AGP Platform Analysis, Part 1: New Cards, Old System

Gaming Benchmarks

Futuremark 3dMark

What benchmark suite is complete without 3dMarks? I don't personally put a lot of stock in them, but they're nice to start out with and give us a bit of an expectation to work with. The grey bars represent the 3dmark 05 scores, and the yellow bars 3dmark 06 scores.

As you can see, the Geforce 7800 GS and 7600 GT are so close that the margin isn't worth mentioning. The X1950 PROs take a 500+ point lead over the Geforces in this benchmark. The X1950 PROs lose a lot of ground in 3dMark 06, which relies more heavily on the platform than 3dMark 05, but still maintain a healthy lead.

As a footnote, the old 9700 PRO is really showing its age in these benchmarks, especially in 3dMark 06, where it can't even break a thousand.