I’ve felt for a long time that our video card test platform was a bit outdated. The launch of a new video card generation OS and API has given us the impetus to update the video card test platform. In terms of performance the Core i7 920 is one of the better buys on the market right now as it has four cores and HyperThreading meaning 8 logical cores. The update to Windows 7 and DirectX 11 is also important as both are launching on the PC space in the next few weeks.
BattleForge is the first DirectX 11 supporting game on the market. It has both a DirectX 10 and a DirectX 11 path meaning that as new ATI cards and NVIDIA’s DX11 parts are released we can test this game on the same platform. Tom Clancy’s HAWX is one of the first games to support DirectX 10.1 and relevant to ATI cards Batman Arkham Asylum is the latest game from Eidos supporting both DirectX 10 and PhysX. Resident Evil 5 is a DX9 game with some improvements for DirectX 10 and support for NVIDIA’s Stereo 3D. The last game on the new test bench is Crysis Warhead as I feel this game is still relevant for DirectX 10.
Test System
- Core i7 920 CPU running 2.66GHz standard
- Intel DX58SO motherboard running latest drivers and BIOS
- XFX RADEON HD 5850 running Catalyst 9.9 drivers
- 2 74GB WD Raptor SATA HDDs running in RAID 0 mode
- 3GB Kingston KHK1600 DDR3-1600MHz memory running at 1333MHz (Maximum memory supported by Core i7 920 CPU
- LG 16X DVD-RW drive
- Windows Vista with SP1
- Cooler Master Hyper N620 CPU Cooler
- Cooler Master Ultimate 1000W PSU
Tests
DirectX 9.0
- BattleForge DirectX 10.0/11 (only on ATI 58xx cards)
- HAWX DX 10.0/10.1 (on ATI cards)
- Batman Arkham Asylum DX 10
- Resident Evil 5 DX10
- 3DMark06
- 3DMark Vantage
