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• AMD Athlon XP3200+ 'Barton' Processor, 2200MHz, 512KB L2 cache, 11 x 200MHz, Socket A
• Asus A7N8X Deluxe 2.0 motherboard, nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset, Socket A
• 2 x 256MB Corsair XMS3200 memory, CL2, 6-2-2, DDR400 on the Asus motherboard
• ATI Radeon 9600
• Sapphire Atlantis ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
• GeForce FX5600 Ultra v2
• Windows XP Professional Build 2600.xpclient.010817-1148 w SP1
• ATI CATALYST 3.4
• NVIDIA nForce 2.41 platform drivers
• NVIDIA Detonator FX 44.03 Display driver
• DirectX 9.0 Runtime
• 3DMark 2001SE v330
• UT2003 Retail (Build 2225)
• Comanche 4 Demo
• Serious Sam 2 Demo
• Quake3 v1.30
• Codecreatures Benchmark Pro
So an up to date system to keep the performance gremlins away and let each card do its thing. No Radeon 9500 Pro unfortunately, I couldn't get my hands on one in time for this article. But in its place I've managed to sneak in a 400/800 clocked GeForce FX5600 Ultra. This is the latest iteration of the FX5600 Ultra with the boosted clocks over the older 350/700 model. NVIDIA are pitching it head to head with the Radeon 9500 Pro, and especially Radeon 9600 Pro, in a bid to win the midrange segment. It's price comparable too, not too much more than a 9600 Pro going by prices from a couple of retailers.
As always, each result is the result of a 3 test run, with the top and bottom results discarded and the middle one kept. If the 3 sampled results aren't within 2% of each other, they are all discarded and the 3 samples taken again. 6 benchmarks with 3 settings to be sampled per benchmark, per card. 3 tests x 3 samples x 6 benchmarks x 3 cards = 162 tests at a minimum. Ah the joys of a graphics card review.
I've thrown in a 9700 Pro re-benchmarked with the CATALYST 3.4 driver set for good measure and the FX uses the latest available drivers from NVIDIA, the Detonator FX 44.03's. I haven't had a problem with the 2.41 platform drivers on the nForce2 so they get to stay too.
Benchmarks include the fans favourites 3DMark 2001SE and Quake3 along with a few others. AA and AF get a work out too and tests are done over a couple of resolutions. The graphs will be pretty numerous to save them being busy so you'll have to have your graph hat on to keep up. Finally, we'll quickly discuss the penalty of enabling high image quality features on each card.
Here goes, one benchmark per page.
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