System setup and notes
| Graphics cards | Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 ATOMIC 1,024MB | Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 OC 1,024MB | XFX Radeon HD 4890 XT 1,024MB | Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1,024MB | Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 2,048MB | Inno3D GTX 275 OC 896MB | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 896MB | BFG
GeForce GTX 260 896MB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current pricing, including VAT | £250? | £198 |
£190 | £165 | £239 |
£220 | £199 | £155 |
| Shader model | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Stream processors | 800 | 800 | 800 | 800 | 1600 | 240 | 240 | 216 |
| GPU clock speed (MHz) | 1,000 | 900 | 850 | 750 | 625 | 670 | 633 | 576 |
| Shader clock speed (MHz) | 1,000 | 900 | 850 | 750 | 625 | 1,474 | 1,404 | 1,242 |
| Memory clock speed (MHz) | 4,200 | 4,000 | 3,900 | 3,600 | 1,986 | 2,350 | 2,268 | 1,998 |
| Memory bus width (bits) | 256 | 256 | 256 | 256 | 512 | 448 | 448 | 448 |
| CPU | Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (3.20GHz, 8MB L3 cache, quad-core, LGA1,366) | |||||||
| Motherboard | Foxconn Bloodrage X58 | |||||||
| Motherboard BIOS | P04 | |||||||
| Mainboard software | Intel Inf 9.1.0.1012 | |||||||
| Memory | 6GB Corsair DOMINATOR PC12,800 | |||||||
| Memory timings and speed | 9-9-9-24 1T @ DDR3-1,333 | |||||||
| PSU | Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1,000W | |||||||
| Monitor | Dell 30in 3007WFP - 2,560x1,600px | |||||||
| Disk drive(s) | Seagate 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (3Gb/s mode) | |||||||
| Graphics driver | Catalyst 9.4 | Catalyst 9.4 | Catalyst 9.4 | Catalyst 9.3 | Catalyst 9.3 | ForceWare 185.63 beta | ForceWare 185.63 beta | ForceWare 182.06 |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business SP1, 64-bit | |||||||
Software
| 3D Benchmarks | Call of Duty 4: Modern
Warfare v1.7, HEXUS custom-recorded
benchmark:
DX9 - very high quality Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts v2.301: DX10 - very high quality Enemy Territory: Quake Wars v1.5, HEXUS custom-recorded benchmark. OpenGL - very high quality Far Cry 2 v1.02 DX10 - very high quality Race Driver: GRID v1.2, HEXUS custom-recorded benchmark - ultra quality |
|---|
Notes
We've lined up four comparison ATI-based cards, two from the HD 4890 stable, a Radeon HD 4870 1,024MB, and, interestingly, the dual-GPU Radeon HD 4850 X2, which currently etails for around £240.NVIDIA is represented by two GeForce GTX 275s, of which the Inno3D is overclocked to a reasonable degree. At the lower end of the scale is the GeForce GTX 260, so we have a reasonable number of comparison GPUs ranging from £155 through to £250.
Benchmarks were conducted at 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,200, and 2,560x1,600, all with decent image-quality settings.
