System setup and notes
Hardware
| Graphics cards | Inno3D GeForce 9600 GT Overclock 512MiB | ZOTAC GeForce 9600 GT AMP Edition 512MiB | XFX GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog Edition XXX 256MiB | ASUS GeForce 8600 GTS 256MiB | Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 Ultimate 512MiB | Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current pricing, including VAT | £110 | £117 | £120 | £89 | £99 | £98 |
| Shader Model | 4.0 | 4.1 | ||||
| Stream processors | 64 | 64 | 112 | 32 | 320 | 320 |
| GPU clock speed (MHz) | 700 | 725 | 600 | 675 | 669 | 777 |
| Shader clock speed (MHz) | 1,680 | 1,750 | N/A | 1,458 | 669 | 777 |
| Memory clock speed (MHz) | 1,900 | 2,000 | 1,400 | 2,016 | 1,658 | 2,252 |
| Memory bus width (Bits) | 256 | 128 | 256 | |||
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 LGA775 (3.0GHz, 8MiB L2 cache, quad-core) | |||||
| Motherboard | eVGA NF68 (nForce 680i SLI) | ASUS P5K Premium Deluxe WiFi-AP (Bearlake P35) | ||||
| Motherboard BIOS | P31 | 0204 | ||||
| Mainboard software | NVIDIA device driver 15.08 | Intel Inf 8.4.0.1016 | ||||
| Memory | 4GiB (4 x 1GiB) DDR2-1066 | 4GiB (4 x 1GiB) DDR2-1066 | ||||
| Memory timings and speed | 5-5-5-15 2T @ 1,066MHz | 5-5-5-15 2T @ 1,066MHz | ||||
| PSU | Gigabyte ODIN GT 800W | Enermax Galaxy DXX 850W | ||||
| Monitor | Dell 30in 3007WFP - 2,560x1,600 | |||||
| Disk drive(s) | Seagate 160GiB SATAII (ST3160812AS) | |||||
| Graphics driver | NVIDIA ForceWare 174.12 | NVIDIA ForceWare 169.25 | CATALYST 8.2 BETA 5 | |||
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business, 64-bit | |||||
Software
| 3D Benchmarks | Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts v2.103: DX9 and DX10 Enemy Territory: Quake Wars v1.2 (demo_00010.dem, map Valley) Lost Planet: Extreme Condition v1.004 built-in benchmark: DX9 |
|---|
Notes
We've paired the Inno3D up with another overclocked model from ZOTAC. Its AMP! Edition is available for around £117.The vagaries of pricing are such that ATI's cards' is highly volatile. A number of UK-based e-tailers are now selling Radeon HD 3870 512MiB cards for sub-£100, including VAT.
The GeForce 8600 GTS continues to be sold, and we've included it in our round-up, as well as Sapphire's Radeon HD 3850 Ultimate, featuring 512MiB of on-board memory.
Benchmarks were conducted at 1,280x1,024/720 and 1,680x1,050, both with reasonable I.Q. added to the mix.
