System setup and notes
High-end GPUs warrant equally high-end testing hardware, so doff your hat sir, to our Core 2 Duo test bed.
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo X6800, 2.93GHz, 11 x 266 |
|---|---|
| Memory | 2 x 1GiB Corsair XMS2-6400 |
| Memory Timings | 5-5-5-18, 2T @ DDR2-800 |
| Mainboard | Intel D975XBX Bad Axe, Intel i975X, ICH7R |
| Graphics boards | ATI Radeon X1950 XTX Crossfire, ATI Radeon X1950 XTX, ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX, NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 |
| Graphics drivers | CATALYST 6.8, NVIDIA ForceWare 91.37 |
| Core logic driver | Intel INF Update 8.1.1.1001 |
| Operating system | Windows XP Professional SP2 32-bit |
Below you'll find X1950 CCC and WinClk screenshots.
Testing software
For this set of benchmarks we're using the following software:
- Oblivion
- Half-Life 2: Episode One
- Quake 4
IQ whores that we are (and so we should be at this end of the graphics market), we had 4xAA and 16xAF enabled during testing.
Tests were performed at the suitably high definition resolutions of 1920x1200 and 2560x1600.
Notes
At the time of writing, we've had some trouble with the performance of NVIDIA's GeForce 7950 GX2 on our i975X Bad Axe mainboard. Performance doesn't appear to be as it should. That said, we've included it in our benchmarks, and we'll give our thoughts on its performance over the course of the next couple of pages, along with the other cards on test.
