Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe: ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 Chipset Launched

Name: Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe: ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 Chipset Launched - Page 15
Brand: Asus

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, March 01, 2006, 08:30 AM EDT

Hi-Res Gaming: 3DMark06 & Quake 4

Page 15: Hi-Res Gaming: 3DMark06 & Quake 4

Performance Comparisons with 3DMark06 v1.0.2

Details: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark06/

3DMark06

Futuremark recently launched a brand-new version of their popular benchmark, 3DMark06. The new version of the benchmark is updated in a number of ways, and now includes not only Shader Model 2.0 tests, but Shader Model 3.0 and HDR tests as well. Some of the assets from 3DMark05 have been re-used, but the scenes are now rendered with much more geometric detail and the shader complexity is vastly increased as well. Max shader length in 3DMark05 was 96 instructions, while 3DMark06 ups the number of instructions to 512. 3DMark06 also employs much more lighting, and there is extensive use of soft shadows. With 3DMark06, Futuremark has also updated how the final score is tabulated. In this latest version of the benchmark, SM 2.0 and HDR / SM3.0 tests are weighted and the CPU score is factored into the final tally as well.

	CrossFire Xpress 3200	Radeon Xpress 200	nForce 4 SLIX16
% Increase with CrossFire / SLI	35.7%	34.4%	41.2%

3D performance continued to follow the same trend in the default 3DMark06 benchmark. Once again, the Radeon X1900 CrossFire configuration outpaced a pair of 512MB GeForce 7800 GTX cards running in SLI mode, as did the single Radeon X1900 over a single GeForce, and the CrossFire Xpresss 3200 equpped system posted scored slightly higher than the Radeon Xpress 200.

Performance Comparisons with Quake 4

Details: http://www.quake4game.com/

Quake 4

id Software, in conjunction with developer Raven, recently released the latest addition to the wildly popular Quake franchise, Quake 4. Quake 4 is based upon an updated and slightly modified version of the Doom 3 engine, and as such performance characteristics between the two titles are very similar. Like Doom 3, Quake 4 is also an OpenGL game that uses extremely high-detailed textures and a ton of dynamic lighting and shadows, but unlike Doom3, Quake 4 features some outdoor environments as well. We ran these Quake 4 benchmarks using a custom demo with the game set to its "High-Quality" mode at a resolution of 1600x1200 with 4X AA and 8X aniso enabled simultaneously.

	CrossFire Xpress 3200	Radeon Xpress 200	nForce 4 SLIX16
% Increase with CrossFire / SLI	74.4%	74.3%	90.8%

With our custom Quake 4 benchmark, whether running with a single card or in a multi-GPU configuration, the GeForce cards came out on top comfortably, but the CrossFire Xpress 3200 again outpaced the Radeon Xpress 200.