Nvidia admits defeat in G92 vs. RV670 battle
5 Oct 2007 | 09:39 BST
3DMark wars
IN THE FAR EAST, 3DMark is everything. You can say whatever you want about canned benchmarks, but nobody can dodge the influence of the 3DMark06 benchmark.
It's been the same story with previous iterations of graphics cards, and the same will happen with the next, DX10-only workout. When that is coming out, only Futuremark knows.
But something very significant happened in this round of the war, at least according to our highly-ranked sources.
This time around, Nvidia did not tout its G92_200 series as the fastest thing since Niki Lauda, but rather admitted defeat in this all-popular synthetic benchmark at the hands of a yet-unnamed Radeon HD part.
A reference board from Nvidia is capable of scoring 10,800 3DMarks, while a reference board from ATI will score around 11,400 3DMarks, or a clear 550-600 points advantage.
This is a massive leap over previous-gen parts. The current generation's high-end performer from Nvidia, the 8800Ultra scores 12,500 points. Seeing a mainstream, $250 part scoring barely a thousand less than a current $599 card only makes us wonder how those owners that coughed up so much will feel.
When it comes to ATI's part, you know what to expect in this synthetic benchmark - outscoring Radeon HD 2900XT is a default mode of operation for RV670XT. At least in lower resolutions.
Partners are less than happy with Nvidia board politics as well, but this is a subject of another story. µ
© 2007 Incisive Media Investments Ltd. 2007