Test System

XFX 8800 Ultra 768Mb
Asus EAH2900XT 512Mb
BFG 8800 GTS OC 640Mb
Asus 8800 GTX
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (2.66GHz)
Abit 680i Motherboard
Asetek Vapochill LS
2x 1Gb Patriot PC2-8500 @ DDR2-800 4-4-4-12
WD Raptor 74Gb
Samsung 80Gb Sata Drive
Benq 16x DVD Writer
Enermax Galaxy 850w PSU
Windows XP Pro SP2
Windows Vista Ultimate
DirectX 9.0c
.Net Framework 3.0
Forceware 158.22 (XP) and 158.42 (Vista)
Catalyst 8.37.4 (XP) and 8.37.4.2(May10th) (Vista)
F.E.A.R.
Oblivion
Dark Messiah: Might and Magic
PREY
Flight Simulator X
Need for Speed: Carbon
Rainbow 6 Vegas
Supreme Commander
PowerDVD 7.3

The test system was built from scratch, a format of the hard drive was performed (NTFS) and then Windows XP SP2/Vista was installed. Following the completion of the installation, the Nvidia/AMD drivers were installed. All updates were applied, including .NET Framework 3.0. Next, the latest builds of the benchmarking tools were installed and finally, the hard drive was de-fragmented. For each test, the Nvidia/AMD 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 applications had their latest patches applied and all hardware features the latest BIOS/Firmware.

NOTES: XFX are apparently going to tweak their XXX reference cards. This will apparently result in a slightly faster product running at 675MHz Core, 2300MHz Memory and 1667MHz Shader. If this turns out to be the case then the card should provide results which are 2-3fps above those stated today. For now we have left the card at its current shipping clocks (650/2160/1620).