How we test
GPU comparisons |
||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | |
| XFX Radeon HD 7970 DD (3,072MB) | £480 | 925 | 2,048 | 925 | 5,500 | 384 | Catalyst 11.12a | |
| 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 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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
We've used the driver shipping the package - 11.12a - for our testing. The incremental upgrade over the press 11.12 suggests that performance will be near-identical between the XFX and AMD HD 7970 cards. We're putting this to the test now.
What's of greater import is the power-draw, temperatures and noise from this custom-cooled model. As usual, we've tested these. Let's get to it.
