3DMark2001	Source: FutureMark

By combining DirectX8 support with completely new graphics, 3DMark 2001 SE continues to provide a good overall system benchmark. 3DMark2001 SE was created in co-operation with the major 3D accelerator and processor manufacturers to provide a reliable set of diagnostic tools. The suite demonstrates 3D gaming performance by using real-world gaming technology to test a system's true abilities. Tests include: DirectX8 Vertex Shaders, Pixel Shaders and Point Sprites, DOT3 and Environment Mapped Bump Mapping, support for Full Scene Anti-aliasing and Texture Compression and two game tests using Ipion real-time physics. Higher 3DMark scores denote better performance.

3DMark2001SE:
Motherboards:	Points	Ranking
Albatron PX925XE Pro-R (925XE 200/533)	22419
Gigabyte GA-8ANXP-D (i925X 200/533)	23249
MSI 915P Neo2 Platinum (i915P 200/533)	21984
DFI LANParty 875P-T (i875P 200/400)	22441
ASRock 775V88 (PT880 200/400)	21810
VIA PT894 Ref Motherboard (PT894 200/533)	21530
AOpen i915Pa-PLF (915P 200/400)	22554
Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Royal (NF4-SLI 200/533)	23047
ECS RS400-A (RS400 200/400 Onboard Video)	4808
ECS RS400-A (RS400 200/400 X800 XT)	20408
Gigabyte GA-8I945P Pro (945P 200/400)	20241
Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal	22295

The Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal displays good results in this benchmark. We'd hoped for better, though it still posted a respectable score. Let's see how the motherboard does at a more advanced video test.

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
Albatron PX925XE Pro-R (925XE 200/533)	5483
Gigabyte GA-8ANXP-D (i925X 200/533)	5000
MSI 915P Neo2 Platinum (i915P 200/533)	5149
DFI LANParty 875P-T (i875P 200/400)	5000
ASRock 775V88 (PT880 200/400)	4662
VIA PT894 Ref Motherboard (PT894 200/533)	5431
AOpen i915Pa-PLF (915P 200/400)	5483
Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Royal (NF4-SLI 200/533)	5576
ECS RS400-A (RS400 200/400 Onboard Video)	660
ECS RS400-A (RS400 200/400 X800 XT)	5437
Gigabyte GA-8I945P Pro (945P 200/400)	5666
Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal	5593
CPU:	Points	Ranking
Albatron PX925XE Pro-R (925XE 200/533)	5096
Gigabyte GA-8ANXP-D (i925X 200/533)	5000
MSI 915P Neo2 Platinum (i915P 200/533)	4694
DFI LANParty 875P-T (i875P 200/400)	5000
ASRock 775V88 (PT880 200/400)	4228
VIA PT894 Ref Motherboard (PT894 200/533)	4447
AOpen i915Pa-PLF (915P 200/400)	4585
Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Royal (NF4-SLI 200/533)	4619
ECS RS400-A (RS400 200/400 Onboard Video)	3091
ECS RS400-A (RS400 200/400 X800 XT)	4103
Gigabyte GA-8I945P Pro (945P 200/400)	5347
Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal	5879

The Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal comes a very respectable second place in the Overall portion of 3DMark05, though it's odd that the 945P-based board comes first considering the apparent superiority of the 955X Express chipset in PCMark05. The CPU benchmarks of the dual-core boards are again far better than any of the competition.