Monthly drivers report and popular 3D accelerators comparison

Monthy 3Digest is the project of iXBT.com and Digit-Life.com dedicated to informing you about the performance of a large number of graphics cards under Windows XP in the past month.

This issue is dedicated to drivers released from the 15th of April 2007 to the 15th of May 2007. Traditionally our 3Digest informs you about the best price/performance ratios available in the market. Another very important part of any 3Digest is cards' 3D graphics quality shown on the example of a wide selection of games.

It's our 84th issue of 3Digest.

May 2007

Added benchmarks of GeForce 8500 GT, GeForce 8600 GT, RADEON HD 2900 XT.

Attention! This digest contains benchmarking results for PCI-E cards only! The final AGP benchmarking was conducted in March 2006!

CONTENTS

1. Testbed configurations and test software
2. Tested videocards list
3. What's new in 3Digest
4. Test summary diagrams and digest bottom line
5. 3D accelerator rating calculations for the end of the month
6. Screenshot gallery
7. Game Quality Section
8. Game Quality Control Section

1. Testbed configuration

• Intel Core2 Duo (775 Socket) based machine
  • Intel Core2 Duo Extreme X6800 (2930 MHz) (L2=4096K) CPU;
  • EVGA nForce 680i SLI motherboard on NVIDIA nForce 680i;
  • 2GB DDR2 SDRAM Corsair 1142MHz (CAS (tCL)=5; RAS to CAS delay (tRCD)=5; Row Precharge (tRP)=5; tRAS=15);
  • WD Caviar SE WD1600JD 160GB SATA HDD.

The testbed features Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2, DirectX 9.0c, Dell 3007WFP monitor. (30").

The list of benchmarks is here

2. Graphics card list

Below is a list of graphics cards that we tested linked to the respective 3Digest feature description pages.

You can see the quality of 3D produced by tested cards in our monthly updated Screenshot gallery.

Cards list:

1. PCI-E-ATI RADEON X1300 256MB DDR 2.8ns (450/550 MHz)
2. PCI-E-ATI RADEON X1300 512MB DDR2 3.0ns (450/500 MHz)
3. PCI-E-ATI RADEON X1300 PRO 256MB DDR 2.5ns (600/800 MHz)
4. PCI-E-ATI RADEON X1300 XT 256MB DDR2 2.0ns (500/900 MHz)
5. PCI-E-ATI RADEON X1650 PRO 256MB DDR 1.4ns (590/1380 MHz)
6. PCI-E-ATI RADEON X1650 XT 256MB DDR 1.4ns (600/1400 MHz)
7. PCI-E-ATI RADEON X1650 XT 256MB DDR 1.2ns (625/1530 MHz)
8. PCI-E-ATI RADEON X1950 PRO 256MB GDDR3 1.4ns (580/1400 MHz)
9. PCI-E-ATI RADEON X1950 PRO 256MB GDDR3 1.2ns (635/1480 MHz)
10. PCI-E-ATI RADEON X1950 PRO 512MB GDDR3 1.4ns (573/1360 MHz)
11. PCI-E-ATI RADEON X1900 XT 256MB GDDR3 1.2ns (625/1450 MHz)
12. PCI-E-ATI RADEON X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 1.2ns (625/1450 MHz)
13. PCI-E-ATI RADEON X1900 XTX 512MB GDDR3 1.1ns (650/1550 MHz)
14. PCI-E-ATI RADEON X1950 XTX 512MB GDDR4 0.9ns (650/2000 MHz)
15. PCI-E-ATI RADEON X1950 XT 512MB GDDR4 0.9ns (625/1800 MHz)
16. PCI-E-ATI RADEON HD 2900 XT 512MB GDDR3 1.0ns (743/1660 MHz)
17. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 1.4ns (560/1400 MHz)
18. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 7600GS 256MB GDDR2 2.5ns (400/800 MHz)
19. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 7600GS 512MB GDDR2 2.0ns (550/950 MHz)
20. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT 256MB GDDR2 2.5ns (450/800 MHz)
21. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT 256MB GDDR3 1.2ns (600/1200 MHz)
22. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 1.2ns (560/1560 MHz)
23. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB GDDR3 1.0ns (675/2000 MHz)
24. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB GDDR3 1.0ns (720/2200 MHz)
25. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256MB GDDR3 1.4ns (450/1320 MHz)
26. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT 512MB GDDR3 1.4ns (550/1400 MHz)
27. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT 256MB GDDR3 1.4ns (600/1430 MHz)
28. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 2x512MB GDDR3 1.4ns (500/1200 MHz)
29. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 SLI 2x2x512MB GDDR3 1.4ns (4x500/1200 MHz)
30. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 1.2ns (512/1600 MHz)
31. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 1.2ns (512/1600 MHz)
32. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 1.1ns (575/1800 MHz)
33. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 1.1ns (625/2000 MHz)
34. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB GDDR3 0.8ns (612/2160 MHz)
35. PCI-E-NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX SLI 2x768MB GDDR3 1.1ns (2x575/1800 MHz)

Archive (graphics cards, information on which is no longer updated)

3. May 2007 news and matters

Added a number of new graphics cards (marked "NEW").

