Testing methodoloy
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 RC11 | |
| AMD Radeon HD 7950 (3,072MB) | £350 | 800 | 1,792 | 800 | 5,000 | 384 | Catalyst 11.12 RC11 | |
| 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
As is customary with a new launch, AMD's updated the testing driver to Catalyst 11.12 RC11. We've used this on the two Radeon HD 7900-series cards in this line-up. From what we can discern when comparing results to the press driver for the launch of the HD 7970 a month ago, there are speed-ups in Aliens vs. Predator and, to a smaller extent, in Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3.
Though most will compare the two Radeons, as they're based on the same underlying architecture, the actual comparo to look out for is Radeon HD 7950 vs. GeForce GTX 580 - these two GPUs are set to compete on a price basis until NVIDIA brings its own high-end mojo with the release of 'Kepler' GPUs in a short while.
The comparison cards will let us know just how the Radeon HD 7950 stacks up against all single-card offerings costing more than £150.
