Testbed and Methods

We performed the tests on our AGP platform configured like that:

• AMD Athlon 64 4000+ CPU (2.40GHz, 1MB L2 cache);
• ABIT KV8 Pro mainboard;
• OCZ PC-3200 Platinum EB DDR SDRAM (2x512MB, CL2.5-3-2-8);
• Samsung SpinPoint SP1213C hard disk drive (Serial ATA-150, 8MB buffer);
• Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 audio card.

Software:

• Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2, DirectX 9.0c;
• ATI Catalyst 4.12 beta;
• NVIDIA ForceWare 66.93.

We used the following graphics cards for the comparison:

• NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT 256MB (350/1000MHz);
• NVIDIA GeForce 6800 128MB (325/700MHz);
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra 256MB (475/950MHz)
  For details see our article called NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra against ATI RADEON 9800 XT: Shader Wars;
• ATI RADEON X800 XT 256MB (520/1120MHz)
  For details see our article called Clash of the Titans: ATI RADEON X800 PRO and ATI RADEON X800 XT Against the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra;
• ATI RADEON X800 PRO 256MB (475/900MHz)
  For details see our article called ASUS AX800 PRO/TD Graphics Card Review;
• ATI RADEON 9800 XT 256MB (412/730MHz)
  For details see our article called SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800 XT ULTIMATE Edition Extreme Overclocking: Myths and Reality;

The Catalyst A.I. option was set to “Standard? and the Mipmap Detail Level option to “Quality? We disabled VSync in the drivers for all the participating cards. We also turned off the ForceWare optimizations save for the Anisotropic mip filter optimization, using the Quality mode.

We turned on full-screen anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering from the game’s own menu. Otherwise we forced the necessary mode from the driver. In all cases we only adjusted those settings which were accessible to any user; we didn’t change the games?configuration files. The maximum graphics quality settings were selected in each game, the same for graphics cards on ATI’s and NVIDIA’s GPUs.

We used the following games and benchmarks for this review:

First-Person 3D Shooters

• Call of Duty: United Offensive
• Doom 3
• Unreal Tournament 2004
• Halo: Combat Evolved
• Far Cry
• Painkiller
• Half-Life 2
• Counter-Strike: Source

Third-Person 3D Shooters

• Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
• Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
• Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

Simulators

• IL-2 Sturmovik: Aces in the Sky
• Lock On: Modern Air Combat
• Colin McRae Rally 04

Strategy Games

• Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour
• Perimeter

Semi-Synthetic Benchmarks

• Final Fantasy XI Official Benchmark 3
• AquaMark3

Synthetic Benchmarks

• Futuremark 3DMark 03 Build 3.5.0
• Futuremark 3DMark 05 Build 1.1.0