System setup and notes
Hardware
| Graphics cards | BFG GeForce GTX 280 1024MiB | ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GX2 1024MiB | BFG GeForce 9800 GTX | Inno3D GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MiB | Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 X2 1024MiB | Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current pricing, including VAT | £469 | £299 | £185 | £299 (hard to find) | £239 | £89 |
| Shader Model | 4.0 | 4.1 | ||||
| Stream processors | 240 | 256 | 128 | 128 | 640 | 320 |
| GPU clock speed (MHz) | 615 | 600 | 675 | 612 | 825 | 777 |
| Shader clock speed (MHz) | 1,350 | 1,500 | 1,688 | 1,512 | 825 | 777 |
| Memory clock speed (MHz) | 2,214 | 2,000 | 2,200 | 2,160 | 1,802 | 2,252 |
| Memory bus width (Bits) | 512 | 512 (2x 256) | 256 | 384 | 256 | |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 LGA775 (3.0GHz, 8MiB L2 cache, quad-core) | |||||
| Motherboard | eVGA NF68 (nForce 680i SLI) | MSI X48 Platinum (X48+ICH9R) | ||||
| Motherboard BIOS | P31 | P2B2 | ||||
| Mainboard software | NVIDIA device driver 15.08 | Intel Inf 8.4.0.1016 | ||||
| Memory | 4GiB (4x 1GiB) DDR2-1066 | 4GiB (4x 1GiB) DDR3-1066 | ||||
| Memory timings and speed | 5-5-5-15 2T @ 1066MHz | 7-7-7-20 2T @ 1066MHz | ||||
| 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 177.34 | NVIDIA ForceWare 174.53 | NVIDIA ForceWare 174.74 | NVIDIA ForceWare 175.16 | CATALYST 8.5 | CATALYST 8.5 |
| 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
Benchmarks were conducted at 1,680x1050, 1,920x1,200 and 2,560x1,600 with decent image-quality settings as well.
We've omitted the 2,560x1600 results for Crysis and Lost Planet: Extreme Condition running in high-quality modes because they produced what we consider to be non-playable frame-rates.
What's the point of showing you an average frame-rate of 7fps? But we believe that this six-way comparison should be able to run those games with their high-quality settings.
The GeForce 9800 GX2 pricing is based on the cheapest variant; the cards are identical, after all.
We're looking at the fastest single-GPU cards from NVIDIA's 8- 9- and GTX-series, as well as the two fastest ATI SKUs. Twin-GPU GeForce 9800 GX2 is thrown in for good measure.
All drivers are either WHQL or released within the last two months.
We'll conveniently ignore the abhorrent GTX 280 pricing until our HEXUS.bang4buck analysis.
Please don't read anything much into the Radeon HD 3870's benchmarks - it's included for reference only. We can't expect an £89 card to compete against a £450 model.
All on board the performance train. Let's TGV it to the benchmarks!
