Test System Setup

Processor(s): Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3GHz (333MHz x 9)
Cooling: Corsair Nautilus500 (Supplied by Corsair) with Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound (Supplied by Arctic Cooling)
Motherboard(s): GIGABYTE X48-DQ6 (Supplied by GIGABYTE)
Memory: 2 X 1GB Kingston PC6400 DDR-2 3-3-3-10 (KHX6400D2ULK2/2G) (Supplied by Kingston)
Hard Disk(s): Seagate 250GB 7200RPM SATA-2 7200.10 (Supplied by Seagate)
Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP2, Windows Vista
Drivers: Catalyst 8.3, Forceware 169.25, Forceware 171.16, GX2 Forceware Beta 173.67

The main thing to compare here today is the performance of the 9800GX2 against the HD 3870 X2 from AMD. We’ve also thrown in the 8800GT, as the specifications on a single core of a 9800GX2 is only slightly above that of an 8800GT, this should mean that if a game doesn’t take advantage of SLI then the performance should only be just above the single 8800GT.

We’ve tested our standard resolutions purely for consistency, but once we’ve completed it we will sit back and evaluate the scores to see if it’s worth going to the next level. If we get barely playable scores with decent settings at 1920 x 1200, then what’s the point of testing it at 2560 x 1600 when we know it’s not going to be playable at all? - The fact that the GX2 can get an average of 20FPS Vs. a HD 3870 X2 getting an average of 18FPS doesn’t really prove anything.


3DMark06

Version and / or Patch Used: Build 110
Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com
Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark06/
Buy It Here





3DMark06 is the very latest version of the “Gamers Benchmark” from FutureMark. The newest version of 3DMark expands on the tests in 3DMark05 by adding graphical effects using Shader Model 3.0 and HDR (High Dynamic Range lighting) which will push even the best DX9 graphics cards to the extremes.

3DMark06 also focuses on not just the GPU but the CPU using the AGEIA PhysX software physics library to effectively test single and Dual Core processors.




In our first test we can see performance from the GX2 is very close to that of the X2. At the higher resolutions you can see the large gains over the G92 based 8800GT.