Since the majority of today's applications and games are compatible with DirectX 9, the need of benchmark applications that use DX 9 has been brought up. The benchmark uses the 3D engine (Krass engine) of the Aquanox game.

Aquamark Triscore

The Aquamark Triscore comprises 3 values: the overall system performance, the performance of the graphics system and the CPU performance. Keep in mind that this is not the total result of the tests, but the result of the whole benchmark process including all 9 chapters.

Unfortunately, we faced problems while running the Aquamark 3 benchmark, the program either ended with an error or the PC froze up with a 'black screen'. We tried older version ATI catalyst drivers and we also tried to run the test with the EAX 1800XT TOP installed in an Intel based PC, but the results were the same. The truth is however, that this benchmark is no longer supported.

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3DMark 2001

is the predecessor to 3DMark03. It's mainly a directx8.1 benchmark and the score depends a lot on the CPU power of your computer. However for reference use only we decided it'd be best to just leave it in our benchmark list so you can compare the next generation cards with the possibly outdated you have at home.

This is the same as we saw with 3D Mark03, with the EAX 1800XT TOP reporting a similar score to the N7800 GTX TOP.

Well, enough with the benchmarks... :) let's see how the card really performs when it comes to real games, starting with Half Life 2...