Our testing methods
As ever, we did our best to deliver clean benchmark numbers. Tests were run three times, and the results were averaged.
Our test system was configured like so:
| System | ||
| Processor | Athlon XP 'Thoroughbred' 2600+ 2.083GHz | |
| Front-side bus | 333MHz (166MHz DDR) | |
| Motherboard | DFI LANParty NFII Ultra | |
| Chipset | NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 | |
| North bridge | nForce2 Ultra 400 SPP | |
| South bridge | nForce2 MCP-T | |
| Chipset drivers | NVIDIA 2.45 | |
| Memory size | 512MB (2 DIMMs) | |
| Memory type | Corsair XMS3200 PC2700 DDR SDRAM (333MHz) | |
| Graphics card | GeForce FX 5600 Ultra 128MB GeForce FX 5700 Ultra 128MB | Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB Radeon 9600 XT 128MB |
| Graphics driver | Detonator FX 52.16 | CATALYST 3.8 |
| Storage | Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740X 7200RPM ATA/100 hard drive | |
| OS | Microsoft Windows XP Professional | |
| OS updates | Service Pack 1, DirectX 9.0b | |
Today we'll be comparing the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra to the GeForce FX 5600 Ultra (rev 2), and to a couple of Radeon 9600 flavors from ATI. NVIDIA was able to get us a set of WHQL-certified Detonator FX 52.16 drivers for testing, giving us our first peek at Microsoft-approved Detonator 50 drivers. The Detonator FX 52.16 drivers should be available for public download today.
The test system's Windows desktop was set at 1024x768 in 32-bit color at a 75Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.
We used the following versions of our test applications:
- FutureMark 3DMark03 Build 330
- Codecreatures Benchmark Pro
- Comanche 4 demo benchmark
- Quake III Arena v1.31 with trdemo1.dm_67
- Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory with demo0000.dm_82
- Serious Sam SE v1.07 with Demo0003
- Unreal Tournament 2003 with trtest1.dem
- Splinter Cell v1.2 with TRKalinatekDemo.bin
- Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness v49 patch
- Gun Metal benchmark v1.20
- ShaderMark 2.0
- rthdribl 1.2
- Halo 1.02
- AquaMark3
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.
