Test System And Benchmarks
We began our testing with the 191.07 driver that came on the Zotac AMP! Edition driver CD, which immediately detected the new GeForce GT 240 cards. It is notable that the 191.07 driver available for download on the Nvidia Web site acts differently in that it doesn't properly detect the GeForce GT 240. Once we were deep into reviewing the new cards, we were asked to use Nvidia's beta 195.5 driver instead. Additional comparison testing demonstrated that the results were identical, within a margin of error, so we're publishing the results we procured with the 191.07 driver from Zotac.
Before we get into the game results, something we want to stress is that all of the GeForce cards we used for benchmarking ended up being factory overclocked models, but that our Diamond Radeon HD 4670 sample offers slightly underclocked memory compared to the reference speeds. It is especially important to note that our Gigabyte GV-N96GMC-512H sample used to represent the GeForce 9600 GSO is based on the older (more powerful) G92/256-bit memory design instead of the newer G96/128-bit memory configuration of the newer GeForce 9600 GSO cards.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Graphic Test System |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i7-920 (Nehalem), 2.67 GHz, QPI-4200, 8MB 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 | Zotac GeForce GT240 512 MB AMP! Edition600 MHz Core, 1,460 MHz Shaders, 1,000 MHz Memory, 512MB GDDR5Palit GeForce GT240 1 GB Sonic Edition585 MHz Core, 1,424 MHz Shaders, 945 MHz Memory, 1GB GDDR5Gigabyte GeForce GT220720 MHz Core, 1,566 MHz Shaders, 800 MHz Memory, GB DDR3Gigabyte GeForce 9600 GSO650 MHz Core, 1,625 MHz Shaders, 900 MHz Memory, 512MB DDR3Gigabyte GeForce 9600 GT650 MHz Core, 1,625 MHz Shaders, 900 MHz Memory, 1GB DDR3Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GT700 MHz Core, 1,700 MHz Shaders, 920 MHz Memory, 512MB DDR3Diamond Radeon 4670750 MHz Core, 800 MHz Memory, 1GB DDR3 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar WD50 00AAJS-00YFA, 500GB, 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 10 |
| Graphics Drivers | AMD Catalyst 9.9, Nvidia GeForce 191.07 |
| Benchmark Configuration | |
|---|---|
| 3D Games | |
| Crysis | Patch 1.2.1, DirectX 9, 64-bit executable, benchmark tool Low Quality, Medium Textures, Shadows, Physics, Shaders, Water, and Sound, No AA |
| Far Cry 2 | Patch 1.02, in-game benchmark Medium Quality, No AA |
| World In Conflict | Patch 1009, DirectX 9, timedemo Medium Details, No AA/No AF |
| Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. | Patch 1.02, DirectX 10 & 10.1, in-game benchmark Low Shadows, Sun ShaftsMedium View Distance, Environment, SSAOHigh Forest, TexturesHDR, Engine Heat, and DOE On, No AA |
| Left 4 Dead | Version 1.0.1.5., Custom THG Benchmark Run 1: High Settings, no AA, no AFRun 2: High Settings, Medium Shaders, 4xAA, 8xAF |
| Resident Evil 5 | Resident Evil 5 Benchmark VersionHigh Shadows and Textures, Medium Overall Detail, Motion Blur On, no AA, no AF |
| Batman: Arkham Asylum | Version 1.1, in-game benchmark Highest Quality, No AA, Normal PhysX |
| Fallout 3 | Patch 1.4.0.6., Custom THG Benchmark High Quality, No AA, No AF |
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
| 3DMark Vantage | Version: 1.02, PhysX Off, 3DMark scores |
