Testbed and Methods
Test Setup

• Case: Vigor Force
• Power Supply: Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850
• Motherboard: Foxconn N68S7AA
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700
• Hard Drive: Western Digital WD2500KS 7,200RPM
• Video: NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS 640, GeForce 8800GTX (stock, reference design clocks), Diamond Viper Radeon HD2900XT 1GB, 2x NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT
  
• Sound: Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic
• Memory: 2048MB (2x1024MB) G.Skill PC2 6400
• Optical Drive: Lite-ON SHW160P6S05
• Cooling: ASUS Silent Square Pro

Software Configuration

• Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
  
• Video Driver: NVIDIA ForceWare Version 167.21, AMD Catalyst Version 7.10
  

Yes, we actually have TWO 8800GT’s to play around with. However, given that the drivers we are using are some of the earliest to support the card (167.21), we don’t expect SLI to be supported very well, and performance in general might be less than what you see on sites with more recent drivers. You see, we don’t have the luxury of having NVIDIA send us cards and iPods and provide updated drivers and review kits and all that wonderfully good stuff. Instead we have to use less, shall we say, desirable methods to get our hands on cards. As a result, we can only use what we can get, and what we could get was an archived copy of ForceWare 167.21 drivers for Vista 32-bit – and that’s it. So, in case you were wondering if we are getting ready to migrate to Vista-only benchmarks, we aren’t – yet.

All tests were conducted at least three times, with the average score being that reported in the graphs. For Futuremark’s 3DMark06, our only synthetic test, settings were left on default out-of-the-box values. When testing the Radeon HD 2900XT graphics card with 3DMark06, we had to add the –nosysteminfo tag to the target line in the shortcut because for some reason R600-based video cards STILL have a problem with that. In our game tests, built-in benchmarks were used for F.E.A.R., Call of Juarez, World in Conflict, and Company of Heroes. We recorded a custom timedemo for Team Fortress 2, which for various reasons will have to be revamped in the near future. Finally, Fraps was used for Bioshock and Oblivion tests. Detailed methodology for these tests will be provided in their individual sections.

Vsync was turned off for all tests. If there were any special kind of graphical quality settings used in any game, they will be noted in the section for that game or a screenshot of the settings will be provided. Below is a complete list of the test suite, some games were used twice to test different graphical APIs (DX10 vs. DX9).

• Futuremark - 3DMark06
• Monolith - F.E.A.R.
• Sierra/Massive Entertainment - World in Conflict DX9
• Sierra/Massive Entertainment - World in Conflict DX10
• Valve Software – Team Fortress 2
• Ubisoft/Techland – Call of Juarez
• THQ/relic – Company of Heroes DX9
• THQ/relic – Company of Heroes DX10
• 2K/Bethesda Softworks – TES IV: Oblivion
• 2K Boston – Bioshock DX9
• 2K Boston – Bioshock DX10