Synthetic Benchmarks

To give you some of the performance figures of the GeForce 7950 GT accelerator provided by NVIDIA we have been able to use one of the reference cards in our Intel based test system. We will focus our performance analysis runs towards the Futuremark and AquaMark 3 benchmark suites. These suites will provide a good indication on the game play of today's games. After these initial performance results, we will give the GeForce 7950 GT a spin with some of the current popular games.

System Specifications

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (Conroe) 1.86GHz Dual Core Processor
• ASUS P5W Digital Home Deluxe (i975X) Mainboard
• Crucial 10th Anniversary 2GB PC2-5300 Dual Channel Memory
• ASUS Extreme N7900 GT 256MB Graphics Card
• NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT 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 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 ForceWare 92.91 drivers unless otherwise specified. As reference we will use a GeForce 7900 GT, which is being replaced by the GeForce 7950 GT graphics card. So let's run the benchies and see what they bring in terms of performance...

Futuremark 3DMark03

Benchmark Results - 1280x1024 - E6300 2.80GHz - 2GB RAM
	GeForce 7900 GT 256MB	3DMark03 Score
0x AA/Optimal	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	14987
4x AA/16x AF	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	8598
	GeForce 7950 GT 512MB	3DMark03 Score
0x AA/Optimal	550/1400MHz (Ref - Single)	17505
4x AA/16x AF	550/1400MHz (Ref - Single)	10194
Results Interpretation: Higher index values are better.

We started the synthetic analysis by taking 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. The NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT clocks down some outstanding scores which are significantly better compared to 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 and not only related to the graphics accelerator unit. But it clearly shows that NVIDIA is replacing the old GT with a better version.

Futuremark 3DMark05

Benchmark Results - 1280x1024 - E6300 2.80GHz - 2GB RAM
	GeForce 7900 GT 256MB	3DMark05 Score
0x AA/Optimal	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	7130
4x AA/16x AF	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	5800
	GeForce 7950 GT 512MB	3DMark05 Score
0x AA/Optimal	550/1400MHz (Ref - Single)	8548
4x AA/16x AF	550/1400MHz (Ref - Single)	6963
Results Interpretation: Higher index values are better.

The first benchmark suite to require a DirectX 9.0 compliant hardware with support for Pixel Shaders 2.0 or higher came with the introduction of 3DMark05! What also needs to be mentioned is that as of Futuremark 3DMark05, the graphics processing capabilities are really making the difference on the benchmarks scores. The GeForce 7950 GT shows its superiority, and leaves the GeForce 7900 GT well behind. Of course it has the edge with the higher clock speeds, and raw processing power. No doubt in our mind that the GeForce 7950 GT performance should be in close range to the GeForce 7900 GTX as well.

Futuremark 3DMark06

Benchmark Results - 1280x1024 - E6300 2.80GHz - 2GB RAM
	GeForce 7900 GT 256MB	3DMark06 Score
0x AA/Optimal	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	4695
4x AA/16x AF	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	N/A
	GeForce 7950 GT 512MB	3DMark06 Score
0x AA/Optimal	550/1400MHz (Ref - Single)	5491
4x AA/16x AF	550/1400MHz (Ref - Single)	N/A
Results Interpretation: Higher index values are better.

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 the GeForce 7950 GT takes the lead and reaches a higher score. We would also like to stress the fact that the NVIDIA hardware is not capable of running both HDR and AntiAliasing at the same time.

Massive AquaMark 3

Benchmark Results - 1280x1024 - E6300 2.80GHz - 2GB RAM
	GeForce 7900 GT 256MB	AquaMark 3 Score
0x AA/4x AF	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	103849
4x AA/16x AF	450/1320MHz (Ref - Single)	79175
	GeForce 7950 GT 512MB	AquaMark 3 Score
0x AA/4x AF	550/1400MHz (Ref - Single)	116315
4x AA/16x AF	550/1400MHz (Ref - Single)	92750
Results Interpretation: Higher index values are better.

Ending the synthetic analysis, AquaMark 3 was used to give a final impression on the performance difference between the GeForce 7900 GT and the new GeForce 7950 GT graphics card. The GeForce 7950 GT edition nails down an excellent score but the GeForce 7900 GT does come close. Although when enabling AntiAliasing, the true power of the new GeForce 7950 GT surfaces. Since AquaMark 3 has been around for quite some time, the main driving force behind relies a lot on the CPU power. But it clearly shows that NVIDIA has a real winner in their ranks with the GeForce 7950 GT upgrade.