During our benchmarking sessions, we used the configuration listed below. Between our benchmarking sessions the only different device was the video card being tested.

Hardware Configuration

• Motherboard: ASUS P5B (Intel P965, 0904 BIOS)
• CPU: Core 2 Extreme X6800 (dual-core, 2.93 GHz)
• CPU Cooler: Gigabyte Neon 775-BL
• Memory: 2 GB PC-1066/PC2-8500 (Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5 kit), configured at 1,066 MHz with 5-5-5-15 timings.
• Hard Drive: Samsung HD080HJ (80 GB, SATA-300, 8 MB buffer, 7,200 rpm)
• Power Supply: Zalman ZM-600HP
• Video Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 1100MB
• Screen resolution: 1280x1024x32@85 Hz

Software Configuration

• Windows XP Professional installed using NTFS
• Service Pack 2
• Direct X 9.0c
• Intel inf driver version: 8.0.1.1002
• ATI video driver version: Catalyst 7.2
• NVIDIA video driver version: 93.71 (GeForce 6 and 7 Family)
• NVIDIA video driver version: 158.22 (GeForce 8 Family)

Used Software

• 3DMark03 Professional Edition 3.6.0
• 3DMark06 Professional Edition 1.10
• Battlefield 2142 1.01
• Far Cry 1.4 with HardwareOC Far Cry Benchmark 1.7
• F.E.A.R. 1.08
• Quake 4 1.3

We adopted a 3% error margin; thus, differences below 3% cannot be considered relevant. In other words, products with a performance difference below 3% should be considered as having similar performance.