3DMark05	Source: FutureMark

3DMark05 is the latest version of the highly favoured 3DMark graphics benchmarking series. It is the first benchmark to require DirectX®9.0 compliant hardware with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 or higher!

3DMark05
Overall:	Points	Ranking
MSI K8T Neo2-FIR (K8T800 PRO 200/400)	5015
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (NF3 Ultra 200/400)	4774
Epox 9NDA3+ (NF3 Ultra 200/400)	4678
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-9 (NF4 Ultra 200/400)	5146
CPU:	Points	Ranking
MSI K8T Neo2-FIR (K8T800 PRO 200/400)	5546
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (NF3 Ultra 200/400)	4713
Epox 9NDA3+ (NF3 Ultra 200/400)	4654
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-9 (NF4 Ultra 200/400)	5110

Again, considering the Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-9 motherboard is using a slightly slower videocard, these scores are very nice, and show off the power of PCI Express well. The GA-K8NXP-9 is able to outscore both older nForce3 Ultra motherboards, despite the difference in videocards! The VIA K8T800 Pro puts up a good fight, coming in second in the overall benchmark, and first in the CPU test.

AquaMark3	Source: Massive Development

AquaMark3 is a powerful tool to determine reliable information about the gaming performance of computer systems. Because the benchmark extensively utilizes DirectX9, DirectX8 and DirectX7 functionality, it represents the requirements of typical gaming applications in 2003 and 2004.

AquaMark3
1024x768 GFX	Points	Ranking
MSI K8T Neo2-FIR (K8T800 PRO 200/400)	10047
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (NF3 Ultra 200/400)	9720
Epox 9NDA3+ (NF3 Ultra 200/400)	9663
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-9 (NF4 Ultra 200/400)	11481
1024x768 Processor	Points	Ranking
MSI K8T Neo2-FIR (K8T800 PRO 200/400)	11413
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (NF3 Ultra 200/400)	10948
Epox 9NDA3+ (NF3 Ultra 200/400)	11261
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-9 (NF4 Ultra 200/400)	11698
1024x768 Overall	Points	Ranking
MSI K8T Neo2-FIR (K8T800 PRO 200/400)	69761
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (NF3 Ultra 200/400)	67336
Epox 9NDA3+ (NF3 Ultra 200/400)	67482
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-9 (NF4 Ultra 200/400)	71365

AquaMark3 performs well on the GA-K8NXP-9, achieving a very high graphics score mainly thanks to PCI Express we'd imagine.