDIA ForceWare 60.72 (52.16 for 3DMark03), ATI CATALYST 4.4.

We used the following benchmarking software:

First person 3D shooters:

• RTCW: Enemy Territory;
• Call of Duty;
• Unreal Tournament 2003;
• Unreal Tournament 2004 Demo;
• Halo: Combat Evolved;
• Tron 2.0;
• Highly Anticipated DX9 Game 1;
• Highly Anticipated DX9 Game 2;
• FarCry;
• Firestarter;

Third person 3D shooters:

• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell;
• Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness;
• Prince of Persia: Sands of Time;
• Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.

Simulators:

• IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles;
• Lock On;
• X2: The Threat;

Real-time strategies:

• C&C Generals: Zero Hour.

Semi-synthetic benchmarks:

• Final Fantasy XI Official Benchmark 2;
• Aquamark3.

Synthetic benchmarks:

• Futuremark 3DMark03 build 340.

Performance in First Person 3D Shooters

RTCW: Enemy Territory

As expected, the tested card was the worst at its regular frequencies, but its overclocked self beat the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra! Our respects go to Gainward who made such a highly-overclockable card. Buying an FX 5950 Ultra for the price of a FX 5900 XT is an invitation you can’t decline!