The standings are the same here, but the more complex geometry of the third test suits somewhat better for the PowerColor X800 GTO 16 and it catches up with the GeForce 6800 GS in the “pure speed” mode already.

The PowerColor X800 GTO 16 prefers 1280x1024 resolution for some reason in the fourth test. Its advantage over the GeForce 6800 GS is the biggest then. In other cases the advantage is small or zero, but the PowerColor is on average faster in this test than its Nvidia counterpart.

So, the overall 3DMark03 scores are well deserved as the PowerColor X800 GTO 16 is slower than the GeForce 6800 GS in three tests out of four and is comparable to it in the fourth test. But if the total score was calculated using the “eye candy” results, these two graphics cards would probably have similar scores.