Quake 4 defaulted to medium settings. We used the "ultra" setting and added 4xAA for high-quality performance comparisons.

Quake 4 presents a unique scenario in "the way it's meant to be played," as the only game tested to put the X1900GT and 7600GT in the same league, at least when using default settings. Ultra-quality mode puts things back into perspective, with the X1900GT surviving to 1600x1200 resolution.

Oblivion

Oblivion supports HDR lighting or anti-aliasing using WHQL-Certified drivers, so we tested both. All distant rendering settings were turned on, making the outdoor environment particularly brutal for graphics processors.

The X1950XTX and X1900GT take tremendous performance hits when HDR rendering is enabled, but the 7600GT seems barely affected. Moreover, both 256 MB cards were completely unsuited for the outdoor environment, especially at resolutions beyond 1024x768, which thus justifies the X1950XTX's higher price.