Testing (continued):

Performance Test v6.1:

Performance Test v6.1 from PassMark is the next test to consider. Much like PCMark, this is a whole suite of benchmarks that can be used to analyze the performance of your system. And just as I did on PCMark, I have focused on the gaming portion of the suite, refered to as the "3D Graphics Mark" test. Higher numbers are better for this unitless value.


This is another test that didn't scale the way I expected, but greater experience with the test will hopefully lead to a better understanding. As with PCMark Vantage, the HD3870 TOP beats the HD3850 TOP by a rather narrow margin, and the standard HD3850 is much farther behind.


Company of Heroes - Opposing Fronts:

"Company of Heroes - Opposing Fronts" was included with this video card, so it seems apropriate to test the performance using it. The game features a built in performance test and it was executed on all three cards. While the action on the screen during testing doesn't look anything like the actual game play, when it is finished it provides its assesment of the system's performance. The chart below shows the minimum, maximum, and average frame rate values achieved with the game set to run at 1280x1024, high settings, and DirectX 10 mode enabled.


Of interest here is that the maximum value seems to hit a ceiling at just over 60 fps. The two HD3850 cards provide an average fps value around 35, and both allow the minimum value to drop painfully into the single digits. The HD3870 TOP card puts up an average value that is about 15-20% higher than the HD3850 cards, and the minimum value is about 400-1200% higher! Quite an improvement.

Actual game play seemed to be better than the performance test indicated, and my own analysis of frame rates was much higher for each card. The same general trend was visible, just shifted up to much more enjoyable levels.