We configured an i925XE Pentium 4 based system with the help of an Asus P5AD2-E motherboard and some Corsair XMS2 DDR2 DRAM.  Take note of the system specs below for relative performance comparisons.

The We Test System Intel-Powered

Intel Pentium 4 560 3.6GHz - LGA775   ASUS P5AD2-E i925XE Motherboard   2x512MB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 533 PC2-4300 CL 3, 3, 3, 8 HIS X850 XT IceQ II HIS X800 XL IceQ II  NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT   On-board 10/100 Ethernet On-board Audio   WD "Raptor" 36GB Hard Drive 10,000 RPM SATA   Windows XP Pro SP2 ATi Catalyst 5.2 NVIDIA Forceware v71.84 DirectX 9.0c

Benchmarks With Halo Halo - All Patched & Ready To Go!

Halo

No additional patches or tweaks are needed to benchmark with Halo, as Gearbox has included all of the necessary information in its readme file. The Halo benchmark runs through four of the cut-scenes from the game, after which the average frame rate is recorded. We patched the game using the v1.06 patch and ran this benchmark twice, once at 1,024 x 768 and then again at 1,600 x 1,200. Antialiasing doesn't work properly with Halo, so all of the tests below were run with antialiasing disabled.

The HIS X850 XT seems to be the overall strongest of the contenders in our Halo test, while the 6800 Ultra and GT seem to have the most efficient drivers.  At the lower resolution, the GF 6800 Ultra is slightly in the lead but turn up the resolution and fill-rate demands and the HIS X850 XT pulls ahead.  The HIS X800 XL brings up the rear at both high and mid range resolutions however, with a 10% to 15% performance shortfall versus its closest competitor.