The Test System
The test system was running Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit with all available Microsoft updates including the hotfixes required for enthusiast video cards to run correctly. ATI CATALYST 8.5 drivers was used on the Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics card and ATI CATALYST 8.6 drivers were used on the nw Radeon HD 4850 graphics card. NVIDIA Forceware 175.16 WHQL drivers were used on all GeForce graphics cards except for the GeForce GTX 280 series cards as they used Forceware 177.34 drivers and the GeForce 9800 GTX+ that used Forceware 177.39 graphics drivers. All results shown in the charts are averages of at least three runs from each game or application used.
The Video Cards:
- Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 (625MHz/1986MHz GDDR3)
- NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ (738MHz/2200MHz GDDR3)
- EVGA GeForce GTX 280 Hydro Copper 16 (670MHz/2430MHz)
- PNY GeForce GTX 280 (602MHz/2214MHz)
- XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 (600MHz/2000MHz)
- XFX GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB
- DiamondRadeon HD 3870 X2 - 1GB (825MHz/1.800GHz GDDR3)
All of the video cards were tested on our Intel X38 Express Test platform, which is loaded with the latest and greatest hardware. The Intel Core 2 Quad QX9770 'Yorkfield' processor was used for testing as it proved to be the best desktop processor when it comes to game performance. The test system was also loaded with 4GB of memory and water cooled to ensure throttling of the processor or memory wouldn't cause any issues. The Corsair PC2-9136C5 memory kit was run at 1066MHz with 5-5-5-15 2T memory timings.
| Intel Test Platform |
| Component | Brand/Model | Live Pricing |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Quad QX9770 | Click Here |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte X38-DQ6 | Click Here |
| Memory | 4GB Corsair PC2-9136C5 | Click Here |
| Video Cards | See Above | Click Here |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital SATA RaptorX | Click Here |
| Cooling | Corsair Nautilus 500 | Click Here |
| Power Supply | Corsair HX620W | Click Here |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Ultimate | Click Here |
Now that we know exactly what the test system is, we can move along to performance numbers. It should be noted that since both Palit and XFX use the same PCB, BIOS, Memory IC's, Clock Speeds and cooling solutions we put the cards at the same data point. There is no performance difference between the two cards.
