System setup and notes
Hardware
| Graphics cards | ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 1024MiB | ATI Radeon HD 3870 512MiB | MSI NX8800GTS-T2D512E-OC | ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GT 512MiB AMP! Edition | NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current pricing, including VAT | £279 | £149 | £209 | £189 | £235 |
| Shader Model | 4.1 | 4.0 | |||
| Stream processors | 640 | 320 | 128 | 112 | 128 |
| GPU clock speed (MHz) | 825 | 777 | 730 | 700 | 576 |
| Shader clock speed (MHz) | 825 | 777 | 1817 | 1674 | 1350 |
| Memory clock speed (MHz) | 1802 | 2252 | 1944 | 2000 | 1800 |
| Memory bus width (Bits) | 256 | 384 | |||
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 LGA775 (3.0GHz, 8MiB L2 cache, quad-core) | ||||
| Motherboard | MSI X48 Platinum (X48+ICH9R) | eVGA NF68 (nForce 680i SLI) | |||
| Motherboard BIOS | P2B2 | P31 | |||
| Mainboard software | Intel Inf 8.4.0.1016 | NVIDIA device driver 15.08 | |||
| Memory | 4GiB (4 x 1GiB) DDR3-1066 | 4GiB (4 x 1GiB) DDR2-1066 | |||
| Memory timings and speed | 7-7-7-20 2T @ 1066MHz | 5-5-5-15 2T @ 1066MHz | |||
| PSU | Enermax Galaxy DXX 850W | Gigabyte ODIN GT 800W | |||
| Monitor | Dell 30in 3007WFP - 2,560x1,600 | ||||
| Disk drive(s) | Seagate 160GiB SATAII (ST3160812AS) | ||||
| Graphics driver | CATALYST 8.2 beta | CATALYST 7.12 | NVIDIA ForceWare 169.25 | NVIDIA ForceWare 169.04 | NVIDIA ForceWare 169.25 (169.21 for XP) |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business, 64-bit, Windows XP SP2 32-bit (X2 and GTX) | ||||
Software
| 3D Benchmarks | Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts v2.103: DX9 Enemy Territory: Quake Wars v1.2 (demo_00010.dem, map Valley): OpenGL Lost Planet: Extreme Condition v1.004 built-in benchmark: DX10 Far Cry v1.33: DX9 Quake 4 v1.30 - HEXUS-recorded netdemo benchmark: OpenGL Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory v1.05 - HEXUS-recorded benchmark: DX9 |
|---|
Notes
We've thrown in a default-clocked Radeon HD 3870 512MiB and a trio of NVIDIA GPUs that dissect ATI's pricing. NVIDIA, too, has refreshed its mid-to-high-end line-up with SKUs that offer GTX-matching performance at a lower price-point. Indeed, the GT/GTS cards are both pre-overclocked by the respective manufacturers.To see how the 'X2 compares to a two-card CrossFire Radeon HD 3870 512MiB setup, we've included those results, just for reference.
We've also added in our older benchmark suite, to see just how the 'X2 compares against NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTX in non-TWIMTBP-sponsored titles.
Benchmarks were conducted at 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,200, and 2,560x1,600 with decent image-quality settings to boot.