Test Setup
| System Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processor(s) | AMD Athlon 64 3700+2.2 GHz, 1.0 GHz Bus, 1 MB L2 cache |
| Platform | Asus AN8-SLI PremiumNVIDIA nForce4 SLI, BIOS 1003 - BIOS version 1005 |
| RAM | 2 GB Crucial Ballistix DDR400 - 2 x 512 MB |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Raptor, WD740GD74 GB, 10,000 rpm, 8 MB cache, SATA150 |
| Networking | On-Board nForce4 Gigabit Ethernet |
| Graphics Cards | NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 256 MB GDDR3430 MHz Core 1.2 GHz MemoryNVIDIA 7800 GT 256 MB GDDR3445 MHz Core 1.07 GHz MemoryNVIDIA GeForce 6600 GTX 256 MB DDR2400 MHz Core 800 MHz MemoryATI Radeon X800 GTO / XL 256 MB GDDR3400 MHz Core 490 MHz MemoryATI Radeon X1300 Pro 256 MB GDDR3600 MHz Core 800 MHz Memory |
| Power Supply | Enermax Liberty ELT620AWT 620W |
| System Software & Drivers | |
| OS | Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.10.2600, Service Pack 2 |
| DirectX Version | 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) |
| Platform Driver | nForce 6.70 |
| Graphics Driver(s) | ATI - Catalyst 5.12NVIDIA - Forceware 81.95 |
| Benchmarks | |
| 3DMark 2003 | Default Benchmark |
| 3DMark 2005 | Default Benchmark |
| UT2004 | Custom Timedemo - THG8 Assault |
| Far Cry 32bit | Custom Timedemo - Cooler01Flashlight on |
| Doom 3 | Timdemo Demo1 |
| Half-Life 2 | Custom Timedemo - DP_Coast_01 |
| F.E.A.R. | F.E.A.R. BenchmarkMaximum Details and Quality |
All tests were run with the common screen resolution of 1024 x 768 and 1600 x 1200 (17" & 19" CRT displays). The tests at the 1024 resolution were run in two variations. The first used neither anti-aliasing nor anisotropic filtering. For the second, antialiasing was enabled, set to 4x and 8x for anisotropic filtering. The quality setting was selected from within the driver menus for all benchmarks and vertical synchronization was disabled. Because NVIDIA uses profiles with optimizations for their hardware we set Catalyst AI to standard so it could to do the same for the ATI cards. For both the ATI and NVIDIA based cards, we set antialiasing and anisotropic filtering through the application. If certain settings were not offered directly in the game's menu or were behaving out of sort, we then used the driver.
Overclocking Setup
Each card has its own identity and limits at which it can perform. For NVIDIA-based cards we use the Coolbits registry tweak to unlock the frequency selection menu in the driver. From here you can overclock the 2D and 3D settings for the GPU core and the memory. For ATI, we use a third-party tool called ATI Tool. The tool allows you to change the GPU and memory clock speeds and even has a feature to test the new features in a 3D window. It will report errors and even find the maximum frequencies for you, although this process can take a long time if there is a lot of room for improvement.
The card that was least capable of overclocking was the ATI Radeon X1300 Pro. We could not push the memory on the card at all. The core was only able to see a 3% increase in speed. Both of the other cards were able to achieve better results. The ATI R430 based card could achieve 10% more in both the core and memory frequencies. However, the overclocking shining star was the NVIDIA GeForce 6600 with DDR2 that was able to gain a 7% core increase and an astounding 23% increase in memory clocks.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Stock Chip Clock | Overclocked Chip Clock | % Overclocked | Stock Memory Clock | Overclocked Memory Clock | % Overclocked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce 7800 GTX 512 | 550 | N/A | N/A | 1700 | N/A | N/A |
| GeForce 7800 GT | 425 | N/A | N/A | 1000 | N/A | N/A |
| GeForce 6600 DDR2 | 500 | 537 | 7.40% | 800 | 988 | 23.50% |
| Radeon X1300 Pro | 600 | 621 | 3.50% | 800 | 802 | 0.25% |
| Radeon X800 GTO / XL | 400 | 439 | 9.75% | 980 | 1080 | 10.20% |
