Futuremark 3DMark06

The Radeon HD 2900 XT is roughly equal to the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX here. Considering their prices, this is a triumph for the AMD card, but where does this triumph come from? Let’s check out 3DMark06’s groups of tests as well as the results of individual tests.

It’s clear even in 1280x1024 that the small amount of TMUs and ROPs is the main problem for the Radeon HD 2900 XT. If it were not for this problem, the new card would easily overtake the GeForce 8800 GTX in the SM2.0 tests, but it has to be content with beating the 8800 GTS instead.

The new AMD card outperforms the GeForce 8800 GTX at last in the SM3.0/HDR tests. The difference is as small as 154 points, though. The R600 and G80 are indeed comparable when it comes to sheer computing power.

The results of the individual SM2.0 tests agree with what we’ve written above. The first test needs high texture-processing speed which is a weak point of the new Radeon as we know from our theoretical tests. The small advantage over the previous-generation top-end card from AMD is due to the difference in frequencies between the graphics core and, perhaps, due to the imperfect driver.

It must be due to this imperfect driver again that the new card delivers lusterless performance in the second test which puts an emphasis on geometry processing. As we know, the Radeon HD 2900 XT did especially well in our theoretical geometry-processing tests.

The GPU’s computing resources are demanded in the SM3.0/HDR tests and the Radeon HD 2900 XT feels more confident here, rivaling the GeForce 8800 GTS and almost matching the GeForce 8800 GTX in the second test.

Anyway, the AMD Radeon HD 2900 XT fulfils its main purpose – to compete with the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB rather than with the monstrous GeForce 8800 GTX – quite successfully.