Cinebench 2003 rendering and shading
The only Cinebench test to use graphics hardware acceleration is the OpenGL hardware shading test.

Not much to see here. The 9800 XT is faster than the 5950 Ultra, and moving from the K8T800 to nForce3 250Gb doesn't give the GeForce much of a boost.

SPECviewperf workstation graphics
SPECviewperf simulates the graphics loads generated by various professional design, modeling, and engineering applications.

The 5950 Ultra gets a slight performance boost moving to the nForce3 250Gb in viewperf's 3dsmax-02 test. The 9800 XT takes a negligible performance hit switching platforms.

In the drv-09 test, the GeForce FX sees a massive 37% increase in performance moving from the K8T800 to the nForce3 250Gb. The Radeon isn't so lucky; it's 2% slower on the nForce3 than on the K8T800.

The GeForce FX sees more modest performance gains in viewperf's dx-08 and light-06 tests. The Radeon continues to lose ground moving to the nForce3 250Gb, but by only a negligible amount in dx-08 and less than 1.5% in light-06.

NVIDIA's driver optimizations shine in viewperf's proe-02 test, where the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra is over 32% faster on nForce3 than on the K8T800. Again, the Radeon 9800 XT's performance drops as we move from the K8T800 to nForce3 250Gb, but by less than 2%.

Driver optimizations don't help the GeForce FX at all in viewperf's ugs-03 test. They don't hurt the 9800 XT's performance at all, either.