System setup and notes
Hardware and Software
Test Platforms
| Systems | ABIT 64 S939 AGP System | Athlon 64 S939 PCI-Express System |
| Processor | AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 | |
| Mainboard | ASUS A8V Deluxe K8T800 Pro | ABIT AX8 K8T890 |
| Memory | 1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS3200XL | Memory timings | 2-2-2-5 1T |
| Graphics Card #1 | PNY Verto GeForce 6600 GT 128MB AGP | |
| Graphics Card #2 | NVIDIA GeForce 6800 128MB AGP | |
| Graphics Card #3 | ATI RADEON X700 PRO 256MB PCIe | Disk Drive | 160GB WD IDE |
| BIOS Version | BIOS 11 - 20th April 2005 | BIOS 10 - 14th February 2005 |
| Operating System | Windows XP Professional, SP2 | |
| Mainboard Software | VIA Hyperion Pro v4.55 | |
Benchmark Software
Futuremark 3DMark05 Build 1.2.0
DOOM 3 v1.1 (1282) Timedemo 1
Far Cry v1.3 - custom HEXUS benchmark
Half-Life 2 - custom HEXUS benchmark
Notes
I'll be looking at PNY Verto 6600 GT 128MB AGP's performance against an NVIDIA card one rung higher in the range, GeForce 6800 128MB AGP, and an ATI RADEON X700 PRO 256MB card that runs off PCI-Express. It will be interesting to see how the RADEON's 256MB framebuffer comes into play when AntiAliasing and Anisotropic Filtering are added into the mix. Benchmarks were carried out three times and the highest and lowest results, assuming that all three were in the same ballpark, were excluded.
PNY Verto 6600 GT's 2D quality was tested on a Dell P991 (rebadged Sony) 19" Trinitron monitor. 2D, via HD15, was pretty sharp at 1280x1024 @ 85Hz, the monitor's recommended resolution. Further, DVI quality was tested on a Dell 2001FP 20" TFT. Again, no complaints here, as the picture was sharp and clear at the panel's native 1600x1200 resolution.
On to the tests.
