Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe: First ATI RD580

Graphics Performance and Encoding

The 3DMark benchmarks, published by FutureMark, are probably the most widely quoted gaming performance benchmarks available. While the benchmarks are based on game sequences written by FutureMark to reveal subtle differences in gaming performance, they still have to be considered synthetic benchmarks. They are useful for broad Graphics comparisons, but they are no substitute for benchmarks with real gaming engines that are currently being played.

3DMark06 was recently introduced and you can find more in-depth information about this new 3DMark at in the AnandTech article Futuremark's Latest Attempt: 3DMark06 Tested.

You would expect the most recent and most feature-rich cards to distance themselves from the competition in the most recent updates of 3DMark. That is exactly what happens. The latest, greatest X1900XT is only about 1500 points ahead in 3DMark03, but it grows to a 30% lead (10657 vs. 7698) in 3DMark05 and a similar 30% lead in the latest 3Dmark06. However, comparing apples to apples (the A8R32MVP running an MSI 7800GTX to NVIDIA boards running a 7800GTX), results were too close to call an advantage for the NVIDIA or ATI chipset boards.

Encoding results should not be affected by the graphics card used during the encoding benchmarks. This is demonstrated again by the archive test results for AutoGK using an AMD 4000+ processor with a wide assortment of video cards. The performance range of those encoding tests is just 48.1 to 48.9 - a difference form high to low of just 0.8 frames. Clearly, the biggest influence on this encoding benchmark is the CPU used for testing.