3DMark05 measures performance by simulating DirectX 9.0c games, i.e. using the new Shader 3.0 model. This programming model is used by Far Cry game and other games to be launched in the future. This new programming model is used by GeForce 6 and 7 series from nVidia and Radeon X1000 series from ATI.
We run this program in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialiasing and anisotropic filtering, and then configuring antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering also at 4x. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to notice that ATI chips can run at 6x antialiasing. Since nVidia chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialiasing to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our benchmark, allowing direct comparison between them.

At a resolution of 1024x768 without any image quality enhancement, nVidia GeForce 6800 GS was 8.90% faster than nVidia GeForce 6800 GT, 14.88% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 23.74% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 71.21% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 72.04% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 87.87% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 190.48% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 244.80% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 261.98% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
nVidia GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT and ATI Radeon X1600 XT.
nVidia GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 46.16% faster, ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 41.31% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 37.40% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 30.97% faster, nVidia GeForce 7800 GT, which was 28.37% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 16.01% faster.

At a resolution of 1280x1024 without any image quality enhancement, nVidia GeForce 6800 GS was 10.28% faster than nVidia GeForce 6800 GT, 18.71% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 29.39% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 83.31% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 96.57% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 111.04% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 228.04% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 297.12% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 316.33% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.
nVidia GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT and ATI Radeon X1600 XT.
nVidia GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 62.20% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 58.21% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 46.90% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 34.48% faster, nVidia GeForce 7800 GT, which was 33.27% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 14.77% faster.

At a resolution of 1600x1200 without any image quality enhancement, nVidia GeForce 6800 GS was 4.03% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 11.78% faster than nVidia GeForce 6800 GT, 20.97% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 42.18% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 93.12% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 97.88% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 173.34% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 266.00% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 324.45% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 387.99% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.
nVidia GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT.
nVidia GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 88.51% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 69.67% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 55.46% faster, nVidia GeForce 7800 GT, which was 38.52% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 38.49% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 13.78% faster.

At a resolution of 1024x768 enabling image quality enhancements, nVidia GeForce 6800 GS was 3.48% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 11.03% faster than nVidia GeForce 6800 GT, 12.39% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 16.61% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 84.05% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 100.00% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 219.19% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 295.76% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro, 339.36% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 354.93% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.
nVidia GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT.
nVidia GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 65.24% faster, ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 63.51% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 47.32% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 42.99% faster, nVidia GeForce 7800 GT, which was 35.32% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 21.01% faster.

To run at 1280x1024 enabling image quality enhancements on 3DMark05 the video card must have at least 256 MB of memory, because of that some video cards couldn’t run this test. Here nVidia GeForce 6800 GS was 10.68% faster than nVidia GeForce 6800 GT, 13.66% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 30.92% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 90.82% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 104.23% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 309.22% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 465.58% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.
nVidia GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT and ATI Radeon X1600 XT.
nVidia GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 99.97% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 83.81% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 57.82% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 49.57% faster, nVidia GeForce 7800 GT, which was 41.94% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 22.58% faster.

To run at 1600x1200 enabling image quality enhancements on 3DMark05 the video card must have at least 256 MB of memory, because of that some video cards couldn’t run this test. Here nVidia GeForce 6800 GS was 14.73% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 62.66% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 77.52% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 279.46% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 555.43% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.
nVidia GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to nVidia GeForce 6800 GT.
nVidia GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 179.78% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 136.60% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 88.14% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 86.49% faster, nVidia GeForce 7800 GT, which was 67.61% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 48.77% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 18.30% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 15.75% faster and its rival, the HIS Radeon X800 GTO, which was 5.82% faster.