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	108.48%
GeForce 9800 GX2	6990	89.38%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	6193	67.79%
GeForce GTX 260	5898	59.79%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	5651	53.10%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	4797	29.96%
GeForce 8800 GT	3831	3.79%
GeForce 9800 GTX	3805	3.09%
GeForce 9800 GT	3691
Radeon HD 3870	2977	23.98%
GeForce 8800 GTS	2950	25.12%

3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 - 1920x1200 - Performance	Score	Difference
GeForce GTX 280	6106	106.91%
GeForce 9800 GX2	5379	82.28%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	4880	65.37%
GeForce GTX 260	4582	55.27%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	4336	46.93%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	3725	26.23%
GeForce 8800 GT	2978	0.91%
GeForce 9800 GT	2951
GeForce 9800 GTX	2891	2.08%
GeForce 8800 GTS	2280	29.43%
Radeon HD 3870	2269	30.06%

3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 - 2560x1600 - Performance	Score	Difference
GeForce GTX 280	3549	116.67%
GeForce 9800 GX2	2910	77.66%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	2728	66.54%
GeForce GTX 260	2640	61.17%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	2382	45.42%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	2050	25.15%
GeForce 9800 GT	1638
GeForce 8800 GT	1634	0.24%
GeForce 9800 GTX	1557	5.20%
Radeon HD 3870	1244	31.67%

3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 - 1680x1050 - Extreme	Score	Difference
GeForce GTX 280	6005	119.08%
GeForce 9800 GX2	4858	77.23%
GeForce GTX 260	4531	65.30%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	4360	59.07%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	3567	30.13%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	3445	25.68%
GeForce 9800 GT	2741
GeForce 8800 GT	2733	0.29%
GeForce 9800 GTX	2703	1.41%
Radeon HD 3870	1855	47.76%
GeForce 8800 GTS	997	174.92%

3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 - 1920x1200 - Extreme	Score	Difference
GeForce GTX 280	4732	121.54%
GeForce GTX 260	3576	67.42%
GeForce 9800 GX2	3508	64.23%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	3490	63.39%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	2753	28.89%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	2669	24.95%
GeForce 9800 GT	2136
GeForce 8800 GT	2094	2.01%
GeForce 9800 GTX	2038	4.81%
Radeon HD 3870	1439	48.44%