Testbed and Methods

We performed our tests on a testbed configured like follows:

• AMD Athlon 64 4000+ CPU (2.40GHz, 1MB L2 cache)
• ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe mainboard (NVIDIA nForce4 SLI chipset)
• OCZ PC3200 Platinum EB DDR SDRAM (2x512MB, CL2.5-3-2-8)
• Samsung SpinPoint SP1213C (Serial ATA-150, 8MB buffer)
• Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 sound card
• Cooler Master Real Power 450 power supply (RS-450-ACLY, 450W)
• Dell P1130 and Dell P1110 monitors (21”, 1800x1440@75Hz max display mode)
• Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2 with DirectX 9.0c
• NVIDIA ForceWare 78.01 and ATI Catalyst 5.8 drivers

Sticking to our standard testing procedure, we set up the ATI and NVIDIA drivers in the following way:

ATI CATALYST 5.8:

• CATALYST A.I.: Standard
• Mipmap Detail Level: Quality
• Wait for vertical refresh: Always off
• Other settings: default

NVIDIA ForceWare 78.01:

• Image Settings: Quality
• Vertical sync: Off
• Trilinear optimization: On
• Anisotropic mip filter optimization: Off
• Anisotropic sample optimization: On
• Other settings: default

We use the games’ integrated benchmarks if possible. If the benchmark can produce the minimal fps rate besides the average one, we put it into the table of results, too. Games without built-in benchmarking tools are tested using the FRAPS utility and the minimal fps rates are also indicated in the diagrams.

We turn on full-screen antialiasing and anisotropic filtering from the game menu if possible. Otherwise we force the necessary mode from the driver. We do not edit the games’ configuration files. We select the highest graphics quality settings in each game, identical for graphics cards from ATI and NVIDIA, but choose the rendering mode depending on the graphics card’s capabilities, i.e. Shader Model 2.0 and 2.0b for graphics cards on ATI’s GPUs and Shader Model 3.0 for products on NVIDIA’s GPUs.

Besides the PowerColor X800 GT, we tested the following graphics cards:

• RADEON X800 XL (R430, 400/980MHz, 16 pixel pipelines, 6 vertex processors, 256-bit memory interface, 256MB memory)
  for details see our article called ATI's 0.11 Micron Chip on the Run: ATI RADEON X800 XL Review
• RADEON X700 PRO (RV410, 425/864MHz, 8 pixel pipelines, 6 vertex processors, 128-bit memory interface, 256MB)
  for details see our article called PowerColor X700 PRO Graphics Card Review
• GeForce 6800 (NV42, 325/600MHz, 12 pixel pipelines, 5 vertex processors, 256-bit memory interface, 128MB)
  for details see our article called MSI NX6800-TD128E (GeForce 6800) in SLI-Configurations: High Speed at a Reasonable Price?
• GeForce 6600 GT (NV43, 500/1000MHz, 8 pixel pipelines, 3 vertex processors, 128-bit memory interface, 128MB)
  for details see our article called Leadtek WinFast PX6600 GT TDH Graphics Card Review

The following games and benchmarks were used in this test session:

First Person 3D Shooters:

• Battlefield 2
• The Chronicles of Riddick
• Doom 3
• Far Cry
• F.E.A.R. Multiplayer Demo
• Half-Life 2
• Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell
• Pariah
• Project: Snowblind
• Unreal Tournament 2004

Third Person 3D Shooters:

• Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
• Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Simulators:

• Colin McRae Rally 2005
• Lock On: Modern Air Combat
• Pacific Fighters

Strategies:

• Perimeter
• Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War

Semi-Synthetic Benchmarks:

• Aquamark3
• Final Fantasy XI Official Benchmark 3

Synthetic Benchmarks:

• Futuremark 3DMark03, build 360
• Futuremark 3DMark05, build 120