Gaming on Windows Vista – ATI versus NVIDIA

The Vista Test System

We know that Vista loves to be run on a powerful system, so we built a pretty tough cutting edge system that any computer would love to own. We took the recently released DFI LANParty UT NF590 SLI-M2R Motherboard and installed an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ AM2 processor and overclocked it a good deal. Using Corsair’s just announced PC2-8888 C4 memory kit (TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF) we pushed our system up to 278MHz HTT with a multiplier of 10 for a blistering 2.77GHz processor clock speed with the memory running at an amazing 1111MHz at 4-4-4-12 timings. The Western Digital 250GB SATA hard drive (WD2500YD) kept the data flowing and the GeForce 7800GTX 512 and ATI X1900 XTX video cards put everything on the monitor for us to see. The entire system was powered by the Thermaltake ToughPower 750W power supply.

Those who have been beta testing Vista know that there is a built in rating system known as “Windows System Assessment Tool” in Vista that shows you the weakest link in your system. The System Assessment Tool runs a series of tests and then rates your computer on a scale ranging from 1 through 5 (with 1 representing the lowest possible score and currently 5.9 represents the highest possible score). Our base score (the lowest scoring component) was 5.2, which means our test system kicks ass and it better for what it is.

With Vista RC1 up and running like a champ we went ahead and started benchmarking the games.