Test System Setup

Processor(s): AMD Athlon X2 3800+

Motherboard(s): ASUS A8N SLI Premium (Supplied by ASUS)

Memory: 2 X 512MB Mushkin PC4000 DDR (Supplied by Mushkin)

Hard Disk(s): WD Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA (Supplied by Western Digital)

Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP1

Drivers: ATI beta drivers and DX9c

We are going to be looking at both the ATI Radeon X1800XT and X1600XT (reference cards) today at default core and memory speeds along with the maximum core and clock speed. We will be running our normal array of benchmarks which now include the popular F.E.A.R. and Quake 4.

The X1800XT comes clocked at 625MHz on the core and 750MHz on the memory or 1.5GHz DDR. We got the core up to 665MHz and the memory to 860MHz or 1.72GHz DDR.

The X1600XT comes clocked at 590MHz on the core and 700MHz on the memory or 1.4GHz DDR. The core increase was just behind the X1800XT and reached 652MHz and the memory was able to achieve 770MHz or 1.54GHz DDR.

Without delaying any longer lets get a move onto the benchmark results to see what exactly we got out of both cards.

3DMark03

Version and / or Patch Used: Build 360

Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com

Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark03/

Buy It Here

By combining full DX8 and partial DX9 support with completely new tests and graphics over the previous version, 3DMark03 continues the legacy of being the industry standard 3D benchmark.

Please Note: Due to recent events with the 3DMark03 series, we are adding results purely for those who are still in favor of 3DMark03. These results should not be taken too seriously and are only added for interest sakes.

We can see that both cards receive a nice little performance increase in the first of our synthetic tests. The X1600XT is almost able to break 10k and the X1800XT is almost hitting 17k.