| USPECviewPerf 7.1 Benchmark
Results |
| 3Dsmax-02 Test |
Score |
Ranking |
| NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra |
13.57 |
   |
| NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra |
13.97 |
|
| ATI Radeon 9800 Pro |
12.8 |
   |
| Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 XT |
13.25 |
   |
| DRV-02 Test |
Score |
Ranking |
| NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra |
41.07 |
|
| NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra |
41.14 |
|
| ATI Radeon 9800 Pro |
36.49 |
|
| Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 XT |
36.52 |
|
| DX-08 Test |
Score |
Ranking |
| NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra |
49 |
|
| NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra |
49.51 |
|
| ATI Radeon 9800 Pro |
70.54 |
|
| Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 XT |
71.54 |
|
| Light-06 Test |
Score |
Ranking |
| NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra |
13.89 |
|
| NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra |
13.92 |
|
| ATI Radeon 9800 Pro |
13.92 |
|
| Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 XT |
13.89 |
|
| ProE-02 Test |
Score |
Ranking |
| NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra |
14.18 |
|
| NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra |
14.45 |
|
| ATI Radeon 9800 Pro |
13.61 |
|
| Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 XT |
13.5 |
|
| UGS-03 Test |
Score |
Ranking |
| NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra |
8.87 |
|
| NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra |
9.19 |
|
| ATI Radeon 9800 Pro |
23.21 |
|
| Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 XT |
23.37 |
|
Our final metric is a measure of professional graphics performance. Both ATI
and NVIDIA sell cards optimized for this sort of test, but those cost
significantly more than the gaming cards featured here, and might be a viable
alternative to professionals on a budget.
In four of the tests, NVIDIA hardware dominates.
Meanwhile, the Sapphire RADEON 9800 XT claims decisive victories in two of the
others. Of those that the GeForce FX 5950 does win, one is by five percent, one
by 13 percent, one by less than a percent, and the last by seven percent. ATI's
two victories span 44 and 154 percent. The results may seem to point
definitively towards NVIDIA, but the percentages suggest a more comparable
match-up.
Conclusions
It'd be hard to argue against the observation that ATI
and NVIDIA have been riding on year-old architectures for the past year.
However, as ATI's president and COO Dave Orton recently pointed out to me, there
really isn't much point in designing a new architecture for as long as DirectX 9
is the dominant API. Doing so would simply require developers to familiarize
themselves with new hardware rather than focusing on writing their games. Once
DirectX 10 comes out in conjunction with Microsoft's next-generation operating
system, we will see the graphics landscape evolve once again.
Until then, there is
a healthy selection of graphics cards currently available. The Sapphire Radeon 9800XT weighs in at $450USD ($600CDN),
and the only real reason to consider such a pricey piece of hardware is to play
games... at high resolutions with all of the visual details maximized. Of
those cards currently available, Sapphire's RADEON 9800 XT does an excellent job.
What, then, makes Sapphire's offering any different?
There's not much, frankly. The hardware itself is essentially ATI's reference
RADEON 9800 XT board with a different sticker.
However, do keep in mind that it
comes with a complete copy of Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness and a coupon for Half-Life
2. That's nearly $100 of value right there, so long as you were actually planning
to buy both games. And don't let the fact that Sapphire's card
is a reference board detract from its gaming performance and image quality.
SPECviewperf 7.1
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