VGA Charts V: PCI Express Graphics Cards

Test Configuration

We ran our tests in three different resolutions and settings :

  • 1024x768 at 32-bit color depth without FSAA and anisotropic filtering
  • 1024x768 at 32-bit color depth with 4x FSAA (when possible) and 8x AF (when possible), except in 3DMark 2005
  • 1600x1200 at 32-bit color depth with 4xFSAA and 8x AF.

Our testing system consisted of an ASUS A8N-SLI based on NVIDIA’s nForce4-SLI chipset, an AMD Athlon64 4000+ and 1 GB of RAM.

Note : The test system used for this comparison is markedly faster than the one we used in the previous version of the VGA Charts. Faster CPU, memory interface, chipset and newer versions of the cards’ graphics drivers all result in much higher scores. As a result, any performance differences you see here compared to the previous (AGP) VGA Charts cannot necessarily be attributed to the PCI Express interface alone !

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Test System
CPUAMD Athlon64 4000+
FSB200 MHz
MotherboardASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe (nForce 4 SLI)
Memory2x Corsair CMX-512-3200C2, 1024 MB
HDDSeagate Barracuda 7200.7 120 GB S-ATA (8 MB)
DVDHitachi GD-7000
LANNetgear FA-312
Power SupplyAntec True Control 550W (ATX 1.0)
Drivers & Configuration
GraphicsATI Catalyst v4.12NVIDIA v66.93
ChipsetIntel Inf. Update
OSWindows XP Prof. SP1a
DirectXDirectX 9.0c
Benchmarks
3DMark 2005Default Benchmark, 1600x1200 (AA and AF by App)
Unreal Tournament 2004Custom TimedemoMax Details/QualityMap : Assault-FallenCity(AA and AF forced by Driver)
Call Of Duty v1.4Max Details/QualityDemo : VGA(AA and AF forced by Driver)
Doom3Demo : Demo1High Quality
Farcryv1.3Custom Timedemo cooler01Very High QualityFlashlight : On
Battlefield Vietnamv1.2FRAPSMax Details/QualityMap : Ho Chi Minh Trail
Half-Life 2Demo : Custom Timedemo THG2Max Details/QualityReflect World