System setup and notes
Hardware
| Graphics Cards | AMD Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MiB | HIS Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MiB | Sapphire Radeon X1950 XTX 512MiB | NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MiB | NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MiB | ASUS EN8800GTS/HTDP/640M 640MiB | ASUS EN8800GTS/HTDP/320M 340MiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU/Shader/Memory clocks | 743/743/1656 | 743/743/1656 | 648/648/1998 | 612/1512/2160 | 575/1350/1800 | 513/1188/1586 | 513/1188/1586 |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (2.93GHz, 4MiB L2 cache, LGA775) | ||||||
| Motherboard | ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe (975X+ICH7R) | EVGA nForce 680i SLI | |||||
| Memory | 2GiB (2 x 1024) Patriot XLBK | 2GiB (2 x 1024) Corsair PC8500 EPP | |||||
| Memory timings and speed | 4-4-4-12 2T @ 800MHz (PC6400) | ||||||
| PSU | Enermax Galaxy DXX 850W | FSP Epsilon 600W | |||||
| Monitor | Dell 3007WFP - 2560x1600 | ||||||
| Disk drive(s) | Seagate 160GB SATAII (ST3160812AS) | ||||||
| Mainboard software | Intel Inf 8.0.1.1002 | NVIDIA platform driver 9.53 | |||||
| Graphics driver | 8.37.4-070419a-046506E-ATI (Cat 7.5 BETA) | ForceWare 158.19 | |||||
| Operating System | Windows XP Professional, w/ SP2, 32-bit | ||||||
Software
| 3D Benchmarks | Far Cry v1.33 Quake 4 v1.30 Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory v1.05 |
|---|
Notes
Having spoken ad nauseum about the virtues of DX10 and the unified shading architecture, more data precision, and better-looking pixels as a result, we're actually testing with good, old Windows XP and three games that have been around for a while.[advert]The primary reason for doing so lies with consistency. HEXUS has a large library of results for high-end cards that were tested on this exact platform, so cross-comparisons are easy to make.
The second reason has to do with the lack of DX10 games currently available on the market. If several titles were available at the time of testing, we'd have switched to Microsoft Vista and benchmarked them. The sad fact is that they're not.
We'll definitely revisit benchmarking the DX10 cards in the very near future, when a wide range of Vista-specific DX10 titles become available.
Right now, then, our suite focuses on decent driver development, texturing as well as shading ability, and performance at high resolutions. Most high-end GPUs can offer significantly better image quality than our prescribed 4x AA 8/16xAF setting and should be able to provide decent-looking pixels without breaking sweat - if the quality of the respective architectures are anything to go by.
AMD is pricing the Radeon HD 2900 XT at $399. We've had confirmation from HIS that its retail model will be available, later on today, for £249 including VAT. That puts its SKU in direct competition with NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTS 640.
Pricing of this AMD partner's part show us, without looking at a single graph, that AMD knows its top-of-the-range card will not pose a significant performance threat to NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 Ultra or, indeed, GTX GPUs. Our look at the vital numbers suggests that present performance should fall between GTS 640 and GTX, with more to come with newer drivers.
We've run benchmarks at 1600x1200, 1920x1200 and 2560x1600, to see if AMD's claims about HD gaming hold true. The Radeon HD 2900 XT should perform better than the Radeon X1950 XTX once the resolution and quality (HDR) hurt is applied.
