How we test
Hardware
| Graphics cards | ZOTAC GeForce GTX 480 1,536MB | ZOTAC GeForce GTX 470 1,280MB | ASUS GeForce GTX 465 1,024MB | ZOTAC GeForce GTX 460 SLI 1GB | EVGA GeForce GTX 460 SC SLI 768MB | ZOTAC GeForce GTX 460 1,024MB | EVGA GeForce GTX 460 768MB | Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 XF 1GB | Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 2,048MB | HIS Radeon HD 5870 1,024MB | Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1,024MB | Sapphire Radeon HD 5830 1,024MB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current pricing, including VAT | £375 | £280 | £215 | £370 | £360 | £185 | £163 | £460 | £400 | £325 | £230 | £170 |
| Shader model | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Stream processors | 480 | 448 | 352 | 336 x 2 | 336 x 2 | 336 | 336 | 1,440 x 2 | 1,600 | 1,600 | 1,440 | 1,120 |
| GPU clock speed (MHz) | 700 | 607 | 607 | 675 | 763 | 675 | 675 | 725 | 925 | 850 | 725 | 800 |
| Shader clock speed (MHz) | 1,401 | 1,215 | 1,215 | 1,350 | 1,526 | 1,350 | 1,350 | 725 | 925 | 850 | 725 | 800 |
| Memory clock speed (MHz) | 3,698 | 3,348 | 3,208 | 3,600 | 3,800 | 3,600 | 3,600 | 4,000 | 5,000 | 4,800 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Memory bus width (bits) | 384 | 320 | 256 | 2 x 256 | 2 x 192 | 256 | 192 | 2 x 256 | 256 | 256 | 256 | 256 |
| CPU | Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (3.20GHz, 8MB L3 cache, quad-core, LGA1366 - Turbo Boost on) | |||||||||||
| Motherboard | ASUS P6X58D Premium | |||||||||||
| Motherboard BIOS | 0808 | |||||||||||
| Mainboard software | Intel Inf 9.1.1.1025 | |||||||||||
| Memory | 6GB Corsair DDR3-1,600 CL9 | |||||||||||
| Memory timings and speed | 9-9-9-24-1T @ DDR3-1,600 | |||||||||||
| PSU | Corsair HX1000W | |||||||||||
| Monitor | Dell 30in 3007WFP - 2,560x1,600px | |||||||||||
| Disk drive(s) | Corsair Nova V128 SSD | |||||||||||
| Graphics driver | ForceWare 258.80 | ForceWare 258.80 | ForceWare 258.80 | ForceWare 258.80 | ForceWare 258.80 | ForceWare 258.80 | ForceWare 258.80 | Catalyst 10.6 | Catalyst 10.6 | Catalyst 10.6 | Catalyst 10.6 | Catalyst 10.6 |
| Operating system | Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit | |||||||||||
Software
| Benchmarks | Aliens vs. Predator DX11
benchmark Battlefield: Bad Company 2 v553292 - FRAPS-recorded benchmark Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - ultra quality - FRAPS-recorded benchmark Crysis Warhead v1.1.1.711 - frost map - gamer quality DiRT 2 v1.1, London map - ultra quality Power-draw Temperatures Real-world noise HEXUS.bang4buck and HEXUS.bang4watt |
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Notes
Benchmarks were conducted at 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,080, and 2,560x1,600, where applicable, with decent degrees of image quality. The middle resolution has been changed from 1,920x1,200 to better reflect the resolution of HD monitors.
We've also updated the graphics drive to ForceWare 258.80 on all GeForce 400-series cards and have matched it up with Catalyst 10.6 for the AMD-based cards.As we FRAPs two games in the suite - Battlefield and Call of Duty - and DiRT 2 reports minimum framerates, you will see those three games with two bars next to each card, denoting average and minimum framerates.
What we want to determine is whether having two heavily-overclocked GTX 460 768MB cards is better than spending the same money on two stock-clocked GTX 460 1,024MB cards. Adding further multi-GPU spice to proceedings, we've included numbers for Radeon HD 5850 CrossFire.
Please bear in mind that the single EVGA GeForce GTX 460 card is a standard-clocked model, folks.
