GeForce 6800 GT preview

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Benchmarks - Aquamark 3

AquaMark 3The latest graphics cards on the market are all DirectX9 compatible these days, and we also see an increasing number of games utilizing the new DX9 features. To be ableam3-tease.jpg to see how well a graphics cards is performing in this new challenging DirectX 9 environment, AquaMark was developed.

The AquaMark3 benchmark delivers scores for specific hardware components as well as an overall score for the entire system. AquaMark3 is highly qualified to meet the needs of gamers because it's as close as possible to a typical game application. The AquaMark benchmarking series is based directly on the huge code and data base of the AquaNox games and the underlying krass game engine."

In the past we have used AquaMark 2.3 in our benchmark suite and although still a reputable application, Massive figured it was time for the next best thing. This is AquaMark 3, a benchmark that will utilize some of the finest DirectX 9 capabilities like Pixel and Vertex Shaders 2.0, and yet is by far not as Shader dependant as, for example, Half-Life 2 is. You will notice this in the overall results later in this article.

AquaMark 3, however, is not solely a DirectX9 benchmark; if you are working with a DirectX 8 or 7 compatible graphics card, you will still be able to use it just with a lot of graphical features missing. Make no mistake, AquaMark3 is a DirectX 9 benchmark. But since it's based on a real game engine it has fallbacks to DirectX 8 and even DirectX 7 that makes this software not a 100% DX9 benchmark.

Download: Aquamark 3 (63 MB)

AquaMark 3 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
FX 5600 24 21 17 13
9600 256 29 23 17 13
Creative R9600 29 23 17 13
9600 Pro 31 25 19 14
FX 5700 36 30 23 18
R9800XT 41 35 26 20
FX 5700 Ultra 41 35 27 21
5700U GDDR3 41 35 27 21
9700 Pro 46 41 33 26
9800 Pro 49 45 38 30
9800 Pro 50 44 38 30
5900 XT 50 47 43 36
9800XT 51 46 40 33
5950U 53 50 43 36
x800Pro 54 51 47 41
x800XT 54 53 50 47
6800GT 61 59 55 50
6800GT 401/1.060 63 61 58 54
6800U 63 61 58 53

Now that's a nice list of results I'd say. The GT was actually faster with the new 61.34 drivers then a Radeon x800 XT PE. And look at the differences between the GT and the Ultra. Now that is close.

4xAA 8xAF 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
FX 5600 16 13 9 7
9600 256 21 16 12 8
FX 5700 22 17 12 9
9600 Pro 24 18 13 9
FX 5700 Ultra 26 19 14 11
5700U GDDR3 26 20 14 11
R9600XT 32 25 19 12
5900 XT 33 26 19 15
FX 5900 Ultra 39 31 23 17
9700 Pro 39 32 24 19
FX 5950 Ultra 40 32 24 18
9800 Pro 43 36 27 21
9800XT 45 39 30 23
6800GT 54 48 39 31
6800GT Opt Off 53 46 37 29
x800Pro 50 46 40 34
6800U 57 51 42 34
x800XT 53 45 44 38

Aah, the Radeon x800 series show their true power. They are just so efficient with their image quality settings. It's just crazy how close the companies are.

Copyright 2003 - Guru3D.com

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