Performance in Synthetic Benchmarks

Futuremark 3DMark05

We have noted in our previous reports that 3DMark05 is already unable to serve as a true benchmark for modern graphics cards. This test session is yet another example: there is a difference of only 1200 points between the fastest and slowest participants while the overall performance level is as high as 17,000-18,000 points. Against our expectations, it is not the GeForce 9800 GX2 Quad SLI platform, but the 4-way CrossFireX system based on two Radeon HD 3870 X2 that wins this test.

The first test is indicative of how old 3DMark05 is: except for the single-chip solutions, every graphics subsystem delivers the same performance. We can only see that the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 is somewhat slower than the GeForce 9800 GX2 at high resolutions.

Quad SLI technology doesn’t work in the second test. The 4-way CrossFireX system offers no performance benefits notwithstanding its huge computing capability provided by 1280 execution units. The latter system can be viewed as a leader, though.

The struggle between the quad-processor systems from ATI and Nvidia doesn’t produce a winner up to the resolution of 2560x1600 where Nvidia gains the upper hand, probably due to the significant advantage in texture processor performance. The single GeForce 9800 X2 is the leader among single cards due to the same reason. It’s also clear at 1280x1024 that CrossFire technology features better scalability than Nvidia’s SLI.