Futuremark 3DMark Vantage 1.0.1	Source: FutureMark

3DMark06 is the worldwide standard in advanced 3D game performance benchmarking. A fundamental tool for every company in the PC industry as well as PC users and gamers, 3DMark06 uses advanced real-time 3D game workloads to measure PC performance using a suite of DirectX 9 3D graphics tests, CPU tests, and 3D feature tests. 3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance today.

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage 1.0.1 Performance Overall: (P) Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 9116 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 8852 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 5579 MSI R4830-T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 5149 GPU Score: Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 12983 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 12252 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 5905 MSI R4830-T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 5269 CPU score: Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 4814 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 4830 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 4786 MSI R4830-T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 4821

3Dmark Vantage again shows very similar scores between MSI's R4830 and Asus's EAH4850. This synthetic benchmark takes advantage of multiple graphics processors very effectively, something that may not always happen in real world gaming situations.

Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter developed by Crytek. Crysis uses Microsoft's new API, DirectX 10 for graphics rendering, and includes the new engine—the CryEngine 2—that is the successor to Far Cry's CryEngine. CryEngine 2 is among the first engines to use the DirectX 10 framework of Windows Vista, but can also run using DirectX 9, both on Vista and Windows XP.

Crysis 1.2 (no AA) - DirectX10 1280x1024 HQ Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 40.46 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 39.7 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 39.105 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 39.4 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 40.835 MSI R4830-T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 36.55 1600x1200 HQ Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 38.2 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 34.2 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 37.17 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 33.8 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 30.79 MSI R4830-T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 27.46 1920x1200 HQ Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 35 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 29.9 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 34.07 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 29.7 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 26.2 MSI R4830-T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 23.43

The MSI R4830 stays quite competitive in Crysis, although falls a little short of being playable once the resolution is cranked up past 1280x1024. Still, maintaining 90% of the performance of a Radeon HD 4850 while being 70% of the price isn't bad at all.