Test System

2x XFX Geforce 8800 GTX 768Mb
2x Asus Geforce 8800 GTX 768Mb
2x Foxconn Geforce 8800 GTX 768Mb
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (2.66GHz-4.0GHz)
Evga 680i Motherboard
Asetek Vapochill LS
2x 1Gb Supertalent PC2-8800 @ DDR2-1000 4-4-4-12
WD Raptor 74Gb
Samsung 80Gb Sata Drive
Sony DWD710a DVD Writer
Enermax Galaxy 850w PSU
Viewsonic VP2330wb TFT

Windows XP Pro SP2
DirectX 9.0c
.Net Framework 2.0
Nforce 9.53 Drivers (WHQL)
Forceware 97.92 (GX2)
F.E.A.R. Extraction Point
Oblivion
Dark Messiah: Might and Magic
PREY
Flight Simulator X
Need for Speed: Carbon
Company Of Heroes

The test system was built from scratch, a format of the hard drive was performed (NTFS) and then Windows XP was installed (SP2). Following the completion of the installation, the Nvidia drivers were installed. All updates were applied, including .NET Framework 2.0 (latest service pack) and the latest Media Player version and Patches. Next, the latest builds of the benchmarking tools were installed and finally, the hard drive was de-fragmented. For each test, the Nvidia drivers were set to default quality/optimizations (unless otherwise stated).

Unlike many sites Driver Heaven doesn't include endless pages of testing at useless resolutions, for the purposes of this review we are only testing at the highest resolutions with maximum eye candy. After all if you are going to spending a small fortune on a similar setup will you really be running games at 1024x768 on a 15 inch TFT? We think not !

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 applications had their latest patches applied and all hardware features the latest BIOS/Firmware.