AquaMark is a relatively new DirectX 9 benchmark, and although it does not represent an actual game, it does use the same Krass engine as found in products such as Aquanox 2 and Spellforce. AquaMark 3 also supports new features such as HyperThreading, Pixel Shader and VertexShader 2.0, and uses a wide range of DirectX 9 effects and features. For this review, we've tested in standard 1024x768 32-bit (GFX) and 1280x1024 Advanced (FPS) modes.
AquaMark 3 is a demanding DirectX 9 benchmark that can really separate the men from the boys, or in this case, the Radeon 9600 XT from the mid-range pack. In fact, the newest ATI mid-range card exhibits a larger framerate jump over the Radeon 9600 Pro, that the previous Radeon 9600 to Pro differential.
The AquaMark 3 Advanced testing shows similar results, with the Radeon 9600 XT powering ahead, though in this case the framerate gap between the three Radeon 9600-based cards is kept constant.
The 3DMark 2003 benchmark has seen its fair share of "driver tweaking" controversy, but as long as the mainstream gaming community is using it, we'll present comparison scores. It does offer a view at potential DirectX 9 gaming performance, as well as offering a specific CPU test and a fully-featured Image Quality suite that was lacking in the 2001SE version.
3DMark 2003 benchmarking shows us the same basic trend, though the Radeon 9600 XT does slow ATI's mid-range climb just a bit. The higher requirements seem to blunt the XT advantage slightly, as the relative fps difference slows down as we move up the Radeon 9600 line.
The more detailed AA and AF settings don't change the rankings, and as with the standard tests, the higher-clocked Radeon 9600 XT seems a bit system-limited in relation to the fps upgrade from the Radeon 9600 to 9600 Pro.
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