How we test
A
complete breakdown of our comparison GPUs, test bench and benchmarks
can be found below. We've thrown in 15 other GPU combinations.
The 10
comparison NVIDIA cards have all been previously benchmarked with the
ForceWare 258.80 driver; this is updated to the WHQL-certified v258.96
for the KFA2 Anarchy.
GPU comparisons |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graphics cards | Current pricing | GPU clock (MHz) | Stream processors | Shader clock (MHz) | Memory clock (MHz) | Memory bus (bits) | Graphics driver |
| KFA2 GeForce GTX 480 Anarchy 1,536MB | £410 | 760 | 480 | 1,520 | 3,800 | 384 | ForceWare 258.96 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 480 1,536MB | £360 | 700 | 480 | 1,401 | 3,698 | 384 | ForceWare 258.80 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 470 SOC 1,280MB | £300 | 700 | 448 | 1,400 | 3,348 | 320 | ForceWare 258.80 |
| ZOTAC GeForce GTX 470 1,280MB | £230 | 607 | 448 | 1,215 | 3,348 | 320 | ForceWare 258.80 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 465 1,024MB | £170 | 607 | 352 | 1,215 | 3,208 | 256 | ForceWare 258.80 |
| ZOTAC GeForce GTX 460 SLI 1,024MB | £330 | 675 | 336 (x2) | 1,350 | 3,600 | 256 (x2) | ForceWare 258.80 |
| EVGA GeForce GTX 460 SC SLI 768MB | £280 | 763 | 336 (x2) | 1,526 | 3,800 | 192 (x2) | ForceWare 258.80 |
| KFA2 GeForce GTX 460 LTD OC 1,024MB | £195 | 810 | 336 | 1,620 | 4,000 | 256 | ForceWare 258.80 |
| Inno3D GeForce GTX 460 OC 1,024MB | £185 | 750 | 336 | 1,500 | 3,800 | 256 | ForceWare 258.80 |
| ZOTAC GeForce GTX 460 1,024MB | £165 | 675 | 336 | 1,350 | 3,600 | 256 | ForceWare 258.80 |
| EVGA GeForce GTX 460 768MB | £135 | 675 | 336 | 1,350 | 3,600 | 192 | ForceWare 258.80 |
| XFX Radeon HD 5970 2,048MB | £450 | 725 | 3,200 | 725 | 4,000 | 256 (x2) | Catalyst 10.9 |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 XF 1,024MB | £470 | 725 | 1,440 (x2) | 725 | 4,000 | 256 (x2) | Catalyst 10.6 |
| HIS Radeon HD 5870 1,024MB | £320 | 850 | 1,600 | 850 | 4,800 | 256 | Catalyst 10.6 |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1,024MB | £235 | 725 | 1,440 | 725 | 4,000 | 256 | Catalyst 10.6 |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 5830 1,024MB | £160 | 800 | 1,120 | 800 | 4,000 | 256 | Catalyst 10.6 |
Test bench |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (3.20GHz, 8MB L3 cache, quad-core, LGA1366 - Turbo Boost enabled) | |||||||||||
| Motherboard | ASUS P6X58D Premium | |||||||||||
| Motherboard BIOS | 0808 | |||||||||||
| Memory | 6GB Corsair DDR3 | |||||||||||
| 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 | |||||||||||
| Operating system | Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit | |||||||||||
Benchmarks |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aliens vs. Predator | DX11, 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 2xAA, 8xAF, very high quality. | |||||||||||
| Battlefield: Bad Company 2 | DX11, 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, 16xAF, ultra quality, FRAPS-recorded benchmark. | |||||||||||
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | DX9, 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, ultra quality, FRAPS-recorded benchmark. | |||||||||||
| Crysis Warhead | DX10, 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, gamer quality, Frost map, FRAPS-recorded benchmark. | |||||||||||
| DiRT 2 | DX11, 1,680x1,050, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, ultra quality, London map. | |||||||||||
| Temperature | To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record GPU core temperature both when idle and whilst playing Crysis Warhead. And, for a worst-case scenario, we throw in numbers from the FurMark stress test. | |||||||||||
| Power consumption | To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record mains power draw both when idle and whilst playing Crysis Warhead. And, for a worst-case scenario, we throw in numbers from the FurMark stress test. | |||||||||||
