This time around, we used the following system to bench our cards on: 

• CPU: E6700 Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.67 GHZ (333 * 8) 
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6
• Motherboard: Asus P5W DH Deluxe
• Memory: 2 gigabytes of GSKILL PC2-6400 CL4D-2GBHK DDR2 RAM (2 * 1024MB @ 833MHz 4-4-4-12/2T) 
• Power Supply: OCZ 850W GXS
• Hard Drive: 250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA, w/16 MB cache
• CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U 12

As for video cards, against the Gigabyte HD 3870, we have the following cards, ranked fasted to slowest: a XFX 8800 GTS 512MB Alpha Dog Edition (XXX), a NVIDIA 8800 GT 512MB, a Plait 9600GT Sonic, a XFX 8800 GT 256MB Alpha Dog Edition (XXX), and a PowerColor HD3850 Xtreme PCS 512MB. Beside the G92-based 8800 GTS, all of these cards are within $50 USD of one another, and should offer reasonably similar levels of performance.     

We use a fully-patched Microsoft Windows Vista to test out our cards. As for drivers, the NVIDIA cards all used Forceware 169.28, except for the 9600GT which used Forceware 174.12 Beta drivers, while the ATI cards were tested with Catalyst 8.2 drivers.

For the games we decided to bench, here is some information on our chosen settings: 

Bioshock: For this benchmark, all of the Detail settings were set to 'High'. All of the graphic option switches were set to 'On', with the exception of the following three settings: Vsync, Windowed mode, and Force Global Lighting. We used FRAPS to measure frame rate performance. The FRAPS run was 138 seconds, triggered from pulling the switch in the sub at game's beginning. The sub's dive involves many big models moving around, which should strain the GPU's and be a good measure of the game's engine.

Call of Juarez: We used the stand-alone Call of Juarez DX10 benchmarking program for these results. For our AA testing, we used a setting of 2x.

Crysis: These benchmarks were performed using 'fly-by' GPU test found within the single-player pre-release demo version of the game. All graphic settings were on High.' For AA, we used a setting of 4x. DX10 mode was used. The game has also been fully patched (1.1).

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: We use this id FPS benchmark to test out higher resolutions (1280x1024,1600x1200,1920x1200). We used the highest possible detail settings. We tested the resolutions at 4x AA as well as at 8x AA. 16x AF was also used.  

Unreal Tournament 3: We tested the game using a fly-through of the vehicle capture-the-flag map 'Suspense.'ShangriLa (map) running for 90 seconds. Details were set to 'High', and a AF setting of 16x was used.

World In Conflict: We used the built-in benchmark of the demo version of this game. We ran the benchmark in DX9 rendering mode, with a 'High' level of quality. For the AA testing, we used a setting of 4x, and a setting of 16x for AF.

If you would like any further information about our benchmark settings, feel free to ask us in the forums.