Testbed and Methods

The graphics cards were benchmarked in a closed system case with the following configuration:

• Mainboards:
  • ASUS P6T Deluxe (Intel X58 Express), LGA 1366, BIOS 1102
  • DFI LANPARTY DK X48-T2RS (Intel X48), LGA 775, BIOS 10/03/2008
• CPUs:
  • Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650, 3.0GHz, 1.15V, L2 2 x 6MB, 333MHz x 4 FSB, (Yorkfield, C0)
  • Intel Core i7-920, 2.67 GHz, 1.25 V, L2 4 x 256 KB, L3 8 MB (Bloomfield, C0)
• CPU cooler: Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme (2 Thermalright TR-FDB fans at 1030 RPM)
• Thermal interface: Arctic Silver 5
• System memory:
• DDR2 2 x 1GB Corsair Dominator TWIN2X2048-9136C5D (Spec: 1142 MHz / 5-5-5-18 / 2.1 V)
• DDR2 2 x 1GB CSX DIABLO CSXO-XAC-1200-2GB-KIT (Spec: 1200 MHz / 5-5-5-16 / 2.4 V);
• DDR3 3 x 1 GB Corsair DOMINATOR TWIN3X2048-1800C7DFIN (Spec: 1800 MHz / 7-7-7-20 / 2.0 V)
• Graphics cards:
  • XFX GeForce GTX 285 1024MB 648/1476/2484 MHz
  • XFX GeForce GTX 295 2x896MB 576/1242/1998 MHz
• Disk subsystem: Western Digital VelociRaptor (300GB, SATA-II, 10000 RPM, 16MB cache, NCQ)
• HDD silencer and cooler: Scythe Quiet Drive for 3.5-inch HDD
• Optical drive: Samsung SH-S183L DVD-burner (SATA-II)
• System case: Antec Twelve Hundred (five 120mm TriCool case fans at 1100RPM; one 200-mm fan at 400RPM)
• Control and monitoring panel: Zalman ZM-MFC2
• Power supply: Zalman ZM1000-HP 1000W (with a default 140 mm fan)
• Monitor: 24-inch BenQ FP241W

Both platforms were tested in their nominal mode:

…and overclocked to 4GHz: 

We tested the platforms stability in two cycles of OCCT test that took total one hour per processor. We disabled SMT mode of the Intel Core i7 CPU, because with this mode activated, the CPU was unstable at the 4GHz frequency without additional Vcore increase. Moreover, later on we found out that SMT activation in the games and applications we used for testing this time results in an insignificant framerate increase in Lost Planet: Colonies game and in 30~35% framerate improvement in Far Cry 2 (as tested on GeForce GTX 295 in 1280x960 resolution). We detected no performance changes in any other games and benchmarks.

The tests were run under Windows Vista Ultimate Edition x86 SP1 (plus all critical updates as of 02.21.2009). We started testing on 02.21.2009, so these are the driver versions we used:

• Intel Chipset Drivers version 9.1.1.1004 Alpha
• DirectX dated November 2008
• Graphics card driver for Nvidia GPU: GeForce 182.05 (WHQL-candidate, 02/10/09)
• Physics acceleration driver: PhysX 9.09.0203 (WHQL, 02/10/09)

Once the drivers had been installed, I made the following changes in their control panels: image quality set from “Quality” to “High Quality”; Transparency Antialiasing set to “Multisampling” instead of “Disable”; vertical synchronization set to “Always Off”. There were no other changes. I turned on full-screen antialiasing and anisotropic filtering in the menu of each game. If the game didn’t provide such options, I enabled FSAA and AF from the GeForce control panel. During the tests of GeForce GTX 295 I enabled any special settings responsible for activation of multi-GPU configurations support, if they were available.

The graphics cards were tested in two resolutions: 1280x960 and widescreen 1920x1200. The tests were performed in two modes: “High Quality” without any image quality enhancements and “HQ+ AF16x+AA4(8)x” with enabled 16x anisotropic filtering and 4x full screen anti-aliasing (or 8x FSAA with sufficient framerate for comfortable gaming experience).

The cards were benchmarked in the following set of applications including two synthetic benchmarks, one techno-demo and 12 games of various genres:

• 3DMark 2006 (Direct3D 9/10) – build 1.1.0, default settings (1920x1200, 16x AF and 4x AA);
• 3DMark Vantage (Direct3D 10) – v1.0.1, Performance and Extreme profiles (basic tests only);
• World in Conflict (Direct3D 10) – version 1.0.0.9 (b89), “Very High” graphics quality profile, UI texture quality = Compressed; Water reflection size = 512;
• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (OpenGL 2.0) – version 1.5, highest graphics quality settings, d5 demo on the Salvage level, Finland;
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare MP (Direct3D 9) – version 1.7.568, “Extra” quality of visuals, d5 demo on the Backlot level;
• Unreal Tournament 3 (Direct3D 9) – version 1.3, highest graphics quality settings (level 5), Motion Blur and Hardware Physics enabled, a flyby of the “DM-ShangriLa” map (two consecutive cycles) using HardwareOC UT3 Bench v1.3.0.0;
• Devil May Cry 4 (Direct3D 10) – game version 1.0, “Super High” quality settings, the final result is the average frame rate in two subsequent runs of the second scene of the benchmark (SCENE2);
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky (Direct3D 10.1) – game version 1.5.07, Improved Full DX10 Lighting profile plus 16x anisotropic filtering and other maximum graphics quality settings, my own s04 demo record (a triple run of the test);
• Crysis (Direct3D 10) – game version 1.2.1, “Very High” settings profile, the card is tested twice on the “Core” level from HardwareOC Crysis Bench version 1.4.0.0;
• Far Cry 2 (Direct3D 10) – version 1.02, Ultra High settings profile, a double run of the Ranch Small test from Far Cry 2 Benchmark Tool (v1.0.0.1);
• X3: Terran Conflict (Direct3D 10) – version 1.2.0.0, maximum quality of textures and shadows, fog enabled, the More Dynamic Light Sources and Ship Color Variations parameters are turned on, the final result is the average frame rate of the four demos run once;
• Left 4 Dead (Direct3D 9) – version 1.0.0.5, maximum quality, d3 demo (two runs) on Level 3 “No Mercy”, first scene called “The Seven”;
• Lost Planet: Colonies (Direct3D 10) – version 1.0, Maximum Quality settings, DX10 HDR Rendering, integrated benchmark including two scenes;
• Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason (Direct3D 10.1) – version 1.0.1, shader model 4.0, high image quality settings, “Caustic” disabled, tested in own “d3” demo at “11. Fear”.

Here I’d like to add that if the game allowed recording the minimal fps readings, they were also added to the charts.