System Setup and Notes
Hardware
| ATI Radeon X1800 XT Crossfire Test System | |
|---|---|
| Processor | AMD Athlon 64 FX 2800MHz, 1MiB L2 |
| Mainboard | Sapphire PC-A9RD480 Pure Crossfire |
| Memory | 2 x 512MiB Corsair XMS3200 XL DDR-400 2.0-2-2-5 @ 400MHz |
| Disk Drive | 36GB Western Digital Raptor |
| Graphics Cards | ATI Radeon X1800 XT Crossfire Edition, 512MiB (R520) (652/750) ATI Radeon X1800 XT, 512MiB (R520) (652/750) PCI Express 16X |
| Operating System | Windows XP Professional, SP2 |
| Mainboard Software | CATALYST 5.12 for ATI Mainboards |
| Graphics Driver Software | CATALYST 5.12 for ATI Graphics |
| Display | Dell 2405FPW Widescreen LCD Display |
Notes
First off, the testing quirks. Disabling Crossfire meant that most of the time it couldn't be turned back on without a reboot. Start the PC with it off, though, and turning it on worked nearly 100% of the time. So some issues turning it on and off at times, but nothing that a reboot wouldn't cure. Some driver work for ATI to get stuck in to.Secondly, SuperAA performance was sometimes a wee bit off base, as you'll see. HEXUS are certain it's driver-related and we are looking into it.
Thirdly, ATI's bonkers attempt at sampling for X1800 Crossfire meant that there was only really time for comparing Crossfire versus the single board. Comparison versus NVIDIA hardware will come at a later date.
Testing Bits
Driver defaults were used for image quality optimisations throughout, and stock clocks were used for all cards. If in-game controls could be used for both antialiasing and anisotropic texture filtering, they were, otherwise the driver was used to force the required levels (if applicable and the game allowed it without rendering errors).Tests were run a minimum of three times at each setting, and the median value reported. In the case of manual 'run-through' testing with FRAPS, three consecutive runs that produced repeatable results, after further analysis, were used. If values weren't part of a repeatable set, they were discarded and obtained again.
If you have any questions about our testing methods, please feel free to ask at any time in the HEXUS.community.
The format of the graphs is the same throughout this preview. The line plots are the baseline scores without antialiasing or anisotropic texture filtering applied, the column plots the values with AA and AF applied.
If you have any questions or comments, good or bad, about our testing methods and the way we evaluate graphics products here on HEXUS.core, we’d be delighted to hear them. Please direct them to the 2D/3D Graphics Forum inside the awesome HEXUS.community.
