SAPPHIRE HD 6950 2GB Radeon Video Card

Software Testing

As you can see our testing set up is a real world system that most people would probably have. I personally think that this is the best way to show the average PC user what they can expect when using/upgrading to the hardware we test. The only thing outside of the norm is that we use an open air case to help maximize our ability to switch out hardware.

Frames Per Second or “FPS” and Testing

We have all heard this term before and how it is used in benchmarking to compare one card against another. This can be a very useful measurement tool on seeing the results of any tweaks or overclocking that you may have done to the card. Remember that all the testing that we do is just for comparing the performance of the video cards and that your results could be different from ours.

Synthetic Testing

We use this sort of testing software to show the overall testing of the hardware devices. They give us a way of measuring how one device  does against another with a fairly standard repetitive testing. Sometimes other factors are include in the final scores, like CPU’s, Memory, Hard Disk and such so your testing result might  differ from ours. These programs are readily available and can be use by anyone.

3DMark06:  A 3DMark score is an overall measure of your system’s 3D gaming capabilities, based on comprehensive real-time 3D graphics and processor tests. By comparing your score with those submitted by millions of other gamers you can see how your gaming rig performs, making it easier to choose the most effective upgrades or finding other ways to optimize your system. 3DMark06 is a PC benchmark suite designed to test the DirectX9 performance of your graphics card. 

3DMark Vantage is one of the industries standard PC gaming performance benchmarks from Futuremark. Newly Windows and DirectX10. 3DMark Vantage is based on a completely new rendering engine, developed specifically to take full advantage of DirectX10, the new graphics API from Microsoft.

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on the advance Unigine™ engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies.

Hardware Tessellation
The distinguishing feature of the benchmark is hardware tessellation, a scalable technology aimed for automatic subdivision of polygons into smaller and finer pieces, so that games gain drastically detailed and more elaborated look almost free of charge in terms of performance. Normal Mode:Default mode available in the benchmark shows optimal quality-to-performance ratio. That’s the way to achieve prominent visual difference with hardware tessellation technology.