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
Radeon HD 4870 X2	11697	177.18%
GeForce 9800 GTX+ SLI	8725	106.75%
GeForce GTX 280	7695	82.35%
GeForce 9800 GX2	6990	65.64%
Radeon HD 4870	6193	46.75%
GeForce GTX 260	5898	39.76%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	5651	33.91%
Radeon HD 4850	4797	13.67%
GeForce 9800 GTX+	4499	6.61%
Radeon HD 4830	4220
GeForce 9800 GTX	3805	10.91%
GeForce 9800 GT	3691	14.33%
Radeon HD 3870	2977	41.75%

3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 - 1920x1200 - Performance	Score	Difference
Radeon HD 4870 X2	9472	186.94%
GeForce 9800 GTX+ SLI	6545	98.27%
GeForce GTX 280	6106	84.97%
GeForce 9800 GX2	5379	62.95%
Radeon HD 4870	4880	47.83%
GeForce GTX 260	4582	38.81%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	4336	31.35%
Radeon HD 4850	3725	12.84%
GeForce 9800 GTX+	3370	2.09%
Radeon HD 4830	3301
GeForce 9800 GT	2951	11.86%
GeForce 9800 GTX	2891	14.18%
Radeon HD 3870	2269	45.48%

3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 - 2560x1600 - Performance	Score	Difference
Radeon HD 4870 X2	5542	201.69%
GeForce GTX 280	3549	93.20%
GeForce 9800 GTX+ SLI	3482	89.55%
GeForce 9800 GX2	2910	58.41%
Radeon HD 4870	2728	48.50%
GeForce GTX 260	2640	43.71%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	2382	29.67%
Radeon HD 4850	2050	11.59%
Radeon HD 4830	1837
GeForce 9800 GTX+	1815	1.21%
GeForce 9800 GT	1638	12.15%
GeForce 9800 GTX	1557	17.98%
Radeon HD 3870	1244	47.67%

3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 - 1680x1050 - Extreme	Score	Difference
Radeon HD 4870 X2	8405	181.86%
GeForce 9800 GTX+ SLI	6195	107.75%
GeForce GTX 280	6005	101.37%
GeForce 9800 GX2	4858	62.91%
GeForce GTX 260	4531	51.95%
Radeon HD 4870	4360	46.21%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	3567	19.62%
Radeon HD 4850	3445	15.53%
GeForce 9800 GTX+	3201	7.34%
Radeon HD 4830	2982
GeForce 9800 GT	2741	8.79%
GeForce 9800 GTX	2703	10.32%
Radeon HD 3870	1855	60.75%

3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 - 1920x1200 - Extreme	Score	Difference
Radeon HD 4870 X2	6916	194.42%
GeForce GTX 280	4732	101.45%
GeForce 9800 GTX+ SLI	4415	87.95%
GeForce GTX 260	3576	52.23%
GeForce 9800 GX2	3508	49.34%
Radeon HD 4870	3490	48.57%
Radeon HD 4850	2753	17.20%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	2669	13.62%
GeForce 9800 GTX+	2399	2.13%
Radeon HD 4830	2349
GeForce 9800 GT	2136	9.97%
GeForce 9800 GTX	2038	15.26%
Radeon HD 3870	1439	63.24%