Test System Setup

Processor(s): AMD Athlon X2 3800+ @ 260MHz FSB x 10 (1:1 RAM)

Motherboard(s): DFI Lanparty UT SLI DR Expert (Supplied by Bronet)

Memory: 2 X 1GB G.Skill HV PC4000 @ 260MHz (Supplied by Bronet)

Hard Disk(s): Hitachi 80GB 7,200RPM SATA 2

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2

Drivers: ATI Catalyst 6.6 and DX9c

Thanks to the people who left some comments in our last X1900XTX review, we had chance to let the new IceQ cooler loose when it came to overclocking. HIS guarantee a clock speed of 700MHz on the core and 1700MHz DDR on the memory but we were able to push that further and get as high as 717MHz on the core and 1740MHz DDR on the memory. While this isn't a huge gain when compared to what is offered from HIS, when compared to the stock speeds which is 650MHz on the core and 1550MHz DDR on the memory, it is quite substantial.

We have tested the HIS graphics card as it runs out of the box, which is the default (650MHz/1550MHz DDR) ATI speeds. We then have it compared against the slightly overclocked Sapphire (675MHz/1600MHz DDR) solution we looked at earlier in the week and then we pulled out the overclocking tools and cranked the HIS card up to (717MHz/1740MHz DDR) and ran it through all our benchmarks.

3DMark05

Version and / or Patch Used: Build 120

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.

The lowest resolution shows that the HIS when overclocked to its highest possible speed seems to go back a little but when moving to the higher resolution we can see that the HIS card when overclocked clearly comes ahead.