MaximumPC 2006 06

reviews TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED

7 MA XIMUMPC JUNE 2006

W

e examined reference-design

cards featuring ATI and nVidia’s

high-end GPUs in our April

and May issues, respectively. And we

bestowed Kick Ass awards on both. Now

we’re dropping third-party versions of

those cards into our new FX-60, dual-x16

PCI Express test beds to see if we can

declare a more clear-cut winner.

—MICHAEL BROWN

SAPPHIRE RADEON

X1900 XTX

Our previous-generation test beds were

based on nVidia’s nForce4 chipset, because

we needed to test SLI configurations. It could

be argued that this situation gave nVidia an

edge—it was always an away game for ATI—

but it didn’t stop the Canadians from pulling

out a few wins. But now that ATI has its own

dual-card solution in CrossFire, we’ll test all

ATI-powered videocards in Asus’ A8R32-MVP

Deluxe motherboard, which is powered by

ATI’s own CrossFire Xpress 3200 chipset.

So how does

Sapphire’s Radeon

X1900 XTX stack

up? The answer

depends on which of

a videocard’s several

missions you value

the most. We’ve

praised ATI’s Avivo

technology before,

and we’ll do it again: Video looks fantastic on

Sapphire’s X1900 XTX—much better than it

does on XFX’s GeForce 7900 GTX. Avivo ren-

ders games more attractive, too: Colors are

brighter, richer, more saturated.

But we cannot live on color alone, and

that’s Sapphire’s biggest problem: Its X1900

XTX gets clobbered by XFX’s entry in almost

every gaming benchmark, with one excep-

tion: in CrossFire mode, Sapphire’s card

delivered a Quake 4 Ultra Quality score 15

percent faster than XFX’s. An impressive mar-

gin to be sure, but it’s only one benchmark.

Because ATI won’t allow third parties to over-

clock its cards, the ultimate performance of

the Sapphire card is going to be exactly the

same as the stock ATI card.

XFX GEFORCE 7900 GTX

We tapped another Asus motherboard for

our new nForce4-powered

test bed: the A8N32-SLI

Deluxe. But let’s pick up

our coverage of XFX’s side

of the fight where we left

off with Sapphire’s: In a

surprising turn of events,

nVidia’s terrible twins got

their asses handed to them

when we pitted SLI against

CrossFire in Quake 4 at

Ultra Quality. If that’s the only game you

ever intend to play, and you’ve got the

bucks for a pair of Sapphire’s best, go for

it. But wouldn’t that be akin to attending a

lavish banquet and limiting yourself to the

Beef Wellington?

As the tale of the tape tells, you’d be

missing plenty: We tested XFX’s over-

clocked GeForce 7900 GTX implementa-

tion (model PV-T71F-YDD9), which has a

700MHz core and 512MB of memory blaz-

ing along at 900MHz. This monster rolled

over and flattened its X1900 XTX-powered

competitor in both single- and dual-GPU

modes. In single-card mode, XFX beat

Sapphire by 18 percent playing FEAR , by

9 percent in Call of Duty 2 , and by 14 per-

cent in Quake at High Quality (it was a tie

at Ultra Quality).

True, ATI’s chip delivers prettier graph-

ics and video, but you must disable

CrossFire to watch a movie. SLI has no

such limitation; besides, our tests revealed

SLI to be generally faster—by wide mar-

gins: a 26 percent edge in FEAR , 24 per-

cent faster in Call of Duty 2 , and 10 percent

quicker in Quake 4 at High Quality.

If you really don’t care about games,

ATI has the better solution. But non-gam-

ers don’t need to spring for the top-drawer

GPU to get Avivo functionality—any card

in the X1000 line will likely suit your needs.

High-End Hijinks

Speedy videocards—and lofty price tags—from

Sapphire and XFX

XFX has five different versions of nVidia’s GeForce 7900 GTX;

make sure you know what you’re bringing home.

Sapphire’s Radeon X1900 XTX delivers bril-

liant video and graphics, but you needn’t

spend $500 to enjoy ATI’s Avivo technology.

$500, http://www.sapphiretech.com

SAPPHIRE RADEON X1900 XTX

‘80s MUSIC

Rich, vibrant video and

graphics. Fab Quake 4 per-

formance in CrossFire mode.

‘80s HAIR

8

Gets beat up in nearly every

other benchmark. Noisy

cooling fan.

$590, http://www.xfxforce.com

XFX GEFORCE 7900 GTX

GREGORIAN CHANT

Rules the benchmark

charts; relatively quiet, even

when running in SLI.

GREGORIAN CALENDAR X

Expensive; looks drab next

to Avivo; loses to CrossFire

in Quake 4/ Ultra Quality.

9

MA XIMUMPC

KICKASS

QUAKE 4 HIGH / ULTRA 63.0/51.8 73.2 /51.8 102.4/ 88.5 113.2 /77.1

CALL OF DUTY 2 49.5 54.2 67.1 88

FEAR 40.0 49.0 59.0 80

3DMARK HDR/SM3 NO. 1 19.5 16.7 35.3 30.4

3DMARK HDR/SM3 NO. 2 21.4 23.3 38.9 42.2

BENCHMARKS

All scores expressed in frames per second; best scores are bolded.for additional details. Visit http://www.maximumpc.com/benchmarks

SAPPHIRE XFX 7900 SAPPHIRE XFX

X1900 XTX GTX CROSSFIRE SLI