Testing and Overclocking

     This is where the fun really begins.  We let the card stretch its legs and show us what it can do.  We will start off with some overclocking and then throw the synthetic benchmarks at it, followed by the game benchmarks.  The benchmarks will include; 3DMark 03, 3DMark 05, 3DMark06, PCMark 05, Doom3 and Far Cry.  I will run the tests at default speed, with the CPU overclocked and finally with the CPU and the GPU overclocked.  The drivers used are the latest from ATI's website, Catalyst 6.4.  The test system used is in the table below.

Overclocking

     Using ATITool I started out with the core.  The default clock on the Connect3D X1300Pro was 600MHz.  I was able to crank it up to 645MHz before I started seeing any negative effects.  With a 45MHz overclock on the core I wasn't feeling too badly about the potential of the card.  But then I started overclocking the memory.  I clicked the "find max mem" button and quickly saw the memory jump up to 405, then 410, then back to 405 and finally back to 400.  I have never experienced an overclock like this before.  I got absolutely nothing on the memory.  The final overclock ended up as 645MHz core, 400MHz memory.  The default is 600MHz core and 400MHz memory.  Not an impressive overclock, but let's see if the 45MHz makes a difference in the benches.

3DMark 2003

     By combining full DirectX®9.0a support with completely new tests and graphics, 3DMark03 Pro continues the legacy of being the industry standard benchmark. The high quality game tests, image quality tests, sound tests and others give you an extremely accurate overview of your system’s current gaming performance.

3DMark 2005

     3DMark 2005 is the first benchmark to require a DirectX9.0 compliant hardware with support for Pixel Shaders 2.0 or higher!  By combining high quality 3D tests, CPU tests, feature tests, image quality tools, and much more, 3DMark05 is a premium benchmark for evaluating the latest generation of gaming hardware.

3DMark 2006

     3DMark06 uses advanced real-time 3D game workloads to measure PC performance using a suite of DirectX 9 3D graphics tests, CPU tests, and 3D feature tests. 3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance today.