Test System

Asus P4C800 Deluxe Mainboard
Intel Pentium 4 2.4C @ 260 FSB
2x OCZ PC4000 Gold 512MB EL DDR CL3-4-4-8
40GB Maxtor HDD
Windows XP SP1

XFX 5700 Ultra Dual DVI - 53.03 Drivers
Radeon 9600 XT (Sapphire) - Catalyst 3.9

Test software:

Splinter Cell
Call of Duty
Max Payne 2
Code Creatures

Test One: Code Creatures, Multiple Resolutions Tested

Code Creatures is a Direct X 8 benchmark that has been around for quite some time now. It is a synthetic benchmark, so numbers are not necessarily indicative of real-world performance. The main reason for running this benchmark is to give us an idea of how the newer Direct X 9 5700 Ultra will perform in Direct X 8 games.

We can see a pattern that holds throughout the benchmark. The 5700 Ultra overpowers the ATI-based card in this Direct X 8 benchmark, which isn't all that surprising. Remember, NVidia cards tend to lack in DX9 support, but they have never had an issue showing their muscle in DX8 games. This is a benchmark that might not hold much merit among enthusiasts or manufacturers themselves, as it isn't extremely popular and purely synthetic.

Test Two: Max Payne 2, Multiple Resolutions Tested

Max Payne 2 shouldn't need much introduction. The sequel to the breakout game Max Payne, Max Payne 2 combines beautiful scenes with excellent cinema values to make one hell of a game as well as one hell of a benchmark. Max Payne 2 also tests Direct X 9 functionality, where the NVidia cards are said to be having issues, so this will be an interesting battle to say the least.

Max Payne 2, No AA/AF

Max Payne 2, 4xAA/8xAF

With all things considered, the 9600 XT is fairly faster than the 5700 Ultra in this particular benchmark. While both cards put up playable frames per second rates, the 5700 Ultra and 9600 XT struggled fairly badly in the 1280x1024 testing, although turning off anti-aliasing brought both cards to a somewhat playable frame rate. This is a DirectX 9 benchmark and we see that NVidia simply can't keep up with ATi, but I will say again, the NVidia card played through this benchmark very well and the performance was nothing to sneeze at.

Test Three: Splinter Cell

When running the tests for both cards I ran into issues when enabling anti-aliasing. I do not know if these problems are system independent, but I will look into this further.

(Ed. Note: This is a known issue with several DX games.)

With both cards able to play the game at reasonable resolutions with no slowdown the 9600 XT comes out slightly ahead. This is the pattern we have experienced throughout testing. While the 9600 XT is coming out slightly ahead, the 5700 Ultra is just a step behind.

Test Four: Call of Duty @ 1024x768

This is an incredible WWII shooter with an emphasis on fast and furious action. It is based on the Quake 3 engine, so I am sure the NVidia card will be able to pull ahead of the 9600 XT. It's no secret, Quake 3-engine based games play better on NVidia cards.

As predicted, the 5700 Ultra enjoys a minor victory over the 9600 XT under low and high quality settings.

With the performance numbers in the books and both cards enjoying two victories a piece, let's get to overclocking and present a few performance numbers.