NVIDIA's GeForce 7 Update: Introducing the 7900 GTX, 7900 GT & 7600 GT
3DMark06 v1.02 - GeForce 7900 Series
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;) 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. |
There is a lot of data to cover from this point forward, so we're going to let the results to most of the talking. As you can see here, the GeForce 7900 GTX and 7900 GT are marginally faster than their GeForce 7800 series counterparts, but they fall a bit shy of the mark set my the Radeon X1900XTX CrossFire Rig. In a single card configuration, the GeForce 7900 GTX is the top dog, but in a dual-card setup, the CrossFire system came out on top.
Breaking down the 3DMark06 results reveals that the GeForce 7900 GTX came in with the highest score in the shader model 2.0 tests, in both single and dual card configurations. The 7900 GT also performed well, falling somewhere in between the 256MB and 512MB 7800 GTXs.
The tables turned slightly in 3DMark06's HDR / Shader Model 3.0 tests. This time around, the Radeon X1900 XTX posted the best scored in both single and dual-card configurations, followed by the GeForce 7900 GTX, and the succession of remaining NVIDIA powered cards.
