Test System Setup

Processor(s): Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3.33GHz (366MHz x 9 and FSB 1:1)

Motherboard(s): ABIT IN9 32X-MAX Wi-Fi (Supplied by Universal ABIT)

Memory: 2 X 1GB Crucial PC8000 5-5-5-15 (Supplied by Crucial)

Hard Disk(s): Hitachi 80GB 7200RPM SATA 2

Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP2

Drivers: nVidia ForceWare 97.92 and DX9c

While we wanted to compare the results of the XXX 8800GTS 320MB from XFX against a stock clocked model like the MSI offering, we also wanted to see how the overclocked card compares against the SLI setup which we see doesn't always offer huge increases if the driver is not properly SLI optimized for particular games or applications.

The MSI is clocked at the stock speeds of 500MHz/1600MHz DDR while the XFX XXX comes in higher at 580MHz/1800MHz DDR which should make for an interesting test.

Let's see how this impacts the performance and how a heavily overclocked XXX version from XFX can compare against dual graphics technology. Keep in mind that in Australia the XXX version will cost you about $560 AUD (or roughly $445 USD) while the standard non-overclocked version will cost you around $500 AUD (or roughly $398 USD). This makes the XXX version around 11% more expensive, which means we at least hope to see it performing around 11% faster than the base model. Two MSI standard clocked 320MB cards in SLI will cost you about $900 AUD (or roughly $716 USD) for comparison.

Let's get started!

3DMark05

Version and / or Patch Used: Build 130

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

Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark05/

Buy It Here

3DMark05 is now the second latest version in the popular 3DMark "Gamers Benchmark" series. It includes a complete set of DX9 benchmarks which tests Shader Model 2.0 and above.

For more information on the 3DMark05 benchmark, we recommend you read our preview here.

We can see straight away that the overclocked XXX version from XFX sees huge gains across the board at all resolutions.