Driverheaven.net: Radeon 9800 XT Review

Radeon 9800 XT

Test System Setup

Hardware:
ATI Radeon 9800 XT 256mb
Sapphire and ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb
Gainward Geforce FX 5900 Ultra 256Mb
PNY Geforce FX 5900 non ultra
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (333fsb) at 2088mhz
Abit NF7-S rev 2.0
2x256mb DDR 333 (Twinmos)
IBM Deskstar 120gxp 40GB 7200rpm Hard Drive.
Sony CRX300E DVD/CDRW
Sony Floppy Drive
Mercury 400W PSU
AOC 19” 9GLR CRT

Software:
Windows XP, SP1a
Direct X 9.0b
Catalyst 3.7 WHQL
Detonator 45.23 WHQL
Nforce driver’s v2.45
3d Mark 2001SE
3d Mark 2003 build 330
Splinter Cell V1.2
Unreal Tournament 2003 build 2225
Elite Force 2
Tomb Raider : Angel Of Darkness v49
Aquamark3
Shadermark 2.0

The test system was built from scratch, a format of the hard drive was performed (NTFS) and then Windows XP was installed. Following the completion of the install the N-force drivers were installed. The only updates applied were SP1a and Direct X 9.0b. Following a reboot the Catalyst 3.7 or Detonator 45.23 drivers were installed. Next the benchmarking tools were installed and finally the hard drive was de-fragmented.

For all tests the ATI and Nvidia drivers were set to best image quality.

Good Benchmarking Practice:
Each benchmark was performed 3 times and the middle result for each resolution/setting is shown in the tables which follow. After changing any Anti-Aliasing (AA) or Anisotropic Filtering (AF) setting and before a benchmark was run the system was rebooted.

BENCHMARKING:
3dmark2001 SE is a very popular benchmark that has been broadly used to evaluate Microsoft's Direct X 8.0 and 8.1 graphics hardware. This test is primarily composed of fixed-function DX7-style rendering, with a selection of DX8-style pixel shaders included on a few specific tests.

	Settings	1024x768 0aa0af	1024x768 2aa8af	1280x960 0aa0af	1280x960 2aa8af	1600x1200 0aa0af	1600x1200 2aa8af
*Card*
5900 Ultra		13040 marks	10875 marks	11796 marks	9438 marks	10359 marks	7823 marks
9800 Pro		14674 marks	12702 marks	13610 marks	10294 marks	11455 marks	8213 marks
9800 XT		15013 marks	12868 marks	13809 marks	10979 marks	12005 marks	8831 marks

The above results show a convincing win for the XT over its direct competition the 5900 Ultra. When compared to the last generation of 9800 the XT is till in the lead though only by a maximum of 685 points (6.2%).

click image to visit Futuremark

3dmark03 is the newest benchmark from Futuremark, and the only benchmark in common use that is designed specifically for Direct X 9.0 graphics hardware.

This test is especially challenging in that it exerts a heavy pixel shader and vertex shader load on the graphics adapter. Today's popular game titles still tend to use a fixed-function DX7 style of rendering, with a few optional shaders thrown in for special effects. While the current crop of game-based benchmarks can be made to create a heavy fillrate load (by increasing resolution and adding AA and/or AF), they do not stress the portions of the graphics processor that will become critical in next-generation titles - the shader engines.

3dmark03 contains multiple scenes that are completely shader-driven and as such is highly valuable as a forward-looking benchmark test.

	Settings	1024x768 0aa0af	1024x768 2aa8af	1280x960 0aa0af	1280x960 2aa8af	1600x1200 0aa0af	1600x1200 2aa8af
*Card*
5900 Ultra		5494 marks	3769 marks	4445 marks	2884 marks	3442 marks	2093 marks
9800 Pro		5496 marks	3731 marks	4261 marks	2825 marks	3209 marks	2097 marks
9800 XT		6092 marks	4234 marks	4809 marks	3218 marks	3568 marks	2344 marks

The results in 3DMark03 are along the same lines as the 3Dmark01 results. With the XT a convincing victor over the 9800Pro and 5900 Ultra. This time the largest difference over the Pro is 596 points ( 10%).

The excel spreadsheet of detailed 3Dmark03 results can be downloaded here.

Next: Unreal Tournament 2003