System setup and notes
Hardware
| Graphics cards | AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 1,024MiB | Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 512MiB and CrossFire | Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MiB | Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 X2 1,024MiB | BFG GeForce GTX 280 1,024MiB | ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 896MiB | ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GX2+ 1,024MiB | BFG GeForce 9800 GTX in SLI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current pricing, including VAT | £349 (projected) | £179 (£358 for two cards) | £117 | £229 | £349 | £219 | £299 | £258 for two |
| Shader Model | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Stream processors | 1,600 | 800 | 800 | 640 | 240 | 192 | 256 | 256 |
| GPU clock speed (MHz) | 750 | 750 | 625 | 825 | 615 | 576 | 600 | 675 |
| Shader clock speed (MHz) | 750 | 750 | 625 | 825 | 1,350 | 1,242 | 1,500 | 1,688 |
| Memory clock speed (MHz) | 3,600 | 3,600 | 2,000 | 1,800 | 2,214 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 2,200 |
| Memory bus width (Bits) | 512 (2x 256) | 256 | 256 | 512 (2x 256) | 512 | 448 | 512 (2x 256) | 512 (2x 256) |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 LGA775 (3.0GHz, 8MiB L2 cache, quad-core) | |||||||
| Motherboard | ASUS P5K Premium Deluxe | MSI X48 Platinum (X48+ICH9R) | eVGA NF68 (nForce 680i SLI) | |||||
| Motherboard BIOS | 0504 | P2B2 | P31 | |||||
| Mainboard software | Intel Inf 8.4.0.1016 | NVIDIA device driver 15.08 | ||||||
| Memory | 4GiB (2x 2GiB) DDR2-1066 | 4GiB (2x 2GiB) DDR3-1066 | 4GiB (2x 2GiB) DDR2-1066 | |||||
| Memory timings and speed | 5-5-5-15 2T @ 1066MHz | 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 R5 | CATALYST 8.6 R4 and R5 for XF | CATALYST 8.6 R5 | CATALYST 8.5 | NVIDIA ForceWare 177.34 | NVIDIA ForceWare 174.53 | NVIDIA ForceWare 175.19 | 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
We've pulled a bunch of high-end cards together for this performance look. Radeon HD 4870 is present in both single-card and CrossFire guises. Radeon HD 4850 gives you an idea of how a sub-£120 card compares with monstrous dual-GPU power, and the Radeon HD 3870 X2's numbers will show the performance jump from one generation to the next.NVIDIA' s well-represented with GeForce GTX 280, 260, twin-GPU 9800 GX2, and two 9800 GTX cards in SLI. Recent price-drops, across the range, mean that the value proposition will be an interesting one, and we'll investigate it in our HEXUS.bang4buck analysis.
Benchmarks were conducted at 1,680x1050, 1,920x1,200 and 2,560x1,600 with decent image-quality settings as well.
