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Updated Video Card Testing Methodology
Introduction
As dry as this topic is, it's time to update and explain our benchmarking systems. If you're reading this, stop, get back to work, you lazy git! No but yeah, I'll do my best to make this painless. While benchmarking, in theory, is universal, many reviewers use different methods; this will explain why and what our reviews say without having to bog down each review with methodology details individually. If there's anything you need to know, it's this: our benchmarking hardware is attainable. We're not going to benchmark video cards on an overclocked Skulltrail rig with sixteen gigahertz of octo-core madness. We stick with a class of hardware that we feel is affordable to gamers with average pockets; this way, the results are realistic and above all relative. Close to the heart of the shift is Vista. On the one hand, many people don't like it--I'm not sure why but hey, variety's the spice--but on the other, developers heart it. DirectX 10 looks fantastic, and most of the hardware manufacturers have more than embraced the new driver model, they've actually made working drivers. And the performance gap on gaming machines is gone--with current gaming hardware, you can even expect a boost if you're using Vista. At this point, for these machines, with their turbos and swooshes, Vista should be a given. Introductions for video card reviews go here. I'll try not to bore you with company profiles and crap, I don't read that, and I don't expect that you do, either. An intro only needs to tell you what's cool and new. The Card & Bundle Sometimes the photos don't tell all, so it gets a description. But we all have swanky cameras and will use any excuse to use them. Outside of disasters, like when my office was struck by lightning (seriously!) we'll use photos that we've taken of the hardware we're testing--unless they suck and the manufacturer's are super-sexy.
Page 1: Introduction, The Card & Bundle
Page 2: Specifications and Setup Page 3: DirectX 10 Titles Page 4: DX9, OpenGL, and Synthetics Page 5: Video, Power, and Overclocking Page 6: Conclusion 
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