It has been clear to me since I rejoined Motherboards.org staff that the old way of testing video cards used in the last few months has been disappointing to say the least. After all, who would in their right mind play 1280x1024 with no AA and no AF in a game like COD4? The release of newer and faster video cards just meant that the performance was looking alike from one card to the next as the applications with the exception of Crysis were getting severely CPU limited.

To that end, testing has evolved on the video card platform. I've replaced the CPU with the new QX9770 3.2GHz Core 2 Quad CPU from Intel, the memory with DDR3 EPP 2.0 2000MHz from Crucial, the motherboard with the latest NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI chipset and the monitor with a 24” 1920x1200 capable LCD monitor.

There's been few if any new PC games on the market that are interesting to add to the tests we use, so I've decided to keep the tests but add a twist. All testing is now done 1280x1024 and 1920x1200 resolutions with 4x AA and 16x AF enabled, as all major graphics manufacturers' support both in every video card chip they sell. 3DMark 05/06 are retained for entertainment purposes but do not make the cut for AA and AF.

Test System

• Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 4 cores running 3.2GHz
• XFX nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard using 6.94 NVIDIA drivers
• EVGA e-GeForce 9800GTX 512MB using 174.74 Forceware drivers
• 2GB Crucial Ballistix DDR3-2000 EPP 2.0 memory running 1600MHz due to inability of memory to maintain stable 2000MHz EPP speed.
• 24” Optiquest monitor maximum resolution 1920x1200

Tests

• 3DMark05/06 1280x1024, 1920x1200 standard runs no AA no AF
• Enemy Territory QuakeWars latest patch 1280x1024, 1920x1200 4x AA 16x AF
• Crysis 1.2 patch 1280x1024, 1680X1050 4x AA 16x AF
• Bioshock latest patch 1280x1024 1920x1200 4x AA 16x AF
• Unreal Tournament patch 1.2 1280x1024 1920x1200 4x AA 16x AF custom FRAPS walkthrough
• Lost Planet DX10 1280x1024, 1920x1200 4x AA 16x AF, Performance test
• STALKER 1280x1024, 1920x1200 4x AA 16x AF, custom FRAPS walkthrough
• Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare 1280x1024 1920x1200, 4x AA 16x AF custom FRAPS walkthrough