3D Mark 06
I ran 3D Mark with the default tests and anti-aliasing turned off. The results were:

3DMark Score: 6,862
SM2.0 Score: 3,096
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 3,220
CPU Score: 1,577

Not bad, but there’s some room for improvement here, as we’ll see in the overclocking section.

Fraps with Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Oblivion has the reputation of being a bit of a PC killer, so I was eager to give it a shot against the 7900 GS. True to form, the game isn’t willing to give up the fight just yet – while I was able to put almost all of the settings at the maximum, I had to throttle back on shadows depth and blood patches to keep the graphics from overloading during combat.

Here’s what Fraps came back with:

Minimum framerate: 23 fps
Maximum framerate: 62 fps
Average framerate: 57.031 fps

After making those settings fixes, the game ran smoothly and beautifully and there was never any lag between a command through the mouse or keyboard and the action onscreen, even during high movement situations.

Fraps with Call of Duty 2
Even though it’s getting a bit long in the tooth, Call of Duty 2 still has the physics demands to stretch a system’s capabilities, especially when the onscreen action gets thick. I cranked all settings up to the max (using a 72 Hz refresh rate to match that of my monitor) and let Fraps go. Here’s what I came up with:

Minimum framerate: 49 fps
Maximum framerate: 143 fps
Average framerate: 88.03 fps

Even with the action pumping and bullets flying, the 7900 GS kept things going smoothly on the screen, with gorgeous effect.

Fraps with Battlefield 2142
EA’s latest hit is all about online gaming – and that means a high framerate to avoid someone fragging you because you couldn’t react to fast enough. Once again, I cranked up all of all of the settings (keeping the 72 Hz refresh rate) and ran the game on the Belgrade map. Here are the results:

Minimum framerate: 31 fps
Maximum framerate: 57 fps
Average framerate: 43.84 fps

The average framerate in BF2142 is lower than my other two test games, but that didn’t mean the action suffered any – smooth, beautiful graphics with as much color and depth as any screenshot were the name of the game.