Video cards

Test Setup

The ASUS EAX1950PRO 256MB card is a competitor at the high-end of the mainstream market, and its natural enemy would be the GeForce 7900 GS 256MB. This performance range requires a powerful reference platform, so that it will not be the limiting factor in any benchmark testing. Our standard system configuration consists of a Core 2 Duo platform, featuring a 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo E6700, an Intel 975X motherboard, and 2x512-MB of Corsair CM2X512-8500 memory. This represents a very solid base for performance video card benchmarking, including all the latest features, and makes sure that the platform itself will not hold any of our reference video cards back.

The competition in our video card benchmarking comes from both the mainstream and entry high-end sectors, and we have the ASUS EAX1950PRO 256MB going up against a range of ATI and NVIDIA models. The NVIDIA reference cards include the GeForce 7600 GT 256MB, GeForce 7900 GS 256MB, GeForce 7900 GT 256MB, and GeForce 7950 GT 512MB. The ATI representation consists of the Radeon X1600 XT 256MB, Radeon X1650 XT 256MB, and Radeon X1800 XL 256MB cards. Our operating system is Windows XP Pro SP2 with the latest DirectX 9.0c.

Our benchmark selection now includes more recent SM3.0 game tests such as Company of Heroes, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Prey, which augment existing benchmarks like F.E.A.R., 3DMark06 Advanced, Quake 4, Half-Life 2, DOOM 3, Chronicles of Riddick, FarCry, and Unreal Tournament 2004. With the influx of new games, and updated patches for existing ones, the majority of these tests now support SM3.0. All testing is performed using standard 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 32-bit settings, along with high-end 4X anti-aliasing and 8X anisotropic filtering results as well. The 4X AA and 8X AF settings are representative of the detail settings many use for their high-end 3D gaming.

* Please note that unless otherwise stated, all performance graph results equate to the standard "higher is better" format.

Test System

General Settings:
Desktop Resolution: 1024x768
Color Depth: 32-bit
V-Sync: Disabled

Intel Core 2 Reference System:
Processors: Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.66 GHz)
Memory: 2 x 512-MB Corsair CM2X512-8500
Motherboard: Intel D975XBX
Motherboard chip set: Intel 975X
NVIDIA reference drivers: ForceWare 93.71
ATI reference drivers: Catalyst 6.12
Hard-Drive: Maxtor MaxLine III 250GB
IDE Interface: Serial ATA-150
CD/DVD: AOpen 5232 Combo Drive
Power Supply: Enermax EG651P-VE-24P 550W EPS12V
DirectX 9.0c (October 2006)
Operating System: Windows XP Pro SP2

Video Cards: