Futuremark 3DMark06

3DMark06 uses modern technologies such as SM3.0 and HDR and clearly shows the advantage of the Gainward Bliss 8800 GTS 1024MB over the other single-core graphics cards. The new card scores nearly 12,000 points, yet cannot overtake the Radeon HD 3870 X2 with its two RV670 cores. We expect the GeForce 9800 GTX to be no better in this test – it’s not going to set a new record.

The individual tests produce expected results.  The described card from Gainward is close behind the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 in the SM2.0 group of tests, but has no chance in the SM3.0/HDR group despite the high clock rate of the shader processors because ATI’s solution is five times more powerful in terms of total computing capacity.

Interestingly, the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 is slower than the Gainward card in the first test despite the higher frequency of texture processors. This must be due to the tradeoff for the synchronization between the two GPUs and the less efficient architecture of texture processors in which there is only one filter unit per each two texture sample units.

The second test doesn’t load the texture processors much while uses the card’s computing capacity to generate dynamic vegetation. Nvidia is no match for ATI here, and ATI’s flagship wins easily.

Both SM3.0/HDR tests put a heavy load on shader processors, which leaves no chance to the Gainward Bliss 8800 GTS 1024MB against the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2. Note that the Gainward card is superior to the reference card from Nvidia in the second test only.