Test Setup And Benchmarks
When choosing cards to test against the new Radeon HD 5830, we looked to options in the same price league. The closest cards would be the Radeon HD 4890 and GeForce GTX 275, and both of these are just ridiculously unavailable right now. We had a Radeon HD 4890 sample on-hand, but were unable to find a GeForce GTX 275 at retail around our Canadian lab, underscoring the scarcity of these boards. We did manage to include a GeForce GTX 260, which might even prove a more relevant comparison, since this card can still be found from $200 to $220 online.
In this case, none of our test units are factory overclocked models. We left the cards clocked at their reference clock rates.
Header Cell - Column 0 | Graphic Test System |
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CPU | Intel Core i7-920 (Nehalem), 2.67 GHz, QPI-4200, 8MB Shared L3 CacheOverclocked to 3.06 GHz @ 153 MHz BCLK |
Motherboard | ASRock X58 SuperComputer Intel X58, BIOS P1.90 |
Networking | Onboard Realtek Gigabit LAN controller |
Memory | Kingston PC3-10700 3 x 1,024MB, DDR3-1225, CL 9-9-9-22-1T |
Graphics | Radeon HD 5830 Reference800 MHz Core, 1,000 MHz Memory, 1GB GDDR5PowerColor Radeon HD 5850725 MHz Core, 1,000 MHz Memory, 1GB GDDR5HIS Radeon HD 4890850 MHz Core, 975 MHz Memory, 1GB GDDR5Asus ENGTX 260 MATRIX (Core 216)576 MHz Core, 1,242 MHz Shaders, 999 MHz Memory, 896MB GDDR3XFX Radeon HD 5770850 MHz Core, 1,200 MHz Memory, 1GB GDDR5 |
Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar WD5000AAJS-00YFA500GB, 7200 RPM, 8MB cache, SATA 3.0 Gb/s |
Power | Thermaltake Toughpower 1,200W1,200 W, ATX 12V 2.2, EPS 12v 2.91 |
Software and Drivers | |
Operating System | Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit 6.0.6001, SP1 |
DirectX version | DirectX 11 |
Graphics Drivers | AMD Catalyst 10.2, Nvidia GeForce 196.21 |
Benchmark Configuration | |
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3D Games | |
Crysis | Patch 1.2.1, DirectX 10, 64-bit executable, benchmark tool High Quality Setting, No AA |
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | Version 1.0.0, Custom THG Benchmark Highest Settings, 4x AA |
DiRT 2 | Version 1.0.0, Custom THG Benchmark Run 1: Ultra High Settings, No AA, DirectX 9Run 2: Ultra High Settings, No AA, DirectX 11 |
World In Conflict | Patch 1009, DirectX 9, timedemo Very High Details, 4x AA/4x AF |
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. | Patch 1.02, DirectX 10 in-game benchmark Maximum Settings, 8x AA |
Left 4 Dead | Version 1.0.1.5., Custom THG Benchmark Highest Settings |
Resident Evil 5 | Resident Evil 5 Benchmark VersionMaximum Detail Settings, 8x AA, DirectX 9 |
Fallout 3 | Patch 1.4.0.6., Custom THG Benchmark Ultra Quality, 4x AA, 16x AF |
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
3DMark Vantage | Version: 1.02, PhysX Off, 3DMark scores |