System setup and notes
Hardware
| Graphics cards | Foxconn GeForce 7600 GT 256MiB (560/1400) | NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256MiB (450/1320) | HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo Dual DL-DVI 256MiB (628/1458) | Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro 256MiB (580/1400) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.40GHz, 4MiB L2 cache, 1066MHz FSB LGA775) | |||
| Motherboard | EVGA nForce 680i SLI | NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI Intel Edition Reference | ASUS PW5-DH Deluxe (Intel i975X) | |
| BIOS revision | 691N0P20 | 2.053.42 | 1305 | |
| Memory | 1GByte (2 x 512) OCZ26671024ELDCGE-K PC5400 | |||
| Memory timings and speed | 4-4-4-8 2T @ 667MHz (PC5300) | |||
| Disk drive(s) | Seagate 160GB SATAII (ST3160812AS) | |||
| Mainboard software | NVIDIA platform driver 9.53 | NVIDIA platform driver 9.37 | Intel Inf Update 8.0.1.1002 | |
| Graphics driver | ForceWare 93.71 | ForceWare 91.47 | 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
No problems to report during installation or rigorous testing in Windows XP 32-bit. However, at the time of writing, NVIDIA did not have WHQL'd Microsoft Vista drivers for its range of GeForce cards. Naughty, naughty.We're comparing the performance of the Foxconn GeForce 7600 GT against an HIS Radeon X1650 XT SKU which is priced just a few pounds higher and is shipped pre-overclocked. Investing a further £20-£30 above the Foxconn's £93 asking price brings you a better class of GPU from both camps. Including the NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS and ATI Radeon X1950 Pro SKUs in our performance analysis will show the kind the performance increase available, and you'll be well-informed as to whether it's worth spending the extra, we hope.
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.
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