3DMark 2003 Build 340

3D Mark is a widely used and accepted benchmark that stress tests the DirectX performance of a VGA card. For testing the performance of each card we use the 4 benchmark games include in 3DMark. The first is a DirectX 7 game, the second and the third use DirectX 8, and the last one tests graphics under DirectX 9.

3Dmark03 also includes sound and CPU tests, as well as some other feature tests. On this page we offer the average FPS (frames per second) for the benchmark games, comparing Gainward's CoolFX 6800 Ultra against the Aopen Aeolus 5900 XT, Exair R9800XT and Sapphire R9800 Pro Ultimate.

- Game Test 1 - Wings of Fury (DX7)

This test is a combat flight simulator written for older hardware (DirectX 7). Particles are used a lot in this test - smoke and vapor trails, flak and gunfire, and explosions are produced using point sprites and quads.

There are plenty of planes but their polygon frame rate is low, as well as single textured background objects. Hence, the average FPS is high for all cards.

A higher FPS was expected for the 6800 Ultra, but considering that the latest games use DX9, this is not a big issue.

- Game Test 2 - Battle of Proxycon (DX8)

This test is a simulation of first person shooter game types. 1.1 and 1.4 Vertex shaders are widely used since all character models are skinned using vertex shaders.

This makes this test a good vertex shader comparison for VGA cards.

Pretty amazing results from the 6800. It is also worth noting that most cards fail to perform smoothly in this test, but Gainward's 6800 Ultra performed with awesome power. This also shows its great capabilities when processing shaders.

- Game Test 3 - Trolls' Lair (DX8)

This test should be the favorite of all RPG lovers. It is a cut scene of a female warrior facing two malicious trolls. Again, the same vertex and pixel processing is used as in game test 2.

This test also uses post-processing effects, such as Depth of Field and Bloom effects which are widely used in today's game cut scene sequences.

Same story here with a difference of 47 FPS from the next best, the Radeon 9800 XT.

- Game Test 4 - Mother Nature (DX9)

This game test represents the level of effects and realism that are possible using 2.0 vertex and pixel shaders, plus some other features that DirectX 9 offers.

Here again the 6800 is way on top.

- 3DMark Official score

If you test your machine with 3DMark you can post the results at 3DMark' online results page. For more information visit futuremark.com.

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