3DMark Vantage is the latest addition to the 3DMark series, measuring Shader 4.0 (i.e., DirectX 10) performance and supporting PhysX, a programming interface developed by Ageia (now part of NVIDIA) to transfer physics calculations from the system CPU to the video card GPU in order to increase performance. Mechanical physics is the basis for calculations about the interaction of objects. For example, if you shoot, what exactly will happen to the object when the bullet hits it? Will it break? Will it move? Will the bullet bounce back?
We ran this program at three 16:10 widescreen resolutions, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, and 2560×1600. First we used the “Performance” profile, and then we used the “Extreme” profile (basically enabling anti-aliasing at 4x, anisotropic filtering at 16x, and putting all detail settings at their maximum or “extreme” value. The combination of 2560×1600 resolution with extreme settings didn’t produce reliable results according to the program, so we aren’t going to add them here. The results being compared are the “GPU Scores” achieved by each video card.
3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 – 1680×1050 – Performance
Score
Difference
GeForce GTX 280
7695
36.17%
GeForce 9800 GX2
6990
23.69%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2
5651
GeForce 9800 GTX
3805
48.52%
Radeon HD 3870
2977
89.82%
3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 – 1920×1200 – Performance
Score
Difference
GeForce GTX 280
6106
40.82%
GeForce 9800 GX2
5379
24.05%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2
4336
GeForce 9800 GTX
2891
49.98%
Radeon HD 3870
2269
91.10%
3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 – 2560×1600 – Performance
Score
Difference
GeForce GTX 280
3549
48.99%
GeForce 9800 GX2
2910
22.17%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2
2382
GeForce 9800 GTX
1557
52.99%
Radeon HD 3870
1244
91.48%
3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 -1680×1050 – Extreme
Score
Difference
GeForce GTX 280
6005
68.35%
GeForce 9800 GX2
4858
36.19%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2
3567
GeForce 9800 GTX
2703
31.96%
Radeon HD 3870
1855
92.29%
3DMark Vantage Professional 1.0.1 -1920×1200 – Extreme
The Themaltake Dasher and the Mionix Propus 380 step on the ring to see which one is the best USD 20 gaming-grade mousepad. See here the outcome of this bout.
AeroRacer Pro is a steel mid-tower case from AeroCool featuring a huge 400-mm fan on its left side, being the case with the biggest fan in the world. Having also four 5 ¼” bays and five 3 ½” bays, let’s take a look at this unusual case.