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Testing The GeForce 9600 GT
Testbed
Processor |
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 |
|
Motherboard |
ASUS P5B-E Plus |
|
Memory |
Two G.Skill 1GB PC2-6400 DDR2 memory modules |
|
Graphics Card |
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB |
|
Hard Drives |
120GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA hard drive |
|
Operating System |
||
Power Supply |
Mushkin 580W PSU |
The Graphics Cards
Graphics Card |
Core Clock |
Memory Clock |
Memory Bus Width |
Driver |
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB |
650 MHz |
972 MHz |
256-bits |
NVIDIA ForceWare 169.28 |
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT |
600 MHz |
900 MHz |
256-bits |
NVIDIA ForceWare 169.28 |
NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT |
650 MHz |
900 MHz |
256-bits |
NVIDIA ForceWare 169.28 |
ATI Radeon HD 3870 |
775 MHz |
1125 MHz |
256-bits |
ATI Catalyst 8.2 |
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS |
675 MHz |
1000 MHz |
128-bits |
NVIDIA ForceWare 169.21 |
Testing Methodology
We tested exclusively in Windows Vista, with the latest updates. We chose these four games for benchmarking :
- Company Of Heroes : Opposing Fronts
- F.E.A.R.
- BioShock
- Supreme Commander
- Crysis
Company of Heroes : Opposing Fronts supports both DirectX 9.0c and DirectX 10 render paths. It does not have a true in-game test, but uses a graphics-intensive cutscene for the benchmark. This cutscene was generated and rendered exactly like the actual game, so it should accurately reflect actual rendering performance in the game.
F.E.A.R. is an older DirectX 9 FPS (first-person shooter) game. Although a little dated, it is still a good way to evaluate the performance of graphics cards in DirectX 9.
BioShock is a newer first-person shooter game that supports both DirectX 9 and DirectX 10. It is a very graphics-intensive game and will serve well to really stress the graphics card.
Supreme Commander is a relatively new DirectX 9 real-time strategy game. It is a very CPU-intensive game and will serve well as an example of a CPU-limited game.
Crysis is the latest game in our arsenal. It is currently the most strenous test of a graphics card's capability.
All games were tested at 1920 x 1200 at 16x AF and no AA, unless stated otherwise. A minimum of 5 test runs were performed at each setting. The three closest results were taken and averaged to obtain the final frame rate. If the test results varied too much, the entire test was repeated.
Game Settings
Game |
Version |
Resolutions |
Settings |
Company
of Heroes : |
2.201.0 |
1920
x 1200 |
Shader Quality : High |
F.E.A.R. |
1.08 |
1920
x 1200 |
Physics : Maximum Effects Details : Maximum Light Details : Maximum |
BioShock |
1.1 |
1920
x 1200 |
Windowed Mode : Off |
Crysis |
1.1 |
1920
x 1200 |
Texture Quality : High |
