The guys at IGN Cube are reporting that EA's Canadian studios have received Gamecube development kits and, according to the "unofficial" reports, benchmark tests have been done and produced some nice numbers. So for all you who are worried about polygon numbers, check it out here or just keep reading.

Gamecube development hardware running with eight texture effect layers + all other effects on: Approximately five million polygons per second

Gamecube development hardware running with four texture effect layers + all other effects on: Approximately 14 million polygons per second

Pretty cool, eh? It seems like that's more evidence that Nintendo really was talking about achievable in-game polygon counts at Spaceworld. So, take heart Nintendo fans, Gamecube looks like it'll be able to keep up just fine with the competition. Thanks to IGN Cube for confirming the validity of this report...which actually popped up in our forums a few days ago, but was unconfirmed at that point.