Big GPU Shootout – Revisited
Test Configuration
Test Configuration – Hardware
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550S (engineering sample reference 2.83 GHz and overclocked to 4.0 GHz – i.e. 470 FSB.)
- ASUS Rampage Formula (Intel X48 chipset, latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire 16x+16x).
- 4 GB DDR2-PC8500 RAM (2×2 GB, dual-channel at PC 8500 speeds)
- ATi Radeon HD 4890-XOC (1 GB, Diamond reference clocks 925/1050, underclocked to 850/975) by Diamond
- ATi Radeon HD 4890-XOC (1 GB, reference clocks 850/975) by HIS
- ATi Radeon HD 4870 (1GB, reference clocks 750/900) by ASUS
- ATi Radeon HD 4870-X2 (2GB, reference clocks 750/900) by VisionTek
- Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT (1 GB, reference clocks) by Palit
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX (768MB, reference clocks)
- Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 (512MB, reference clocks) by Galaxy
- Nvidia GeForce GTX280 (1GB, reference clocks) by BFG Tech
- Onboard SupremeFX-II (ASUS Rampage Formula motherboard daughter-card)
- 2 – 250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives
- OCZ 850 watt power supply
Test Configuration – Software
- ATi Catalyst 9-5; highest quality mip-mapping set in the driver, Catalyst AI set to “Standard”
- GeForce 185.85; high quality filtering; optimizations off and LOD clamp enabled
- Windows Vista 64-bit SP1; very latest updates
- DirectX March 2008.
- All games are patched to their latest versions.
Test Configuration – Settings
- vsync is off in the control panel and is never set in-game.
- 4xAA enabled in all games and “forced” in Catalyst Control Center for UT3; all in-game settings at “maximum” or “ultra” with 16xAF always applied
- All results show average, minimum and maximum frame rates except as noted.
- Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
- Vista 64, all DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths
