System setup and notes
Hardware
- MSI RX700PRO-TD256E X700 PRO, 256MB, PCIe, 425/864
- GeForce 6600 GT, 128MB, PCIe, 500/1000
- GALAXY GeForce 6600, 256MB, PCIe, 324/552
- Intel Pentium 4 560 3.6GHz Prescott CPU, LGA775
- DFI LANPARTY 925X-T2 Alderwood motherboard
- 1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair DDR2 Twin2X, 3-3-3-10 @ DDR533
- Samcheer 420w PSU
- LGA775 reference cooler
- WD 160JB 160GB hard drive (PATA)
- Dell P991 19" flat-faced CRT monitor
Software
- Windows XP Professional w/SP2
- ATI CATALYST 4.10
- NVIDIA ForceWare 66.31
- Intel 6.01.1006 chipset drivers
- DirectX 9.0c Runtime
- 3DMark03 v340
- Xpand Rally Demo - HEXUS Custom Benchmark
- Unreal Tournament 2004 Retail (patched up to 3323 - HEXUS custom benchmark)
- Rome: Total War Demo - HEXUS Custom Benchmark
- DOOM 3 - Timedemo 1 - High quality
Notes
It's a showdown in the all-new ~£150 PCIe market. I'm pairing MSI's X700 PRO up against a vanilla 256MB GeForce 6600 and a 128MB GeForce 6600 GT. This will tell us just where ATI's X700 PRO stands in relation to the immediate competition. A slew of new benchmarks will stress the cards like never before. Benchmarks were conducted at 1024x768, 1280x1024 and 1600x1200, both with and without 4x AA and 8x AF.
There were no problems to report during installation or testing.
