Test System Details
The test system detailed below was installed with Vista Ultimate Edition x64 SP1 and consisted of the following components:
- Intel Core i7 Extreme 965 (3.2GHz) CPU
- Intel DX58SO X58 chipset motherboard
- 6GB Corsair DDR3 1333 memory
- WD VelociRaptor 300GB hard drive
- Plextor PX-712S DVD drive
- Dell 3007WFP 30” LCD
- Corsair HX620W PSU
The latest BIOS and chipset and add-in component drivers were installed and all test applications patched. Anti-aliasing and anisotropic texture filtering were enabled whenever the test application allowed for control over those settings; otherwise, they were forced via the GPU driver control panel. All testing was conducted with 4x anti-aliasing and 16x anisotropic filtering enabled. FRAPS 2.9.8 was installed to record frame rates for applications that do not produce their own performance results. Because all three test boards are high-end, 1GB boards SimHQ decided to forego lower resolutions and use the following:
- 1680×1050
- 1920×1200
- 2560×1600
SimHQ used the following applications for our testing today and details per application configuration can be found in the test results section below:
- 3DMark Vantage
- IL-2: 1946
- Call of Duty 4
- Race Driver: GRID
- Silent Hunter: Wolves of the Pacific
- World in Conflict
The above titles were generally configured with high presets to help ensure the titles were as GPU intensive as possible. Again, 4x AA and 16x AF were both enabled as baselines for all testing.
Test Results
Futuremark’s synthetic graphics suite, 3DMark Vantage, was tested with the preset option set to high and anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering then set to 4x/16x for all tests. The high preset places the suite at a resolution of 1680×1050.
4xAA/16xAF |
NVIDIA GTX 285
|
ATI HD 4870
|
ATI HD 4890
|
Jane Nash |
20.4
|
16.3
|
19.1
|
New Calico |
16.6
|
13.6
|
15.8
|
Texture Fill |
527
|
792
|
936
|
Color Fill |
4.7
|
5.7
|
6.0
|
POM |
27.9
|
22.5
|
28.2
|
Cloth |
20
|
19.1
|
22.6
|
Particles |
30.7
|
36.2
|
41.4
|
Perlin Noise |
30
|
28.3
|
33.5
|
The GeForce board nudges out a small win against the Radeon 4890 in the two graphics tests, with the older 4870 trailer by a few frames. On the flip side, the individual feature tests show the 4890 posting higher scores in all six tests, with the 4870 also ahead in half the tests.