Synthetic Benchmarks

To give you some of the performance figures of the Radeon X1950 XTX provided by PowerColor we have been able to use one of the first cards in our new test system. Due to the time constrains we have focused our performance analysis runs towards the Futuremark and AquaMark3 benchmark suites. These will however provide a good indication on the game play of today's games.

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (Conroe) 1.86GHz Dual Core Processor
• ASUS P5W Digital Home Deluxe (i975X) Mainboard
• Crucial Ballistix 2GB PC2-8000 Dual Channel Memory
• NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT 256MB Graphics Card
• PowerColor Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB Graphics Card
• Western Digital 320GB Caviar SE 8MB Cache (7.200rpm) Hard Disk
• Zalman ZM460-APS 460W Noiseless (SLI Ready) Power Supply
• Sony SDM-HX93/B 19" (Black) LCD Monitor
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional incl. SP2 Edition

Now that we know what the benchmark scores will relate to, it is time to dig into the results... We actually started off building a new system to get some serious power delivered by the main processor, and opted for the Intel Core 2 Duo to attain that goal. During our benchmarks run we will be using the Catalyst 6.8 drivers unless otherwise specified. As reference we will use a GeForce 7900 GT and the ForceWare 91.45 drivers. So let's run the benchies and see what they bring in terms of performance.

Benchmark Results - 1280x1024 - E6300 1.86GHz - 2GB RAM
	GeForce 7900 GT 256MB	3DMark03 Score
0x AA/Optimal	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	14357
4x AA/16x AF	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	8273
	Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB	3DMark03 Score
0x AA/Optimal	650/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	11614
4x AA/16x AF	650/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	8047

We started the synthetic analysis by making a spin with 3DMark03 which is build around the DirectX 9.0 specifications, although still using quite some DirectX 8.1 features. To compare our results we have used a GeForce 7900 GT as reference and used the Radeon X1950 XTX at default settings. The Radeon X1950 XTX clocks down some outstanding scores, however doesn't crush the GeForce 7900 GT. As 3DMark03 is somehow CPU depending, the scores delivered by both cards are depending somehow a bit on the system itself as well and not only related to the graphics accelerator unit.

Benchmark Results - 1280x1024 - E6300 1.86GHz - 2GB RAM
	GeForce 7900 GT 256MB	3DMark05 Score
0x AA/Optimal	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	6963
4x AA/16x AF	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	5632
	Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB	3DMark05 Score
0x AA/Optimal	650/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	8260
4x AA/16x AF	650/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	6704

Next on our list is 3DMark05, it is the first benchmark to require a DirectX 9.0 compliant hardware with support for Pixel Shaders 2.0 or higher! Since the Radeon X1K series all ATI cards feature Shader Model 3.0, which is better then the minimum requirements. What needs to be mentioned is that as of 3DMark05, the graphics processing capabilities are really making the difference on the benchmarks scores. So it doesn't come as a surprise that the Radeon X1950 XTX does much better in comparison to the GeForce 7900 GT, due to being clocked higher and having quite an advantage on processing and the memory throughput.

Benchmark Results - 1280x1024 - E6300 1.86GHz - 2GB RAM
	GeForce 7900 GT 256MB	3DMark06 Score
0x AA/Optimal	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	4028
4x AA/16x AF	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	N/A
	Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB	3DMark06 Score
0x AA/Optimal	650/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	4358
4x AA/16x AF	650/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	3619

Lastly, we have 3DMark06 which was only released at the beginning of this year. The 3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance today. Again we notice that the Radeon X1950 XTX takes the lead. We would also like to stress the fact that the NVIDIA hardware is not capable of running both HDR and Anti-Aliasing at the same time, whereas the Radeon X1950 XTX is handling it with ease.

Benchmark Results - 1280x1024 - E6300 1.86GHz - 2GB RAM
	GeForce 7900 GT 256MB	AquaMark3 Score
0x AA/4x AF	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	91101
4x AA/16x AF	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	75600
	Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB	AquaMark3 Score
0x AA/4x AF	650/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	82898
4x AA/16x AF	650/2000MHz (Ref - Single)	72730

To end of the first synthetic analysis, AquaMark 3 was used to give a final impression on the performance difference between the GeForce 7900 GT and the new Radeon X1950 XTX graphics card. The Radeon X1950 XTX edition nails down a decent score but we would like to point out that the GeForce 7900 GT does have the advantage for the first time. This is quite strange, as the Radeon X1950 series should be more powerful, however since AquaMark 3 as already an older benchmark suite it focuses a lot on the main CPU processing as well. But still it remains a quite odd result...