High-end system setup
Hardware
| Graphics cards | Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MiB | Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 X2 1024MiB | Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MiB | BFG GeForce GTX 280 1024MiB | ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GX2 1024MiB | BFG GeForce 9800 GTX |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current pricing, including VAT | £125 | £239 | £89 | £469 | £299 | £179 |
| Shader Model | 4.1 | 4.0 | ||||
| Stream processors | 800 | 640 | 320 | 240 | 256 | 128 |
| GPU clock speed (MHz) | TBA | 825 | 777 | 615 | 600 | 675 |
| Shader clock speed (MHz) | TBA | 825 | 777 | 1,350 | 1,500 | 1,688 |
| Memory clock speed (MHz) | TBA | 1,802 | 2,252 | 2,214 | 2,000 | 2,200 |
| Memory bus width (Bits) | 256 | 512 | 512 (2x 256) | 256 | ||
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 LGA775 (3.0GHz, 8MiB L2 cache, quad-core) | |||||
| Motherboard | MSI X48 Platinum (X48+ICH9R) | eVGA NF68 (nForce 680i SLI) | ||||
| Motherboard BIOS | P2B2 | P31 | ||||
| Mainboard software | Intel Inf 8.4.0.1016 | NVIDIA device driver 15.08 | ||||
| Memory | 4GiB (4x 1GiB) DDR3-1066 | 4GiB (4x 1GiB) DDR2-1066 | ||||
| Memory timings and speed | 7-7-7-20 2T @ 1066MHz | 5-5-5-15 2T @ 1066MHz | ||||
| PSU | Enermax Galaxy DXX 850W | Gigabyte ODIN GT 800W | ||||
| Monitor | Dell 30in 3007WFP - 2,560x1,600 | |||||
| Disk drive(s) | Seagate 160GiB SATAII (ST3160812AS) | |||||
| Graphics driver | CATALYST 8.6 press | CATALYST 8.5 | CATALYST 8.5 | NVIDIA ForceWare 177.34 | NVIDIA ForceWare 174.53 | NVIDIA ForceWare 174.74 |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business, 64-bit | |||||
Software
| 3D Benchmarks | Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts v2.103: DX9 - very
high quality Enemy Territory: Quake Wars v1.2 (demo_00010.dem, map Valley): OpenGL - vhq Lost Planet: Extreme Condition v1.004 built-in benchmark: DX10 - high quality Crysis v1.2.1 custom-recorded benchmark: DX10 - high quality Futuremark 3DMark Vantage b1.0.1 |
|---|
Notes
Looking at the high-end setup, we have more of the big-hitting GPUs, run on a higher-performing CPU. The Sapphire Radeon HD 4850, Radeon HD 3870 and BFG GeForce 9800 GTX are carried over from the mid-range comparison, though.Please note that the Radeon HD 4850 is likely to be priced at around £125, hence the comparison to cards costing over twice as much is unfair, yet ATI has made significant performance strides to enable the evaluation without the HD 4850 embarrassing itself in this lofty company. Radeon HD 3870 is included for pure interest only; its £89 street price makes it decidedly mid-range these days.
Higher resolutions - up to 2,560x1,600 - and detail settings mean that all cards receive a thorough workout, much more so than in our mid-range look on pages two to six.
