HIS and Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Face Off
3DMark Vantage
|
|
|
|
|
The latest version of Futuremark's synthetic 3D gaming benchmark, 3DMark Vantage, is specifically bound to Windows Vista-based systems because it uses some advanced visual technologies that are only available with DirectX 10, which y isn't available on previous versions of Windows. 3DMark Vantage isn't simply a port of 3DMark06 to DirectX 10 though. With this latest version of the benchmark, Futuremark has incorporated two new graphics tests, two new CPU tests, several new feature tests, in addition to support for the latest PC hardware. We tested the graphics cards here with 3DMark Vantage's Performance preset option, which uses a resolution of 1280 x 1024. |
The DX10-based 3DMark Vantage is completely dominated by the RV770-powered cards. None of the earlier cards from either camp really even comes close, including the GeForce 9800 GTX+, one of the heavy hitters for NVIDIA before the release of the GTX 260 and 280 cards. Again, we find that within the scope of our review, the two HD 4850s are almost indistinguishable from each other, performance-wise.
Frame rates in the individual GPU tests don't seem to be as drastically one-sided as a the overall score was, but in reality the 2-4 frame difference in the rates between either of the HD 4850s and the closest runner-up, the 9800 GTX+, is equivalent to between a 13-23% improvement. When compared to the HD 38xx series, the 4850s are running nearly twice as fast.
