MSI GeForce FX 5950 Ultra
Benchmarking Results: Synthetic benchmarks
Following the tradition, we start with the radically amended benchmarking package.
The results are predictable: no difference between the ASUS V9950 video card overclocked to the frequencies of MSI FX 5950 Ultra, nor between the MSI FX 5950 Ultra VTD256 itself. There is also no difference between the new WHQL revisions of ForceWare 53.03 and ForceWare 52.16.
D3D RightMark
Geometry Processing Speed
This test allows to assess the speed at which the geometry is processed by the accelerator. We used the most advanced mode with three diffuse-specular light sources in combination with three different operating modes: the traditional TCL (Fixed-Function Pipeline), vertex shaders 1.1 and pixel shaders 1.1, vertex shaders 2.0 and pixel shaders 2.0.
As was expected, there is an absolute similarity of results between MSI FX5950 Ultra VTD256 on ForceWare 53.03 as well as on ForceWare 52.16, and the overclocked NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 video card.
Pixel Filling
This test performs a number of various tasks, but we were mostly interested in the possibility of measuring the performance of frame buffer filling.
We see an evident lag of NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 o/c 475 MHz / 950 MHz from its more eminent rival MSI FX5950 Ultra VTD256, although the absolute values for all the modes differ by minimum values.
Pixel Shading
This test in the D3D RightMark benchmarking package allows to estimate the performance of executing various pixel shaders of the second version. In this test, the geometry has been substantially simplified to minimize the dependence of results of the test on the geometric performance of the chip and verify the operation of pixel pipelines only.
Again we see an absolute equality of results.
Point Sprites
This test is aimed at revealing the accelerator speed at displaying point sprites. In the test settings, we used 2 diffuse light sources.
The result is similar to that for the previous test.
Hidden Surface Removal
This test allows to estimate the efficiency of removal of hidden points and primitives by the accelerator.
Again, a complete parity.
3DMark 2003 v330 и v340
So, the synthetic tests showed that the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra chip brings nothing fundamentally new, but is merely an "overclock" of NVIDIA's previous-generation flagship - GeForce FX 5900 Ultra (at that, we didn't feel much doubt about that =)). Traditionally, in 3DMark 2003 we were more interested in the current situation with NVIDIA's "driver cheats" for this benchmark. We have already covered the topic of "cheats" in our review "ForceWare 52.16: NVIDIA's retaliation", as well as in our recent review "3DMark2003 build 320 vs 340: A rare moment of truth?", drew numerous parallels and analogies and discussed at length regarding the ideology of those cheats, so in this material we are not going to repeat but simply remind the readers of the current situation with those "cheats".
So, let's look into the graphs for versions 330 and 340 of 3DMark 2003. First, note the small lag of the overclocked card on the base of NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra. We can't say if that is caused by the cheats into the benchmark for a particular device ID of the hardware, but that numerous synthetic benchmarks did not confirm a definite lag of the overclocked version of NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra is a fact. Nevertheless, the scatter of readings is rather small. So we won't dwell on that. Secondly, note the practically identical results for ForceWare 52.16 and ForceWare 53.03 drivers.
Now let's look at the results of tests performed with the most recent patch 340. The results for the ForceWare 52.16 driver sharply drop (by around 600 points), and the WHQL-certified ForceWare 53.03 release soon afterwards amends the situation radically. As we'll see later on, the issue is amended only in 3DMark 2003 - at gaming benchmarks the new driver doesn't show any performance boost, but we are already used to that. For now, the new ForceWare 53.03 hasn't yet been added to the list of drivers "approved" by FutureMark. Perhaps FutureMark is preparing a new patch to approve this release of drivers? =)
Codecreatures
This benchmark shows a slight lag of NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 overclocked to the speeds of MSI FX5950 Ultra VTD256 and a predictable equality of results for both versions of the ForceWare drivers.
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