Mass testing/benchmarking

[Aruffell]

Got about 5 graphics cards here. 4 AMD and 1 nVidia and i need to test them all on the same motherboard with all the same components.

The only difference will be the graphics card.

OS will be Vista 64-bit and im wondering what the best way of testing would be?

Obviously i will be using the same benchmark tools and games but don't want to have to install Vista 5 times.

Best way being to install Vista, don't load drivers, install benchmarks and games and then make an image and then install drivers, then reload image and rinse, lather, repeat?

Andy

 

[Aruffell]

Anyone? Need to know asap.

Andy

 

[Aruffell]

Surely there will still be traces of the driver though, deeming an unfair test. Surely?

Andy

 

[Aruffell]

Nah, it should be fine.

If you were doing the test as a professional job for a mag or website, then maybe you'd do all the imaging stuff, but for standard testing, an uninstall of drivers should be fine.

I've been through 4 cards (2 Nvidia and 2 ATI) on this current build of Vista I have, and never had a problem.

Guess what, i'm doing the test as a professional job for a website

"traces of the driver" is a bit of an old wives tale anyway, in practice it's very rare that they will have any effect at all (usually in cases where settings have been changed from default and are retained somewhere).

Windows is intelligent enough to handle multiple hardware/driver installations, heck, that's why you can even run with graphics cards from different manufacturers installed at the same time (not that I'm suggesting you do so for benchmarking!).

I'd be more concerned about what you actual benchmarking process is, i.e. you need to make each benchmark a consistent, repeatable process (as opposed to say a run-through with fraps in the background) and do multiple runs for each benchmark, discarding any anomolies.

I'll be running each benchmark 3 times, maintaining the same settings for each at 2 resolutions. One being 1280x1024 and one being 1920x1080.

Just trying to figure out which tests to run.

Got:

3DMark06
3DVantage
Crysis Warhead
FarCry 2
Was told to do something lower end like company of heroes.

Any other suggestions?

Andy