MaximumPC 2006 01

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30 MA XIMUMPC JANUARY 2006

THE TESTS

ATI has been pushing the frame-buffer

envelope for months. First with the 512MB

Radeon X800 XL, and then again with the

Radeon X1800 XT ($550, http://www.ati.com). nVidia

followed suit, fi rst with the GeForce 6800

Ultra and now with a tweaked version of the

GeForce 7800 GTX ($650, http://www.nvidia.com).

ATI tells us that game developers are

pushing for more memory; nVidia just

seems to be reacting. Whatever the moti-

vation, our benchmark results indicate that

for now, sheer GPU power is more impor-

tant than tons of memory. No matter: The

only way you can buy ATI’s and nVidia’s

best GPUs is with 512MB of memory.

Our videocard benchmarks measure

two critical aspects of performance: real-

time 3D-graphics rendering and video

playback. There’s no point in measuring 2D

performance, because even today’s lowli-

est graphics chips deliver acceptable per-

formance with productivity applications.

Games are the best way to measure

real-time 3D performance, and so we use

two basic types: Off-the-shelf retail games

and synthetic demos designed specifi cally

for benchmarking. Id Software’s Doom 3 is

an acid test in terms of both its horsepow-

er demands and its use of OpenGL. It’s

also one of the few games that use more

than 256MB of memory (in Ultra Quality

mode). Cards that perform well with Doom

3 can also be expected to deliver good

performance with games based on the

same engine, including Quake 4.

We added Monolith’s FEAR to our

benchmarking suite solely for these top-end

cards because it’s one of the most graphi-

cally sophisticated DirectX 9.0 games we’ve

seen. Far Cry and Halo round out our real-

world gaming benchmarks.

Our synthetic 3D benchmarks consist

of Futuremark’s 3DMark03 and 3DMark05.

These tests make extensive

use of particle animation,

volumetric fog, dynamic

shadows, and other visual

effects. Because Futuremark

doesn’t need to worry about

backward compatibility with

older videocards, its bench-

marks are harbingers of

what we can expect to see

in future games.

Believe it or not, the

latest videocards have a

much tougher time playing

DVD movies than they do games. We use

Silicon Image’s supremely challenging HQV

Benchmark DVD to evaluate everything

from picture detail, to fi lm-cadence detec-

tion, to noise reduction.

THE RESULTS

ATI and nVidia took decidedly different

approaches with

their latest GPUs.

ATI moved to a 90nm

manufacturing pro-

cess for its X

series, which allows

clock speeds to be

ratcheted to insane

levels. The reference-

design X1800 XT we

tested checks in at a

staggering 631MHz,

and its GDDR memory

is clocked at an astronomical 752MHz.

nVidia, meanwhile, stuck with a 110nm

process for its 7800 series, and a relatively

staid core clock speed of 430MHz for the

256MB version of the 7800 GTX. But nVidia

pulled a rabbit out of its hat for the 512MB

version of the 7800 GTX:

The tweaked core on

the new card runs at

550MHz.

Despite the clock-

speed advantage, ATI’s

16 pixel-pipeline X

XT proves to be no

match for nVidia’s lat-

est 24-pipe monster.

The 512MB 7800 GTX

absolutely creams the

X1800 XT in 3DMark03,

besting ATI by nearly

3,000 points. And where nVidia’s champion

delivers Doom 3 at 1600x1200, Ultra Quality

to the tune of 71 frames per second, ATI’s

contender mustered just 58.2fps.

The news only gets gloomier for ATI

when we turn to FEAR. The 512MB 7800

GTX delivered a playable average frame rate

of 36fps according to the game’s internal

benchmark tool. The X1800 XT managed

only a barely playable 28fps.

And as tough as the HQV benchmark is

on nVidia (the 7800 GTX scored just 56 out

of a possible 130 points), it was absolutely

brutal to ATI’s X1800 XT, which managed to

squeeze out just 38 points.

THE BOTTOM LINE

In our previous comparisons of the X

XT and the 7800 GTX, ATI bested its rival

in some tests and came up short in others.

This time, there’s absolutely no contest.

THE STAND (THE BOOK)

Wicked-fast 3D acceleration,

decent video performance,

innovative cooling solution.

NVIDIA

GEFORCE 7800 GTX

(512MB VERSION)

THE STAND (THE MOVIE)

Two-slot cooler, expensive.

We thought we’d seen the end of two-slot cooling solutions, but ATI’s X1800 XT

(right) and nVidia’s GeForce 7800 GTX both sport them, thanks to high clock speeds

and 512MB frame buffers.

BENCHMARKS

Best scores in each category are bolded. (alo tested at 00x00 with sound disabled. Doom 3 tested at Ultra 1uality 00x00 x AA. Far Cry F%A2 and 3D-ark03 tests run at 00x00 x AA 8x aniso soft

shadows enabled in F%A2 . 3D-ark03 and 3D-ark05 run using default settings.

DOOM 3 (FPS) 58.2 71.

FEAR (FPS) 28.0 36

FAR CRY (FPS) 102.1 121.

HALO (FPS) 108.0 125.

3DMARK05 9,108 9,

3DMARK03 16,918 19,

HQV SCORE 38 56

BEST HIGH-END VIDEOCARD

At the high end of the performance-videocard

market, a supremely powerful GPU is no

longer enough; top-drawer cards now come

equipped with 512MB of GDDR3 video

memory, too

ATI X1800 XT NVIDIA 7800 GTX