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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.

 

This is a IMO good graphics benchmark test and gives a clear indication of just how powerful the XT is, especially when overclocking. With my reference 9800 pro 128 meg card that ATI gave me a long time ago which hit 440 core and 395 ram and running my system at 225fsb/2500mhz (almost same setup as this review rig) I could never hit above 6500 in this bench. This XT when overclocked on a slower system hits over 7000, which will be a great indication of how its going to handle DX9 games in the future. None of my systems have ever hit 7000 in this bench with an AMD powered setup so it was a nice milestone to experience.

As a further point of interest, the 9800 pro I have witth DDRII is a terrible overclocker, and wont hit over 10mhz above the stock clocks. So this is an increase of almost 1300 points at default 1024x768 settings on the pro card, and almost 500 points at 1600x1200 4AA + 16 AF.