ATI X1000 Graphics Family
3DMark05 & Halo v1.06
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;) 3DMark05 |
3DMark05 is the latest installment in a long line of synthetic 3D graphics benchmarks, dating back to late 1998. 3DMark2005 is a synthetic benchmark that requires a DirectX 9.0 compliant video card, with support for Pixel Shaders 2.0 or higher, to render all of the various modules that comprise the suite. To generate its final "score", 3DMark05 runs three different simulated game tests and uses each test's framerate in the final tabulation. Fillrate, Memory bandwidth, and compute performance especially all have a measurable impact on performance in this benchmark. We ran 3DMark05's default test (1,024 x 768) on all of the cards and configurations we tested, and have the overall results posted for you below. |
There is a lot to digest within the graphs on the next few pages, but we'll do our best to simplify what you're seeing moving forward. We'll start with the X1600 XT's performance, them move up to the X1800 XL and the X1800 XT...
3DMark05's default benchmark, had the new Radeon X1600 XT finishing behind all of the competition, except for the 512MB Radeon X800 XL. All of NVIDIA's offerings, and the X850 XT were faster than ATI's latest mid-range card. The X1800 XL fares a little better, besting ATI's previous generation of cards, and the GeForce 7800 Ultra, but the GeForce 7 series of cards, and obviously the SLI configurations were faster. Strictly looking at single-card performance, the new Radeon X1800 XT was the top-dog, besting the GeForce 7800 GTX by almost 1400 points, however both SLI configurations were alone at the top.
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 Halo |
No additional patches or tweaks are necessary to benchmark with Halo, as Gearbox has included all of the necessary information to test with this game within its Readme file. This benchmark works by running through four of the long cut-scenes within the game, after which the average frame rate is recorded. Halo was one of the first games to have a PS 2.0 code path, and even though its graphics are no longer considered cutting edge, compute performance and fillrate still affect overall performance in this test. We updated Halo using the most recent v1.06 patch and ran this benchmark twice, once at a resolution of 1,280 x 1,024 and then again at 1,600 x 1,200. Anti-aliasing doesn't work properly with Halo, so all of the tests below were run with anti-aliasing disabled. |
The Radeon X1600 XT seemed to struggle a bit with Halo. The 12-pipeline Radeon X1600 XT fell behind every other card, including the X800 XL, by significant margins at both resolutions. ATI's Radeon X1800 XL performed much better, almost doubling the X1600 XT's performance at the higher resolution, but all of the NVIDIA powered cards except the GeForce 6800 Ultra outperformed the X1800 XL. The Radeon X1800 XT overtook the lower priced GeForce 7800 GT at both resolutions, but the GTX finished well ahead of the X1800 XT, and both SLI configurations and the CrossFire rig we the fastest overall.
