Our testing methods
As ever, we did our best to deliver clean benchmark numbers. Tests were run at least twice, and the results were averaged.
Our test system was configured like so:
| System | |
| Processor | Athlon XP 'Thoroughbred' 2600+ 2.083GHz |
| Front-side bus | 333MHz (166MHz DDR) |
| Motherboard | Asus A7N8X Deluxe |
| Chipset | NVIDIA nForce2 |
| North bridge | nForce2 SPP |
| South bridge | nForce2 MCP-T |
| Chipset drivers | 2.03 |
| Memory size | 512MB (2 DIMMs) |
| Memory type | Corsair XMS3200 PC2700 DDR SDRAM (333MHz) |
| Sound | nForce2 APU |
| Storage | Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740X 7200RPM ATA/100 hard drive |
| OS | Microsoft Windows XP Professional |
| OS updates | Service Pack 1, DirectX 9.0 |
The test system's Windows desktop was set at 1024x768 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.
We used Catalyst revision 7.84 drivers for the Radeon 9800 Pro, and ATI cards and Catalyst 3.1 (7.83) drivers for the 9700 Pro. We used NVIDIA's 42.68 drivers for the GeForce4 Ti 4600, and we used the brand-spankin'-new 43.45 drivers for the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra.
We used the following versions of our test applications:
- FutureMark 3DMark 2001 SE Build 330
- FutureMark 3DMark03
- ChameleonMark
- Codecreatures Benchmark Pro
- Comanche 4 demo benchmark
- Quake III Arena v1.31
- Serious Sam SE v1.07
- VillageMark v1.17
- Unreal Tournament 2003 with 2199 patch
All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.
