Mid-Range Graphics Card Warfare - AMD vs. nVidia (Q4 2006)

Test System Setup

Processor(s): Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3150MHz (350MHz FSB 1:1)

Motherboard(s): ASUS P5B Deluxe (Supplied by ASUS)

Memory: 2 X 1GB G.Skill HZ PC8000 @ 350MHz 4-4-4-12 (Supplied by Bronet)

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

Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP2

Drivers: AMD Catalyst 6.12, nVidia ForceWare 93.71 and DX9c

Our main focus will be GeForce 7600GT versus Radeon X1650XT along with GeForce 7900GS versus Radeon X1950PRO. At the same time though we will compare them all against each other and see exactly what you get for your money.

Without going on let's have a look exactly what we have and where your money is best spent this holiday season.

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 have seen the Radeon graphics cards take quite the lead in 3DMark05 these days. It seems to mean little, though, because as soon as we get into the more intensive games, we begin to see where all the cards actually sit in terms of real-world performance.