Dell XPS 710 H2C Performance Gaming System

Starting with our 3DMark06 test, all of the gaming related benchmarks will be using a new set of comparison systems that were configured to put up a better fight against the XPS 710 H2C, when it came to gaming, than our productivity test systems could have.

Futuremark 3DMark06 DirectX Gaming Performance

3DMark06's test is a multi-threaded "gaming related" DirectX metric that's useful for comparing relative performance between similarly equipped systems. This test consists of different 3D scenes that are generated with software and hardware GPU renderers, which is also dependant on the host CPU's performance. In its CPU tests, the calculations normally reserved for your 3D accelerator are instead sent to the central processor.  GPU rendering tests employ a mix of SM2.0, SM3.0 and HDR techniques and effects.

The XPS 710 H2C with its factory overclocked processor is the clear winner, posting a very impressive 15,302 3DMarks. Just like with our Athlon test system in the productivity benchmarks, we have included an ATI equipped system in all of our gaming related tests for comparison's sake, despite being hopelessly outclassed by the rest of the pack.

Performance Comparisons with Quake 4 OpenGL Quad-Damage

Quake 4

id Software, in conjunction with developer Raven, released the latest addition to the wildly popular Quake franchise, Quake 4, in late 2005. 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 this Quake 4 benchmark using a custom timedemo with the game set to its "High-Quality" mode at a resolution of 1600 x 1200 and then again at 1900 x 1200 with 4X AA and 16X aniso enabled simultaneously.

The XPS 710 H2C once again takes the top spot at both resolutions. The nearly 153 fps achieved by the XPS 710 H2C, even at a higher resolution of 1900x1200, is good enough to beat all but our X6800 GeForce 8800 GTX SLI system at lower res of 1600x1200. That is very impressive. Our custom quad-core system is bested by the aforementioned X6800 GeForce 8800 GTX SLI system at both resolutions, indicating that Quake 4 doesn't fully utilize all four cores.