• 3.1. The following drivers were released from April 15, 2007 to May 15, 2007:
  
  
  • NVIDIA ForceWare for all NVIDIA cards:
    
    
    • Windows XP: 158.22 for GF8800 series;
    • Windows XP: 93.81 for GF6xxx/7xxx series;
    • Windows XP: 160,02 for all series;

    
    

  • ATI Catalyst for all ATI cards:
    
    
    • Windows XP: CATALYST 7.4
      

  
  
  

• 3.2. This month we used 160.02 drivers for NVIDIA-based card summaries, 7.4 drivers for ATI-based card summaries.
  
  

4. Summary graphics card performance charts for the latest drivers available at the moment of testing in May 2007

All willing to see the complete results in Excel 2003 format can download this RAR 3.0 or this ZIP archive.

If you are familiar with 3D graphics, you will be able to draw all the conclusions yourself after looking at the charts provided. Those interested in our judgement of test results should see reviews dedicated to specific GPUs (see our 3D graphics section). And for newbies and those who has just started choosing a graphics card we'll provide some more detailed explanations.

First of all, you should take a look at our brief references of modern graphics card series and their respective GPUs. Note clock rates, shader support and pipeline architecture.

Reference for ATI RADEON X1300-1600-1800-1900 series

Reference for NVIDIA GeForce 7300-7600-7800-7900-8800 series

Secondly, in our 3D graphics section all newbies can read about the basics of 3D (this knowledge will be required anyway, because you'll surely try to adjust some game settings: textures, lighting, etc.) Besides, newbies should read separate reviews dedicated to new products. There are just two GPU vendors: ATI (recently merged with AMD under its brand) and NVIDIA. Thus, all information is generally separated in two parts.

Thirdly, let's see the charts and make conclusions.

• 4.1. Far Cry, Research (No HDR)
  • All resolutions on one page, No AA, No AF
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200
    • 2560x1600

  • All resolutions on one page, AA 4x + AF 16x (High Quality for ATI)
    • 1024x768, AA+AF
    • 1280x1024, AA+AF
    • 1600x1200, AA+AF
    • 2560x1600, AA+AF

  
  
  

• 4.2. Far Cry, Research (HDR)
  • All resolutions on one page, No AA, No AF
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200
    • 2560x1600

  • All resolutions on one page, AA 4x + AF 16x (High Quality for ATI)
    • 1024x768, AA+AF
    • 1280x1024, AA+AF
    • 1600x1200, AA+AF
    • 2560x1600, AA+AF

  
  
  

• 4.3. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (No HDR)
  • All resolutions on one page, No AA, No AF
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200
    • 2560x1600

  • All resolutions on one page, AA 4x + AF 16x (High Quality for ATI)
    • 1024x768, AA+AF
    • 1280x1024, AA+AF
    • 1600x1200, AA+AF
    • 2560x1600, AA+AF

  
  
  

• 4.4. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (HDR)
  • All resolutions on one page, No AA, No AF
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200
    • 2560x1600

  • All resolutions on one page, AA 4x + AF 16x (High Quality for ATI)
    • 1024x768, AA+AF
    • 1280x1024, AA+AF
    • 1600x1200, AA+AF
    • 2560x1600, AA+AF

  
  
  

• 4.5. Call Of Juarez
  • All resolutions on one page, No AA, No AF
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200
    • 2560x1600

  • All resolutions on one page, AA 4x + AF 16x (High Quality for ATI)
    • 1024x768, AA+AF
    • 1280x1024, AA+AF
    • 1600x1200, AA+AF
    • 2560x1600, AA+AF

  
  
  

• 4.6. Prey
  • All resolutions on one page, No AA, No AF
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200
    • 2560x1600

  • All resolutions on one page, AA 4x + AF 16x (High Quality for ATI)
    • 1024x768, AA+AF
    • 1280x1024, AA+AF
    • 1600x1200, AA+AF
    • 2560x1600, AA+AF

  
  
  

• 4.7. 3DMark05 MARKS
  • All resolutions on one page, No AA, No AF
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200
    • 2560x1600

  • All resolutions on one page, AA 4x + AF 16x (High Quality for ATI)
    • 1024x768, AA+AF
    • 1280x1024, AA+AF
    • 1600x1200, AA+AF
    • 2560x1600, AA+AF

  
  
  

• 4.8. Company Of Heroes
  • All resolutions on one page, No AA, No AF
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200
    • 2560x1600

