3DMark Vantage is the latest addition to the 3DMark series, measuring Shader 4.0 (i.e., DirectX 10) performance and supporting PhysX, a programming interface developed by Ageia (now part of NVIDIA) to transfer physics calculations from the system CPU to the video card GPU in order to increase performance. Mechanical physics is the basis for calculations about the interaction of objects. For example, if you shoot, what exactly will happen to the object when the bullet hits it? Will it break? Will it move? Will the bullet bounce back? Notice that we didn’t upgrade the PhysX to the latest version, which would make the physics calculations for CPU Test 2 to be made by the GPU instead of the CPU on NVIDIA video cards (since we aren't considering CPU or 3DMark scores this change wouldn't produce any increase in our results anyway).

We ran this program at three 16:10 widescreen resolutions, 1680x1050, 1920x1200, and 2560x1600. First we used the “Performance” profile, and then we used the “Extreme” profile (basically enabling anti-aliasing at 4x, anisotropic filtering at 16x, and putting all detail settings at their maximum or “extreme” value. The combination of 2560x1600 resolution with extreme settings didn’t produce reliable results according to the program, so we aren’t going to add them here. The results being compared are the “GPU Scores” achieved by each video card.

3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 - 1680x1050 - Performance	Score	Difference
GeForce GTX 280	7695	13.03%
GeForce 9800 GX2	6990	2.67%
XFX GeForce GTX 260 640M XXX (OC)	6808
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	6193	9.93%
GeForce GTX 260	5898	15.43%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	5651	20.47%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	4797	41.92%
GeForce 9800 GTX	3805	78.92%
Radeon HD 3870	2977	128.69%

3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 - 1920x1200 - Performance	Score	Difference
GeForce GTX 280	6106	14.88%
GeForce 9800 GX2	5379	1.20%
XFX GeForce GTX 260 640M XXX (OC)	5315
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	4880	8.91%
GeForce GTX 260	4582	16.00%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	4336	22.58%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	3725	42.68%
GeForce 9800 GTX	2891	83.85%
Radeon HD 3870	2269	134.24%

3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 - 2560x1600 - Performance	Score	Difference
GeForce GTX 280	3549	15.68%
XFX GeForce GTX 260 640M XXX (OC)	3068
GeForce 9800 GX2	2910	5.43%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	2728	12.46%
GeForce GTX 260	2640	16.21%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	2382	28.80%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	2050	49.66%
GeForce 9800 GTX	1557	97.05%
Radeon HD 3870	1244	146.62%

3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 - 1680x1050 - Extreme	Score	Difference
GeForce GTX 280	6005	12.90%
XFX GeForce GTX 260 640M XXX (OC)	5319
GeForce 9800 GX2	4858	9.49%
GeForce GTX 260	4531	17.39%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	4360	22.00%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	3567	49.12%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	3445	54.40%
GeForce 9800 GTX	2703	96.78%
Radeon HD 3870	1855	186.74%

3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 - 1920x1200 - Extreme	Score	Difference
GeForce GTX 280	4732	12.99%
XFX GeForce GTX 260 640M XXX (OC)	4188
GeForce GTX 260	3576	17.11%
GeForce 9800 GX2	3508	19.38%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	3490	20.00%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	2753	52.12%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	2669	56.91%
GeForce 9800 GTX	2038	105.50%
Radeon HD 3870	1439	191.04%