Testing Everything Out
Now we get down to the fun part; testing out the Foxconn 9800GTX-512N Extreme to see what it can do. But before we get to that we need to test the acoustics on this card, or at least we would normally. Foxconn’s card didn’t add any sound to the existing system, so our numbers were a big fat zero. Even under heavy gaming the card was still whisper quiet, maybe adding a single decibel to the sound profile of our test rig. With that in mind here’s the specs on the test rig we’re using.
- AMD Phenom 9600 Black Edition 2.3GHz Quad Core CPU
- Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi-AP 790FX Motherboard
- OCZ Platinum XTC REV.2 PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 Memory Kit
- Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200.10 16MB SATA2 Hard Drive
- Cooler Master Hyper 212 CPU Cooler
- Antec P182 Advanced Super Mid Tower Case
- Thermaltake Toughpower 1000W Power Supply
- Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate RTM
Now on with the show!
3DMark2006
First in our round of tests is the good old synthetic test suite known as 3DMark06. To test with this suite, we ran the standard collection of tests at default resolution settings. The only thing we changed was the resolution, which we chose from two of the three common widescreen resolutions seen on most modern LCD panels. This style of testing was repeated throughout all our benchmarks.
The Foxconn 9800GTX-512N Extreme provided a minor performance boost over our 8800 GTX comparison card when the tests were complete. At 1440×900 we saw a 5% performance increase, and at 1680×1050 a 7% performance increase. With that in mind, I decided to experiment to see if there was any benefit to this performance increase over and above raw FPS. I added 4x Antialiasing and 8x Anisotropic filtering to the mix, and found the numbers come in line with the 8800 GTX. So if you are sitting on an 8800 GTX based rig now, you could in theory gain some image quality from the 9800 GTX without hurting your current experience.
Supreme Commander
We didn’t dally around in the realm of fully synthetic benchmarks for two long in this review. A video card like the Foxconn 9800GTX-512N Extreme is meant for gaming, and that’s what really needs testing. For the first game our list, we turn to Supreme Commander and its built in testing mode. This test spits out a composite score at the end, which is a representation of how your entire system performed.
The testing is swayed by video cards to a fair degree. Or at least it used to be. There was little performance difference between our two chosen resolutions on the same video card, and only a marginal 5% to 8% gain in performance switching from the 8800 GTX to the 9800 GTX. This was with everything ramped to maximum settings, 4x antialiasing, and 8x anisotropic filtering.
Something new we’re doing with our gaming based benchmarks is outlining how playable a game is given the benchmark results, or in utter defiance of them. With Supreme Commander I would be lying if I said this game was anything but completely playable. The graphics were smooth and wonderful looking, and the game play didn’t lag out at anytime.
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