Test Setup and Methodology:

While playing with shiny new video cards is always fun, I must admit one thing that has taken the wind out of my sails is the dearth of games that can really push these new graphics cards.  It seems that the game that has best eye-candy is still Crysis:Warhead, released over a year ago.  I can only hope that Windows 7 and DirectX 11 is going to be the impetus needed to push us into the next generation of gaming.  I guess we will  have to keep waiting for those future PC gaming blockbusters like Battlefield 3 and Crysis 2 to really push these setups. 

As such, our benchmark suite has not changed much, and include the following:

• Crysis: Warhead

• X3: Terran Conflict

• Stalker: Clear Skies

• Unigine Tropics

• 3DMark06

• 3DMark Vantage

Our test bed, however, has made some changes to keep up with the times.  First up, Windows Vista has been replaced with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, and instead of our usual RAID-0 array of Raptor Xs, we have replaced those with a four way RAID-0 of 50GB SLC SSDs. 

I also decided to use the 2GB variant of the 4890 as a comparison tool, primarily because we saw that the 2GB had a definite performance impact on Crysis:Warhead at 2560x1600, and I wanted to see how that would translate against the new generation card.  The 4890 was tested at reference clocks of 850MHz on the core and 975MHz on memory.  Now, onto the testing! 

Intro Card Layout Test Setup and Methodology 3DMark Unigine S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky X3: Terran Conflict Crysis: Warhead Overclocking Conclusion