Testing from the grounds-up
GPU comparisons |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graphics card | Approx. pricing |
GPU clock (MHz) |
Stream processors |
Shader clock (MHz) |
Memory clock (MHz) |
Memory bus (bits) |
Graphics driver | |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 (4,096MB) | £530 | 830 | 3,072 | 830 | 5,000 | 256 x 2 | Catalyst 11.12 | |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 (3,072MB) | £450 | 925 | 2,048 | 925 | 5,500 | 384 | Catalyst 11.12 | |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 (2,048MB) | £255 | 880 | 1,536 | 880 | 5,500 | 256 | Catalyst 11.12 | |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 (2,048MB) | £185 | 800 | 1,408 | 800 | 5,000 | 256 | Catalyst 11.12 | |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 (1,024MB) | £140 | 900 | 1,120 | 900 | 4,200 | 256 | Catalyst 11.12 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 (3,072MB) | £620 | 607 | 1,024 | 1,215 | 3,414 | 384 x 2 | ForceWare 285.88 |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (1,536MB) | £350 | 772 | 512 | 1,544 | 4,008 | 384 | ForceWare 285.88 | |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (1,280MB) | £240 | 732 | 480 | 1,464 | 3,800 | 320 | ForceWare 285.88 | |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 (1,280MB) | £220 | 732 | 448 | 1,464 | 3,800 | 320 | ForceWare 285.88 | |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti (1,024MB) | £170 | 822 | 384 | 1,645 | 4,008 | 256 | ForceWare 285.88 | |
High-end test bench |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i5-2500K (3.33GHz, 6MB smart cache, quad-core, LGA1155) | |||||||||||
| Motherboard | Intel Desktop Board DP67BG | |||||||||||
| Memory | 8GB Corsair Vengeance (9-9-9-24 @ 1,600MHz) | |||||||||||
| Power Supply | Corsair AX750W | |||||||||||
| Monitor | Dell 30in 3007WFP | |||||||||||
| Disk drive(s) | Crucial RealSSD C300 (256GB) | |||||||||||
| Chassis | Corsair Graphite Series 600T | |||||||||||
| Operating system | Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit, SP1) | |||||||||||
High-end benchmark suite |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3DMark 11 | Performance and Extreme presets | |||||||||||
| Aliens vs. Predator | DX11, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, 16xAF, very high quality | |||||||||||
| Batman: Arkham City | DX11, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 8xAA, ultra quality | |||||||||||
| Battlefield 3 | DX11, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xMSAA, 16xAF, ultra quality | |||||||||||
| Crysis 2 | DX11, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, ultra quality | |||||||||||
| Just Cause 2 | DX10, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xAA, 16xAF, very high quality | |||||||||||
| Total War: Shogun 2 | DX11, 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 resolutions, 4xMSAA, 16xAF, high quality | |||||||||||
| Power consumption | To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record mains power draw both when idle and whilst playing Crysis 2 | |||||||||||
| Temperature | To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record GPU core temperature both when idle and whilst playing Crysis 2 | |||||||||||
| Noise | A PCE-318 meter is used to record noise levels when idle and whilst playing Crysis 2 | |||||||||||
| Overclocking | Pushing the graphics card as far as it will go, we increase speeds and re-run the Aliens vs. Predator benchmark | |||||||||||
| HEXUS bang4buck | A custom metric used to evaluate comparative performance with price factored in | |||||||||||
Notes
In preparation of a slew of new GPUs in 2012, we're using this opportunity to introduce a refreshed test machine. Our old X58 platform has been put to rest, and a new Intel P67 system has been put in place with a Core i5-2500K processor, 8GB of memory and solid-state storage.
Coinciding with the new high-end platform, we are also refreshing our benchmark suite with a few high-profile additions - including Battlefield 3, Crysis 2 and Total War: Shogun 2 and Batman: Arkham City.
We could have easily used older drivers and saved ourselves a lot of time and effort. However, the release of a brand-new architecture is an opportune time to retest a bunch of cards, on the same drivers, to deliver the most-accurate results. As such, all AMD cards have been retested on the press driver supplied by AMD, while all NVIDIA cards are run on the also-new ForceWare 285.88 driver.
We're paying focus on gaming results, clearly, but knowing that we've spent considerable time extolling the virtues of the GPGPU compute architecture, it makes sense that we take a look at such performance in due course. Also, the Radeon HD 7970 doesn't use the same folding@home core as other Radeons, and due to a lack of time, we'll be publishing these folding results in a separate article.
