Test Systems and benchmarking comments

Graphics Card Tests - Crossfire/X850 single /7800GTX/X1800XT:
AMD Athlon64 FX55 CPU
2x512mb DDR 3200 (2-2-2-5)
Samsung 80Gb 7200rpm 8mb Cache Sata Drive
Sony DWD22a DVDRW drive
Ultra Xconnect 500w PSU
ATI Reference Crossfire Motherboard
X850 XT 256 master and slave cards
Geforce 7800GTX 256mb

Graphics Card Tests - 7800GT SLI/ 6800Ultra SLI:
AMD Athlon64 FX55 CPU
2x512mb DDR 3200 (2-2-2-5)
Samsung 80Gb 7200rpm 8mb Cache Sata Drive
Sony DWD22a DVDRW drive
Ultra Xconnect 500w PSU
DFI Lanparty NF4 Motherboard
2xGeforce 6800Ultra 256mb
2xGeforce 7800 GT 256mb

Windows XP SP2
.Net FW 1.1 sp1
Catalyst WHQL (Crossfire and X1800XT specific drivers)
Forceware 78.03 – 6800/7800SLI/7800GTX
Forceware 81.82 – 7800GTX new

The test system was built from scratch, a format of the hard drive was performed (NTFS) and then Windows XP was installed. Following the completion of the installation, the NV/ATI drivers were installed. The only updates applied were SP2 and .NET Framework 1.1(latest service pack). Next, the latest builds of the benchmarking tools were installed and finally, the hard drive was de-fragmented. For each test, the ATI/NV drivers were set to default quality/optimizations (unless otherwise stated).

Good Benchmarking Practice:
Where possible, each benchmark was performed 3 times and the median result for each resolution/setting is shown in the tables that will follow. All games/applications had their latest patches applied.

Comments:
With the launch of the X1800XT looming, infact with less than 2 days until NDA expiry we were informed by Nvidia that there was a new set of Forceware Drivers available in the form of 81.82 which provide enhanced speed and some fixes for outstanding issues. We have therefore retested the 7800GTX with these drivers and the results are also shown in our comparison tables. Due to time constraints we have not had time to retest the SLI systems. What we can tell you is that the 81.82 will be released soon by NV and that it allows you to enable SLI without a reboot and use mismatched cards in the same system (for example a XFX GTX OC and a Leadtek standard GTX) so some nice improvements to be had overall if you use these drivers.