3DMark06 Advanced Performance

3DMark06 Advanced is the latest version of this popular 3DMark series of gaming benchmarks from Futuremark, and is the first to showcase new HDR/SM3.0 and SM2.0 graphics tests, as well as offering multi-core tailored CPU tests. The Feature tests have also been enhanced for the newest 3D support, and helps provide reliable measurements for game hardware of today and tomorrow. This is one very serious performance test, which punishes cards that do not fully support HDR/SM3.0 or SM2.0, and really puts video hardware to the next-generation test. In this review, we will be concentrating on the individual benchmark tests covering fill rate, vertex and pixel shading, SM2.0/SM3.0 results, and the individual Shader Particles and Perlin Noise SM3.0 tests.

3DMark06 Advanced Fill Rate Performance

The first part of our 3DMark06 Advanced testing utilizes the Feature Test portion of the benchmark (at the standard 1280x1024 resolution), and concentrates on the Fill Rate performance. This chart shows the cards ranked by Fill Rate performance, with the number displayed representing MTexels/second.

In describing the GeForce 8800 GTS G92 core, we stated that its fill rate theoretically exceeds that of even the GeForce 8800 Ultra, and 3DMark06 Advanced is here to hammer that point home. The single-texture fillrate score is average, and even finishes behind the Radeon HD 2900 XT, but its multi-texturing performance is just off the hook. Keep in mind that in real-world gaming, NVIDIA has tempered the G92's high fillrate with lower memory performance.

3DMark06 Advanced Vertex and Pixel Shader Performance

The 3DMark06 Advanced Pixel and Vertex Shader benchmark is an area that the advanced SM4.0 architecture of the PNY GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB can pay serious dividends. It certainly does on the Pixel Shader test, where the PNY GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB is way out in front, but both the Radeon HD 3850 and 2900 XT outpace it in the Vertex Shader benchmark.

3DMark06 Advanced SM2.0 & SM3.0/HDR Performance

The PNY GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB shows extremely high performance in the SM2.0 & SM3.0/HDR benchmarks, and scores the highest in both tests.

3DMark06 Advanced Shader Particles & Perlin Noise SM3.0 Performance

The last 3DMark section includes the Shader Particles and Perlin Noise benchmarks, which are both SM3.0 shader tests. Here, the PNY GeForce 8800 GTS finds itself in a very tight race with the Radeon HD 2900 XT, winning at the Perlin Noise benchmark while losing out in Shader Particles test.

* Please note that the ATI Radeon X1000 cards cannot complete the Shader particles testing and are given an "n/a" rating.