  • All resolutions on one page, AA 4x + AF 16x (High Quality for ATI)
    • 1024x768, AA+AF
    • 1280x1024, AA+AF
    • 1600x1200, AA+AF
    • 2560x1600, AA+AF

  
  
  

• 4.9. F.E.A.R.
  • All resolutions on one page, No AA, No AF
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200
    • 2560x1600

  • All resolutions on one page, AA 4x + AF 16x (High Quality for ATI)
    • 1024x768, AA+AF
    • 1280x1024, AA+AF
    • 1600x1200, AA+AF
    • 2560x1600, AA+AF

  
  
  

• 4.10. Serious Sam II (No HDR)
  • All resolutions on one page, No AA, No AF
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200
    • 2560x1600

  • All resolutions on one page, AA 4x + AF 16x (High Quality for ATI)
    • 1024x768, AA+AF
    • 1280x1024, AA+AF
    • 1600x1200, AA+AF
    • 2560x1600, AA+AF

  
  
  

• 4.11. Serious Sam II (HDR)
  • All resolutions on one page, No AA, No AF
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200
    • 2560x1600

  • All resolutions on one page, AA 4x + AF 16x (High Quality for ATI)
    • 1024x768, AA+AF
    • 1280x1024, AA+AF
    • 1600x1200, AA+AF
    • 2560x1600, AA+AF

  
  
  

• 4.12. 3DMark 06, Shader Model 2.0 MARKS
  • All resolutions on one page, No AA, No AF
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200
    • 2560x1600

  • All resolutions on one page, AA 4x + AF 16x (High Quality for ATI)
    • 1024x768, AA+AF
    • 1280x1024, AA+AF
    • 1600x1200, AA+AF
    • 2560x1600, AA+AF

  
  
  

• 4.13. 3DMark 06, Shader Model 3.0 MARKS
  • All resolutions on one page, No AA, No AF
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    • 1600x1200
    • 2560x1600

  • All resolutions on one page, AA 4x + AF 16x (High Quality for ATI)
    • 1024x768, AA+AF
    • 1280x1024, AA+AF
    • 1600x1200, AA+AF
    • 2560x1600, AA+AF

  
  
  

• 4.14. Archive (information from the previous 3Digests absent in this issue)
  
  
• 4.14. Notes on graphics cards performance with the latest drivers:
  
  

• If a particular card is not in the summary, i.e. its results are either 0, or 1, it means the given benchmark hasn't work or has worked incorrectly with this card.
• We must especially underline the bad quality of WinXP drivers for NVIDIA 8800 series. For example, they do not allow DVI scalability of resolution. Besides, SLI still doesn't work in Call Of Juarez. Therefore SLI configurations have performance results even lower than those of single cards in these tests.
• If you imagine a line connecting ends of columns representing test results on a chart, you can judge if a game is critical to a card or a CPU. If this curve is "convex" and many cards perform similarly, it means at this resolution and under this load performance is bottlenecked by system resources, not graphics card potential. If, vice versa, the curve is "concave" and performance drops quickly as card potential reduces, it means the game puts heavy load on graphics cards and depends exclusively on their potential.

5. 3D accelerator ratings calculations for the end of the month

Calculations were based on gaming benchmark results as well as the results from 3DMark06 new tests (ATI CATALYST 7.4, NVIDIA ForceWare 160.02).

All willing to conduct their own rating calculations with own values are invited to download this Excel XP table in RAR 3.0 or ZIP format.

The method of rating calculation is described here.

Calculations were conducted considering the following assumptions:

1. Percentage of performance and quality demand ratio:
   • performance priority - 60%
   • quality priority - 40%

2. Only the HIGHEST resolution available in games was used to calculate prospect ratings.
3. The usability rating indicates performance and features of a card (numerator) related to its price (denominator).

According to your wishes, we separated ratings into two groups: the first gathers all benchmarks, and the second contains only the gaming tests without m3DMark05/06. Disbelieving the synthetic tests, many think the second group is of higher importance.

Core2 Duo X6800 based testbed:

"Usability" Rating:

GAMING ONLY usability rating

GENERAL usability rating

"Prospect" Rating:

GAMING ONLY prospect rating

GENERAL prospect rating

Ingame quality

6. Games screenshot gallery

All test screenshots are compiled into a gallery where you can qualify the work of a chosen videocard. All shots were taken at the same 1024x768 resolution at the maximum quality. Screenshot gallery

7. Game Artefacts Gallery

Game Quality Section

8. Game Quality Control Section

Game Quality Control Section

The PSU for the testbed was kindly provided by HIPER

The Dell 3007WFP monitor was kindly provided by NVIDIA

Vitaly Milov (vmilov@ixbt.com)	Danil Gridasov (degust@ixbt.com)

Andrey Vorobiev (anvakams@ixbt.com)