Overclocking:

For our overclocking tests we used the coolbits registry hack for the Nvidia card. This adds a section to the Detonator control panel for clock rates. The Auto detect feature was used and the result was then confirmed manually.

For the Radeon overclocking Rage3d tweak was used. Rage3d tweak adds a clockspeed tab to the ATI control panel, the maximum overclock was found manually as there is no autodetect feature.

From a stock speed of 400/850 for the PNY 5900 we were able to reach a maximum overclock of 455/960.

From a stock speed of 324/580 for the Hercules 9800 we were able to reach a maximum overclock of 425/693.

So how did the overclocking affect the results?

3dmark2003	Settings	Stock	Overclocked
Card
5900		5150	5677
9800		4850	5925

Whilst the PNY FX achieves a respectable increase of over 500 points the increase for the Hercules 9800 is huge, 1075 points, which gives it the lead over the 5900 in 3dMark03.

Unreal Tournament 2003

1600x1200 0xaa 0xaf

At 1600x1200 0xAA 0xAF the FX retains its lead over the 9800 in Flyby and the 9800 does the same in botmatch.

Next: Conclusion