Video Card Testing Methodology

At the start of all tests, the previous display adapter driver is uninstalled and trace components are removed using Driver Cleaner Pro. We then restart the computer system to establish our display settings and define the monitor. Once the hardware is prepared, we begin our testing. The synthetic benchmark tests in 3DMark06 will utilize shader models 2.0 and 3.0. In our higher-end VGA products we conduct tests at the following resolutions: 1280x1024 (Standard 17-19" LCD), 1680x1050 (22-24" Widescreen LCD), and 1920x1200 (24-28" Widescreen LCD). In some tests we utilized widescreen monitor resolutions, since more users are beginning to feature these products for their own computing.

Each benchmark test program begins after a system restart, and the very first result for every test will be ignored since it often only caches the test. This process proved extremely important in the World in Conflict and Supreme Commander benchmarks, as the first run served to cache maps allowing subsequent tests to perform much better than the first. Each test is completed five times, with the average results displayed in our article.

Our site polls and statistics indicate that the over 90% of our visitors use their PC for playing video games, and practically every one of you are using a screen resolutions mentioned above. Since all of the benchmarks we use for testing represent different game engine technology and graphic rendering processes, I feel that this battery of tests will provide a diverse range of results for you to gauge performance on your own computer system. Since most gamers and enthusiasts are still using Windows XP, it was decided that DirectX 9 would be used for all tests until demand and software support improve for Windows Vista.

Test System

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 (Intel X48 Chipset) with version F5 BIOS
• Processor: Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHz (Overclocked to 3.6 GHz)
• System Memory: Corsair PC3-14400 DDR3 1800MHz
• Audio: HT Omega Claro Plus+ AD8620BR Op Amp Sound Card
• Disk Drive: Mtron Pro 7500 32GB SATA-II SSD MSP-SATA7525
• Optical Drive: ASUS BC-1205PT SATA Blu-ray Disc Optical Drive
• Enclosure: Lian Li PC-B25B Black Aluminum Mid-Tower ATX Case
• PSU: ePower Technology EP-1200P10 xScale 1200W PSU
• Monitor: SOYO 26-Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor DYLM26E6
• Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP-3 (optimized to 16 processes at idle)

Benchmark Applications

• 3DMark06 v1.1.0 (8x Anti Aliasing & 16x Anisotropic Filtering)
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warefare v1.7.568 (4x AA/16x Trilinear AF using FRAPS)
• Crysis v1.21 Benchmark (High Settings, 0x and 4x Anti-Aliasing)
• Unreal Tournament 3 v1.3 (High Quality, 16x Anisotropic Filtering using HOC Benchmark Tool v1.3)
• World in Conflict v1.0.0.9 Performance Test (Very High Setting: 4x AA/4x AF)

Video Card Test Products

• Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 102-B50701-10-AT (750 MHz GPU/900 MHz RAM - Catalyst 8.7)
• XFX GeForce GeForce GTX 260 GX-260N-ADDU (640 MHz GPU/1242 Shader/1150 RAM - Forceware v177.79)
• Gigabyte GeForce 9800 GX2 GV-NX98X1GHI-B (600 MHz GPU x2/1500 Shader/1000 RAM - Forceware v177.79)
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 102-B50102-00-AT CrossFireX Set (625 MHz GPU/993 MHz RAM - Catalyst 8.7)
• ZOTAC GeForce GTX 280 AMP! Edition ZT-X28E3LA-FCP (700 MHz GPU/1400 MHz Shader/1150 MHz RAM - Forceware v177.79)
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 100251SR (750 MHz GPUs/900 MHz RAM - Catalyst 8.8 Step 2)

Now we're ready to begin testing video game performance on the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2, so please continue to the next page as we start with the 3DMark06 results.

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