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Test Setup

Since the Conroe turned out to be such a powerhouse, and being that this is a refresh product, we decided to do a little refreshing of our own by updating our test platform :).  In previous reviews we've been using heavily overclocked 3700+ CPUs.  Now we're Core 2 Duo E6700's clocked to 3.0Ghz to really let the X1950XTX stretch its legs and minimize the CPU bottleneck.  Here's the exact hardware bench setup used to test the Radeon X1950 XTX:

• Intel Core 2 E6700 processor (Socket LGA757, 2.66 GHz, two cores) @ 3.0 GHz (333 MHz * 9)
• 2 * 1024 MB Corsair PC2-8500 memory @ DDR2-1000 5-5-5-15/2T

The X1950 XTX will be duking it out with some very tough competitors:

• ATI Radeon X1900 XT
• BFG GeForce 7900 GTX OC
• BFG GeForce 7950 GX2

This lineup covers the spectrum of current top of the line video cards, so the results should be interesting.

The list of applications tested is as follows:

• 3DMark 2006
• Call of Duty 2
• Far Cry
• F.E.A.R.
• Half-Life 2 (Video Stress Test)
• DOOM 3
• Quake IV
• Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
• Serious Sam 2

Video drivers used were ATI CATALYST 6.8 and NVIDIA ForceWare 91.31.

3DMark 06

3DMark 2006 outlines the raw strengths of both the NVIDIA and ATI architectures. There are no real conclusions that can be drawn as to which card is better than the other, but it's clear that the X1950 XTX has a slight edge over the X1900 XT.