Futuremark 3DMark06

The overall scores are closer to reality in 3DMark06 which defaults to 1280x1024 and includes more complex tests than those of 3DMark05. Using Shader Model 3.0, its tests resemble modern 3D games.

The ATI Radeon HD 2900 Pro is about as fast as the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB in the SM2.0 tests. The SM3.0/HDR tests are computations-heavy, allowing the ATI card to show its best thanks to 320 ALUs and a more advanced architecture overall.

The Radeon HD 2900 Pro is worse than the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB in both of the SM2.0 tests: by 15% in the first and by 22% in the second test.

The Radeon HD 2900 Pro almost overtakes the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB in the first of the SM3.0/HDT tests, reducing the gap to 5-6%. And then the two cards are equals in the second test that doesn’t produce a high texture-mapping load. These results differ from the results of the groups of tests probably due to the use of FSAA which means an increased load on the rasterization subunits.