Test notes
We've included Pentium 4 chipsets in our tests, because in many ways, the Radeon Xpress 200's most direct competition is a Pentium 4 chipset. The Intel 915G with integrated graphics is an especially important competitor for the Xpress 200. Note, though, that our Pentium 4 systems use a slightly lower grade CPU than the Athlon 64 4000+ in our AMD test systems. The Pentium 4 560 3.6GHz is currently as good as it gets for regular Pentium 4 processors. We have also included the P4 Extreme Edition, which we've used in conjunction with the Intel 925XE chipset and its fancy 1066MHz bus, but it's really not much faster than the P4 560. We probably should have opted for a lower end CPU for the Athlon 64 systems just to make it fair, but we didn't want to hamstring them with a slower CPU.
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 systems were configured like so:
| Processor | Athlon 64 4000+ 2.4GHz | Athlon 64 4000+ 2.4GHz | Pentium 4 560 3.6GHz | Pentium 4 560 3.6GHz | Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.46GHz |
| System bus | 1GHz HyperTransport | 1GHz HyperTransport | 800MHz (200MHz quad-pumped) | 800MHz (200MHz quad-pumped) | 1066MHz (266MHz quad-pumped) |
| Motherboard | Asus A8V Deluxe | ATI reference | Intel D915GUX | Abit AA8 DuraMax | Intel D925XECV2 |
| BIOS revision | 1008 beta 1 | B10 | EV9150A.86A.0283 | 1.4 | CV92510A.86A.0338 |
| North bridge | K8T800 Pro | Radeon Xpress 200 | 82915G MCH | 925X MCH | 925XE MCH |
| South bridge | VT8237 | Radeon Xpress 200 | ICH6R | ICH6R | ICH6R |
| Chipset drivers | 4-in-1 v.1.11 beta (9/7/04) | 10/31/04 beta | INF Update 6.0.1.1002 IAA for RAID 4.5.0.6515 |
INF Update 6.0.1.1002 IAA for RAID 4.5.0.6515 |
INF Update 6.0.1.1002 IAA for RAID 4.5.0.6515 |
| Memory size | 1GB (2 DIMMs) | 1GB (2 DIMMs) | 1GB (2 DIMMs) | 1GB (2 DIMMs) | 1GB (2 DIMMs) |
| Memory type | OCZ PC3200 EL DDR SDRAM at 400MHz | OCZ PC3200 EL DDR SDRAM at 400MHz | Kingston HyperX KHX5400D2/512 DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz | OCZ PC2 5300 DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz | OCZ PC2 5300 DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz |
| CAS latency | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Cycle time | 5 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| RAS to CAS delay | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| RAS precharge | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Hard drive | Maxtor MaXLine III 250GB SATA 150 | ||||
| Audio | Integrated VT8237/ALC850 with 3.64 drivers | Integrated with 5.00.30001.20 drivers | Integrated ICH6R/ALC880 with 5.10.0.5022 drivers | Integrated ICH6R/ALC880 with 5.10.0.5022 drivers | Integrated ICH6R/ALC880 with 5.10.0.5032 drivers |
| Graphics | GeForce 6800 GT 256MB AGP with ForceWare 66.81 drivers | GeForce 6800 GT 256MB PCI-E with ForceWare 66.81 drivers | Integrated GMA 900 with 6.14.10.3924 drivers | GeForce 6800 GT 256MB PCI-E with ForceWare 66.81 drivers | GeForce 6800 GT 256MB PCI-E with ForceWare 66.81 drivers |
| Integrated Radeon Xpress 200 IGP with 8.07-04109a-018757E drivers | |||||
| OS | Microsoft Windows XP Professional | ||||
| OS updates | Service Pack 2, DirectX 9.0c | ||||
All tests on the Pentium 4 systems were run with Hyper-Threading enabled.
Thanks to OCZ for providing us with memory for our testing. If you're looking to tweak out your system to the max and maybe overclock it a little, OCZ's RAM is definitely worth considering.
The test systems' Windows desktops were set at 1152x864 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.
We used the following versions of our test applications:
- Cachemem 2.65MMX
- SiSoft Sandra 2004 SP2.b
- Compiled binary of C Linpack port from Ace's Hardware
- DOOM 3 with trdelta1 demo
- Far Cry 1.2 with tr3-pier demo
- Unreal Tournament 2004 v3323 with trdemo1
- 3DMark05 v110
- Sphinx 3.3
- LAME 3.96.1 (build from mitiok.cjb.net)
- Xmpeg 5.0.3 with DivX Video 5.21
- Cinebench 2003
- POV-Ray for Windows 3.6
- WorldBench 5.0
The tests and methods we employ are generally publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.
