X2: The Threat	Source: Egosoft

A completely rewritten 3D engine based on DirectX8 encompasses many visual effects such as volumetric Nebulae (gas clouds) that have a real impact in the game (you can hide in them), many new engine, shield, weapon and explosion effects. Objects cast real dynamic 3D shadows! Dynamic DP3 bump mapping allows a previously unseen level of detail.

X2: The Threat - 1600x1200 32-bit
Video Card	FPS	Ranking
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra	45.4
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra	47.0
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro	37.6
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 XT	40.6

X2: The Threat is a follow up to Enlight's X Beyond the Frontier that doesn't use any shading technologies, yet still features an impressive graphics engine. Though technology demos themselves are a bit self-serving, the X2 demo is based on an actual game that is currently shipping, and therefore should be representative of an in-game experience.

This time around, the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra is the card with a 16 percent advantage at 1600x1200. Even the older GeForce FX 5900 Ultra beats ATI's RADEON 9800 XT.

Comanche 4	Source: Novalogic

The Comanche 4 benchmark demo is a unique benchmark as it represents a real-world gaming experience. It contains the single player "Eagle's Talon" mission from the game as well as a detailed cinematic. This DirectX 8.1 benchmark demo will measure your system's performance in the standard frames per second format. The benchmark was run with audio disabled.

Comanche 4 - 1280x1024
Video Card	FPS	Ranking
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra	64.35
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra	64.61
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro	63.56
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 XT	63.49

Comanche 4 is another DirectX title widely used to evaluate graphics performance. But as a flight simulator, it tends to tax processor performance more than graphics, which is why the scores are so tightly grouped.

Comanche 4 - 1600x1200
Video Card	FPS	Ranking
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra	60.97
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra	61.66
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro	61.44
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 XT	62.44

NVIDIA's GeForce FX 5950 Ultra holds a miniscule one percent lead at 1280x1024. Then, the RADEON 9800 XT jumps in front at 1600x1200 by a similarly insignificant two percent lead.