System setup and notes
Hardware
| System | Inno3D GeForce 7900 GS Zalman Ed. 256MiB | XFX GeForce 7900 GS Extreme Edition 256MiB (UDE3) | NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MiB | Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro 256MiB | ATI Radeon X1650 XT 256MiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.40GHz, 4MiB L2 cache, 1066MHz FSB LGA775) | ||||
| Motherboard | NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI Intel Edition Reference | ASUS PW5-DH Deluxe (Intel i975X) | |||
| Memory | 1GByte (2 x 512) OCZ26671024ELDCGE-K PC5400 | ||||
| Memory timings and speed | 4-4-4-8 2T @ 667MHz (PC5300) | ||||
| Graphics card(s) | Inno3D GeForce 7900 GS Zalman Ed. 256MiB (450/1320) XFX GeForce 7900 GS Extreme Edition 256MiB (480/1400) NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MiB (560/1400) |
Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro 256MiB (580/1400) ATI Radeon X1650 XT 256MiB (574/1350) | |||
| Disk drive(s) | Seagate 160GB SATAII (ST3160812AS) | ||||
| BIOS revision | 2.053.42 | 1305 | |||
| Mainboard software | NVIDIA platform driver 9.37 | Intel Inf Update 8.0.1.1002 | |||
| Graphics driver | ForceWare 91.47 (91.31 for 7600 GT) | CATALYST 6.10 | |||
| Operating System | Windows XP Professional, w/ SP2, 32-bit | ||||
Software
| 3D Benchmarks |
Far Cry v1.33 Quake 4 v1.04 Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory v1.05 |
|---|
Notes
We're comparing the performance of these £130-£140 cards against their direct ATI rival, the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MiB. Further comparison are made against GeForce 7600 GT and Radeon X1650 XT; a couple of SKUs that retail around the £100 mark. They're included to illustrate the extra performance a better-performing architecture brings to the table, and whether spending an additional £30-£40 pays enough performance dividends.As always, we ran each benchmark a trio of times and then calculated the arithmetic mean. If any of the three results looked erroneous, we threw all three away until we could collect three within a margin of statistical error. We report any major attempts needed to get three reliable results, of course. Apart from that, things are as noted on the graphs and in the graph commentary. Want to know more? Head for the HEXUS.community.
