In the second test the above-mentioned advantages of the GeForce 8800 GTX add up with its unified architecture that allows to dynamically allot the streamed processors to perform shaders of different kinds. This only shows up in extreme antialiasing modes, though. In 4x FSAA + 16x Aniso mode the new card is even slower than the Radeon X1950 XTX CrossFire.
What we’ve said above about the second test can be applied to the third test, too. The GeForce 8800 GTX has excellent results in 8x MSAA and 16xQ modes, but loses to the Radeon X1950 XTX CrossFire when using ordinary 4x MSAA.
Thus, the final result is easily explained: the advantage of the Radeon X1950 XTX CrossFire tandem in the second and third tests in 4x FSAA + 16x Aniso mode also shows up at the default settings when there is no FSAA in use. 3DMark05 doesn’t suit too well for benchmarking solutions like GeForce 8800 GTX because this benchmarking suite doesn’t support Shader Model 3.0. Let’s check out the new card in the more modern 3DMark06.
