The i3DSpeed project is dedicated to informing you about performance of a large number of graphics cards under Vista.

Traditionally, we offer you performance charts of popular graphics cards and inform about best price/performance deals in the market.

September 2008, Issue #11(100)

1. Added test results for GeForce GTX 260 with 216 stream processors (indicated in brackets)

Testbed configuration

• Intel Core2 Extreme QX9650 (3000 MHz) CPU
• ZOTAC 790i Ultra motherboard (NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra)
• 2 GB DDR3 SDRAM Corsair 2000MHz
• WD Caviar SE WD1600JD 160GB SATA HDD
• Tagan TG900-BZ 900W PSU
• Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 32-bit, DirectX 10.1
• 30" Dell 3007WFP monitor
• NVIDIA ForceWare 177.92 beta
• ATI CATALYST 8.9

Benchmarks

• Call Of Juarez (Techland/Ubisoft) -- DirectX 9.0, Shaders 3.0 (HDR), maximum quality settings; demo, batch file included.
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 1.003 (GSC Game World/THQ) -- DirectX 9.0, maximum quality settings (dynamic lighting enabled); demo, copy files to the savegames folder, run the game, load level 'ixbt3', and type "demo_play ixbt3" in the console.
• 3DMark Vantage 1.00 (FutureMark) -- DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0, multitexturing, 'Extreme' settings.
• CRYSIS 1.2 (Crytek/EA), DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0, 'Very High' settings, levels 'Rescue' and 'Harbor'; batch file, e-mail us to obtain the timedemo. We express gratitude to CRYTEK for creating a timedemo for iXBT.com / Digit-Life.
• Company Of Heroes Opposing Fronts (Relic Entertainment/THQ) -- DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0, maximum quality settings; batch file, run the game, invoke graphics settings and click the test button.
• World In Conflict 1.007 (Massive Entertainment/Sierra) -- DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0, 'Very High' settings with adjusted AA and AF; run the game, invoke graphics settings and click the test button.
• Devil May Cry 4 (CAPCOM) -- DirectX 10.0, 'Super High' settings with adjusted AA and AF; Scene 1 and Scene 4.

• RightMark3D (iXBT.com) - DirectX, Synthetic benchmark, Shader 2.0/2.0b/3.0; available here.

Graphics cards

In the brackets: ROP/TMU clock rate, shader unit clock rate, effective memory clock rate.

1. ATI RADEON HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 1.0ns (750/750/2000 MHz)
2. ATI RADEON HD 3650 512MB GDDR3 1.0ns (800/800/1800 MHz)
3. ATI RADEON HD 3850 256MB GDDR3 1.0ns (670/670/1660 MHz)
4. ATI RADEON HD 3850 512MB GDDR3 1.0ns (720/720/1800 MHz)
5. ATI RADEON HD 3870 512MB GDDR4 0.8ns (775/775/2250 MHz)
6. ATI RADEON HD 3870 512MB GDDR4 0.8ns (850/850/2380 MHz)
7. ATI RADEON HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 1.0ns (625/625/2000 MHz)
8. ATI RADEON HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 40x (750/750/3600 MHz)
9. ATI RADEON HD 4870 X2 2x1024MB GDDR5 40x (750/750/3600 MHz)
10. NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 1.0ns (550/1400/1800 MHz)
11. NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB GDDR3 1.0ns (720/1440/2200 MHz)
12. NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT 512MB GDDR3 1.0ns (650/1625/1800 MHz)
13. NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB GDDR3 1.0ns (575/1440/1700 MHz)
14. NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 1.0ns (600/1512/1800 MHz)
15. NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 512MB GDDR3 1.0ns (600/1512/1800 MHz)
16. NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB GDDR3 0.8ns (675/1688/2200 MHz)
17. NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB GDDR3 0.8ns (736/1838/2200 MHz)
18. NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 2x512MB GDDR3 0.8ns (600/1512/2000 MHz)
19. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (192sp) 896MB GDDR3 0.8ns (575/1240/2000 MHz)
20. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (216sp) 896MB GDDR3 0.8ns (575/1240/2000 MHz)
21. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (216sp) 896MB GDDR3 0.8ns (650/1400/2100 MHz)
22. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 1024MB GDDR3 0.8ns (600/1300/2200 MHz)
23. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 SLI 2x1024MB GDDR3 0.8ns (2x600/1300/2200 MHz)

Archived graphics cards