Test System

ATI Radeon X850 XTPE 256mb
Nvidia engineering sample 6800 Ultra

AMD Athlon64 4000+
ATI Bullhead – Radeon Xpress Motherboard
2x512mb of OCZ DDR400 2-2-2-5
Samsung 80gb 7200rpm SATA Drive with 8mb Cache
NEC ND2510A DVD recorder
AOC 19” CRT

Windows XP SP2
DirectX 9.0c
Catalyst 8.08 (4.12b)
Forceware 66.83 WHQL

Fraps
Powerstrip
Colin McRae Rally 2005
Half-Life 2
CounterStrike Source
Rome Total War
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Medal of Honour Pacific Assault
Need for Speed Underground 2
Tiger Woods 2005
Doom3
Shadermark 2.1

The test system was built from scratch, a format of the hard drive was performed (NTFS) and then Windows XP was installed (SP2). Next the chipset drivers were installed. The only update applied was .net framework 1.1(latest service pack). Following a reboot the Video Card drivers were installed. Next the benchmarking tools were installed and finally the hard drive was de-fragmented. For all tests the Nvidia/ATI drivers were set to default quality/optimisations (unless otherwise stated).

Good Benchmarking Practice:
Where possible each benchmark was performed 3 times and the middle result for each resolution/setting is shown in the tables which follow. All games/applications had their latest patches applied. We also take time to set all ingame options to their maximum, this has 2 effects. Firstly you get the most demanding of gaming experiences possible from each engine however more importantly you get the best visual experience possible.

Next: Colin McRae 2005

Select 1. Introduction 2. Test System 3. Colin McRae 2005 4. Medal of Honor Pacific Assault 5. Need For Speed Underground 2 6. Rome Total War 7. Tiger Woods 2005 8. Prince of Persia Warrior Within 9. Half Life 2 10. Overclocking 11. Conclusion