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1. Athlon 64 3200+ based computer:
2. Pentium4 Overclocked 3200 MHz based computer (Prescott)
Each testbed runs Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2, DirectX 9.0c, we used ViewSonic P810 (21") and IIYAMA Vision Master Pro 514 (22") monitors. ATI drivers 6.497; NVIDIA drivers 70.90.
So, this benchmark is definitely a success. On the one hand a unified engine may fail to reflect certain aspects of different game genres, on the other hand, that's what the real games are for. On the whole these game tests are in advance of their time rather than just state-of-the-art, which is actually what's needed. HLSL usage looks justified and the most probable tendency of all future games as well as the minimum requirement of Shaders 2.0. The strict system requirements are also justified (2GHz SSE CPU, the latest DirectX version, accelerator supporting Shaders 2.0, 512 Mbyte of RAM) – it's a modern gaming computer. This benchmark aims at the future and that's exactly how it will be used. Even the next generation of accelerators can be tested and evaluated with the help of this benchmark. Several shadow technologies and an option to compile shaders into various available versions ensure maximum usage of hardware resources and help avoid the war of standards and consequent accusations of being biased to one or another company and its technologies.
Synthetic tests look rather "semi-synthetic", but they allow to get an idea of chip systems to a first approximation – pixel and vertex parts. CPU test and batch size test are appearingly not very adequate.
In our 3Digest you can find more detailed comparisons of various video cards.
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