Our testing methods
Today we're concentrating on Sapphire's Toxic implementation rather than the Radeon X1900 XTX. For a more in-depth look at the X1900 XTX and how it stacks up against a wide range of single and multi-GPU configurations, see our coverage of ATI's Radeon X1900 series graphics cards.
All tests were run at least twice, and their results were averaged, using the following test systems.
| Processor | Opteron 180 2.4GHz |
| System bus | HyperTransport 16-bit/1GHz |
| Motherboard | DFI LANParty UT CFX3200-DR |
| Bios revision | R5UD425 |
| North bridge | ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 |
| South bridge | ULi M1575 |
| Chipset drivers | ULi integrated 2.20 |
| Memory size | 2GB (2 DIMMs) |
| Memory type | Corsair CMX1024-3500LLPRO DDR SDRAM at 400MHz |
| CAS latency (CL) | 2 |
| RAS to CAS delay (tRCD) | 3 |
| RAS precharge (tRP) | 2 |
| Cycle time (tRAS) | 6 |
| Command rate | 1T |
| Audio codec | Integrated M1575/ALC880 with Realtek HD 1.39 drivers |
| Graphics | Radeon X1900 XTX 512MB PCI-E with CATALYST 6.6 drivers |
| Toxic X1900 XTX PCI-E with CATALYST 6.6 drivers | |
| GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB PCI-E with ForceWare 91.31 drivers | |
| Hard drive | Western Digital Caviar RE2 400 GB |
| OS | Windows XP Professional |
| OS updates | Service Pack 2 |
Thanks to Corsair for providing us with memory for our testing. 2GB of RAM seems to be the new standard for most folks, and Corsair hooked us up with some of its 1GB DIMMs for testing.
Also, all of our test systems were powered by OCZ GameXStream 700W power supply units. Thanks to OCZ for providing these units for our use in testing.
We used the following versions of our test applications:
The test systems' Windows desktop was set at 1280x1024 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests. Most of the 3D gaming tests used the Medium detail image quality settings, with the exception that the resolution was set to 640x480 in 32-bit color.
All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.
