HD 4670 Review: Mainstream muscle card? - PAGE 3

Hardware

We used the following hardware for our benchmarking:

• CPU: Intel QX9650 at 3.0 GHZ (333x9)
• Motherboard:  Asus P5Q Deluxe
• Memory: 2 gigabytes of Mushkin XP2-9200 DDR2 RAM (2 * 1048MB @ 1066 MHz[5-5-5-18]) 
• Power Supply: Enermax Galaxy DXX 1000W
• Hard Drive: 250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA, w/16 MB cache
• CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U 12
• OS: Vista-32,SP1

Unfortunately, we far more often review higher-end and enthusiast class video cards, so we did not have as many mid-range models as we'd ideally like to benchmark against the HD 4670. To make matters worse, our trusty HD 3850 PowerColor card came to a strange and untimely death in the process of benchmarking -- a card that will be surely and sorely missed, and would have fit into these benchmarks well.

Nonetheless, we did however assemble a group of cards close to the price point going for the HD 4670, as well as the NVIDIA's primary competition for this card, their 9600 GSO. The cards benched also include the MSI RX2600XT (a HD 2600 XT), a XFX 8600 GTS, a VisionTek HD 4850, and a BFG 8800 GT OC. Besides the HD 4850, all of these cards fall within the $60 to $130 range.

Software

For the drivers, all the ATI cards used Catalyst 8.8 except the HD 4670 which used a 8.9 beta driver, and the NVIDIA cards all used Forceware 177.92's.

Bioshock: For this benchmark, all of the Detail settings were set to 'High'. All of the graphic option switches were set to 'On', with the exception of the following three settings: Vsync, Windowed mode, and Force Global Lighting. We used FRAPS to measure frame rate performance. The FRAPS run was 138 seconds, triggered from pulling the switch in the sub at game's beginning. The sub's dive involves many big models moving around, which should strain the GPU's and be a good measure of the game's engine.

Crysis: These benchmarks were performed using 'fly-by' GPU test found within the single-player pre-release demo version of the game. All graphic settings were on High.' For AA, we used a setting of 4x. DX10 mode was used. The game has also been fully patched.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: We use this id FPS benchmark to test out higher resolutions. We used the highest possible detail settings. We tested the resolutions at 4x AA as well as at 8x AA. 16x AF was also used.  

3DMark06 and 3DMark Vantage: These popular synthetic benchmarking programs were used at a resolution of 1280x1024. Vantage was run in 'Performance' mode, and only the two GPU tests were used.

World In Conflict: We used the built-in benchmark of the demo version of this game. We ran the benchmark in DX9 rendering mode, with a 'High' level of quality. For the AA testing, we used a setting of 4x, and a setting of 16x for AF.

Echoes demo: A runner-up winner in the NVISION NVScene demo contest the other week by the Polish collective anadune, this demo has some pretty huge objects in it and makes for a good benchmark (using FRAPS.) We ran it at 1280x1024, with 16xAF, and no AA. If you have no idea what a demoscene demo is, you might want to go here for an explication, and if you have a few minutes to kill we recommend you go check it out for yourself. The website scene.org is an excellent resources for collecting such things as demos.

If you would like any further information about our benchmark settings, feel free to ask us in the forums. (If I don't respond, send me a PM to grab my attention.)