Before the testers devote themselves to comparing performance differences between the graphics cards, here you have a highly informative overview of how to select the right platform and the right settings.

Effect Of The Operating System

We looked long and hard on the www.spec.org website for reference results measured under Windows XP. Instead, we found a slew of information for Windows 2000 systems.

If a benchmark that is based on a real application, like 3D Studio Max, is used under Windows XP, the cards fail to really get moving. On the same E7205 platform with 1024 MB system memory and the same Quadro4 980XGL graphics card, Windows 2000 is simply quicker.

It's a different ballgame with the synthetic benchmark SPECviewperf. It may lead the hasty tester to the premature conclusion that the differences between Windows XP and Windows 2000 can be disregarded.