Our testing methods
As ever, we did our best to deliver clean benchmark numbers. Tests were run at least three times, and the results were averaged.
Our test systems were configured like so:
| Processor | Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 2.4GHz |
| System bus | 1GHz HyperTransport |
| Motherboard | Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe |
| BIOS revision | 1014 |
| North bridge | nForce4 SLI |
| South bridge | |
| Chipset drivers | SMBus driver 4.50 |
| Memory size | 2GB (2 DIMMs) |
| Memory type | Crucial PC3200 DDR SDRAM at 400MHz |
| CAS latency (CL) | 2.5 |
| RAS to CAS delay (tRCD) | 3 |
| RAS precharge (tRP) | 3 |
| Cycle time (tRAS) | 8 |
| Hard drive | Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB SATA 150 |
| Audio | Integrated nForce4/ALC850 with Realtek 5.10.0.5900 drivers |
| Graphics | GeForce 6800 GS 256MB PCI-E with ForceWare 81.87 drivers |
| Dual GeForce 6800 GS 256MB PCI-E with ForceWare 81.87 drivers | |
| XFX GeForce 7800 GT 256MB PCI-E with ForceWare 81.87 drivers | |
| Dual XFX GeForce 7800 GT 256MB PCI-E with ForceWare 81.87 drivers | |
| MSI GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB PCI-E with ForceWare 81.87 drivers | |
| Dual MSI GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB PCI-E with ForceWare 81.87 drivers | |
| GeForce 7800 GTX 512 512MB PCI-E with ForceWare 81.89 drivers | |
| Dual GeForce 7800 GTX 512 512MB PCI-E with ForceWare 81.89 drivers | |
| Radeon X1600 XT 256MB PCI-E with Catalyst 5.10a beta drivers | |
| Radeon 800 XL 256MB PCI-E with Catalyst 5.10a beta drivers | |
| Radeon X1800 XL 256MB PCI-E with Catalyst 5.10a beta drivers | |
| Radeon X1800 XT 512MB PCI-E with Catalyst 5.10a beta drivers | |
| OS | Windows XP Professional (32-bit) |
| OS updates | Service Pack 2, DirectX 9.0c SDK update (October 2005) |
Thanks to Crucial for providing us with memory for our testing. 2GB of RAM seems to be the new standard for most folks, and Crucial hooked us up with some of its 1GB DIMMs for testing. Although these particular modules are rated for CAS 3 at 400MHz, they ran perfectly for us at 2.5-3-3-8 with 2.85V.
All of our test systems were powered by OCZ PowerStream 520W power supply units. The PowerStream was one of our Editor's Choice winners in our last PSU round-up.
Unless otherwise specified, the image quality settings for both ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards were left at the control panel defaults.
The test systems' Windows desktops were set at 1280x1024 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:
- trdemo2 demo
- Serious Sam 2 2.064b with TR Demo_0008 demo
- Battlefield 2 1.03
- Guild Wars
- FEAR 1.02
- Half-Life 2: Lost Coast with trcoast1 demo
- FutureMark 3DMark05 Build 120
- FRAPS 2.6.4
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.
A $1300 graphics subsystem
