Test system
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| Motherboard | Foxconn Bloodrage X58 (LGA1366) | |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-965 3,20GHz (LGA1366) | |
| Memory | Corsair TR3X6G1866C9D (3x2GB) @ 1333MHz 9-9-9-24 (LGA1366) | |
| Graphics card | AMD Radeon HD 5870 AMD Radeon HD 4870 1GB (4890 downclocked) AMD Radeon HD 4870X2 2GB XFX HD 4890 XXX Edition 1GB ASUS GeForce GTX 285 ASUS GeForce GTX 295 |
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| Harddrive | OCZ Summit 60GB SSD | |
| Operating system | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit RTM | |
| Drivers | ForceWare 190.62 Catalyst 8.66 RC6 beta drivers Catalyst 9.9 (4870X2) Intel 9.1.1.1012 |
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| Benchmarks | 3DMark06 3DMark Vantage Crysis Warhead Tom Clancy’s HAWX Street Fighter IV ARMA 2 Left 4 Dead Resident Evil 5 World in Conflict: Soviet Assault Stalker: Clear Sky |
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The test system we used in our test was based on Intel’s ol’ LGA1366 platform that much like AMD Radeon HD 5870 is geared toward enthusiasts and users with high demands.
We have included the fastest graphics cards from both AMD and NVIDIA for comparison. Alas our Radeon HD 4870 test card didn’t make it all the way through and we had to complete the review with a downclocked Radeon HD 4890. This is not perfect but still very near the real scenario since there is extremely little, the frequencies aside, that separate the two cards. This is also why we have no power consumption readings for Radeon HD 4870 where the two are clearly different in their listed specifications.
We used AMD’s fresh out of the box beta drivers, Catalyst 8.66 RC6, but for Radeon HD 4870X2 we have to revert back to Catalyst 9.9 since it refused to work with AMD’s beta drivers. For the NVIDIA cards we used ForceWare 190.62.
Regarding the benchmarks we have used resolutions of 1650×1050 and 1920×1200 pixels. The majority of the tests are done with 4xAA, as it is pretty commonly used. Due to time constraints we had to leave out 8xAA, but we hope to complete with these numbers later on.
With that said we move on the benchmarks.
