Gainward 6800 Ultra Golden sample

3DMark 2003 score : 11344

Sharok
Falmir

R9800 Pro
6800 Ultra
R9800 Pro

5716
11210
5528

A 96% increase in performance for Sharok. Seems that this benchmark has joined the defunct 2001SE version. Nothing left to worry about here.

Aquamark score : 52331 (52126)

Sharok
Falmir

R9800 Pro
6800 Ultra
R9800 Pro

43027
52126
36428

So here I am looking at a 21% increase for Sharok. Nice and fluid, but I am somehow disappointed.

Codecreatures score : 72.2 fps average

Nice boost here for Sharok, in the region of 45%.

The full table is here :

	Sharok		Falmir
Total	6800 Ultra	R9800 Pro	R9800 Pro
Avg fps	72.2	49.6	47.6
Max fps	126.0	60.0	62.0
Avg polys/s	25.6 mio	18.1 mio	17.0 mio
Max polys/s	41.6 mio	26.1 mio	25.3 mio
Total frames	9508	6492	6260

Grass Section	6800 Ultra	R9800 Pro	R9800 Pro
Avg fps	85.1	52.6	52.8
Max fps	124.0	60	62

Water Section	6800 Ultra	R9800 Pro	R9800 Pro
Avg fps	61.4	47.2	43.4
Max fps	85.0	60	56

Some areas see a good increase (max scores mostly). The average scores show a more moderate increase (around 40% at first glance). Falmir is lagging behind, even though it got the R9800 and is using catalyst 4.12.

Conclusion

I was expecting a bit more, I guess, but in the end the numbers are all pointing to an average increase of around 34%. Expensive, but I'm happy about it. Although it is not as much as when I replaced the GF4 Ti4400 by the Radeon, it is still not bad. Besides, as of now there is nothing I cannot play in 1600x1200 with full AA and aniso settings (except Doom III, but I don't play that one so I don't care - yet).

Just for kicks, I did a comparative study in performance between the different shader paths. Check it out if you want, and find out which shader version is the best (2.0 ? 2_a ? 3.0 ?).