Performance in Semi-Synthetic Benchmarks

Final Fantasy XI Official Benchmark 3

Unfortunately, the problem with NVIDIA?s PCI Express cards occurs in the new test from Square Enix, too. So, only the numbers shown by the ATI based cards are correct. The difference of 134 points between the RADEON X700 XT and PowerColor RADEON X700 PRO is really small, but not very representative, since this test only supports 1024x768 resolution.

AquaMark3

Aquamark3 features sophisticated geometry and has a high overdraw coefficient, so its speed largely depends on the number and speed of the vertex processors as well as on the efficient invisible-surface-removal technique. The RADEON X700-based cards should have a handicap in this test since they each have 6 vertex processors while the GeForce 6600 GT has only three. Yet we can?t see an overwhelming victory: the performance of the RADEON X700 XT is comparable to the GeForce 6600 GT, while the PowerColor X700 PRO is slower, but by no more than 4-5 frames per second.

The PowerColor overtakes the GeForce 6600 GT in the ?eye candy?mode, while the RADEON X700 XT is ahead of them both.