The Tests: 3D and Gaming Performance

3DMark05

3DMark05 is best suited for the latest generation of DirectX?.0 graphics cards. It is the first benchmark to require a DirectX9.0 compliant hardware with support for Pixel Shaders 2.0 or higher! By combining high quality 3D tests, CPU tests, feature tests, image quality tools, and much more, 3DMark05 is a premium benchmark for evaluating the latest generation of gaming hardware.

3DMark06

3DMark06 is the latest version in the popular 3DMark series, including advanced SM2.0 and HDR/SM3.0 Shader graphics tests and now including single, multiple core and multiple processor CPU tests as part of the 3DMark score!

The memory frequency difference can be seen in the two 3dMark tests that were run, but there was actually very little difference here, as both board performed quite well.

AquaMark3

AquaMark3 is a powerful tool to determine reliable information about the gaming performance of a computer system. All settings for this test were left at default.

We see a little bigger gap in the Aquamark testing, especially in the area of the CPU score, which is obviously more dependent on memory bandwidth.

Doom 3

Doom 3 is a great choice for system benchmarking because of its built in time demo.  For this test, we used Time Demo 1 with resolution set to 1280x1024, using 4x AA and 16x AF, with the rest of the settings being default.

Far Cry

Far Cry is another super popular FPS title that seriously taxes your systems graphics. HardwareOC developed this specialized benchmarking utility that automatically runs the test twice and averages out the score. V 1.41 was used here, with a resolution of 1024x768 and detail levels set to high.

F.E.A.R

First Encounter Assault Recon or F.E.A.R. Anyone who has played this game knows that it brings any computer to it's knees. Fantastic visuals, this is one of the most advanced graphic engines we have seen. If you haven't played this game you should really check it out. Both graphics and machine settings were on "Maximum" in the F.E.A.R. performance menu.  Settings were at 4xAA and 16xAF.

We see pretty much the same results in our gaming benches, as the Gigabyte pulls in ahead of the Asrock in all of them.   Let's move on to overclocking!