Testing Methodology
PowerColor HD 7870 Myst spec |
|---|
 |
GPU Comparisons |
||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graphics Card | GPU Clock (MHz) |
Stream Processors |
Shader Clock (MHz) |
Memory Clock (MHz) |
Memory Bus (bits) |
Graphics Driver | Approx price | |
| PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 Myst (2,048MB) | 925 (975) | 1,536 | 925 (975) | 6,000 | 256 | Catalyst 12.11 beta 11 + CAP2 | £180 | |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2,048MB) | 1,000 | 1,280 | 1,000 | 4,800 | 256 | Catalyst 12.11 beta 11 + CAP2 | £170 | |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 OC (2,048MB) | 1,033 (1,098) | 960 | 1,033 (1,098) | 6,008 | 192 | GeForce 310.70 beta | £165 | |
HEXUS High-End Test Bench |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i7-3770K (3.50GHz, 8MB cache, quad-core) | |||||||||||
| CPU Cooler | Intel reference E97378-001 | |||||||||||
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H | |||||||||||
| Memory | 8GB Patriot Viper 3 (2x4GB) DDR3 @ 1,600MHz | |||||||||||
| Power Supply | Corsair AX750W | |||||||||||
| Storage Device | Samsung 830 Series 256GB SSD | |||||||||||
| Optical Drive | Generic 24x DVD-RW | |||||||||||
| Chassis | Corsair Graphite Series 600T | |||||||||||
| Monitor | Dell 3007FPW | |||||||||||
| Operating system | Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit, SP1) | |||||||||||
HEXUS Christmas Benchmark Suite |
||
|---|---|---|
| 3D Benchmarks | Mode and Resolutions | Quality Settings |
| 3DMark 11 | DX11 at 1,280x720 and 1,920x1,080 | Performance and Extreme Presets |
| DiRT Showdown | DX11 at 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 | 4xMSAA, High Preset |
| Just Cause 2 | DX10 at 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 | 8xMSAA, High Preset |
| Far Cry 3 | DX11 at 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 | 2xMSAA, High Preset |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops II | DX9 at 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,600 | 4xMSAA, High/Extra Preset |
| LuxMark 2.0 | OpenCL GPUs-only | Sala (488,000+ triangles) and Room (2,000,000+ triangles) |
| General Benchmarks | Description | |
| Power Consumption | To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record mains power draw both when idle and while playing Far Cry 3 | |
| Temperature | To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record GPU core temperature both when idle and while playing Far Cry 3 | |
| Noise | A PCE-318 meter is used to record noise levels when idle and while playing Far Cry 3 | |
Notes
We usually have tens of cards in a comparison line-up. However, we tend to overhaul the graphics-card benchmarking suite in the new year, enabling us to experiment a little during the run-up to Christmas. This is why we're comparing the PowerColor card's performance against a bone-stock Radeon HD 7870 and a cheaper Gigabyte GTX 660 OC - both are comfortably under £200.
We're including numbers for high-quality settings at 1,920x1,080 and card-bustin' 2,560x1,600 resolutions. A three-card comparison enables us to use the very latest drivers from both sides - Catalyst 12.11 beta 11 and GeForce 310.70 - and we've added in Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Far Cry 3 for the second time. Each game is FRAPS'd during an intensive gameplay section.
Focussing on three cards also provides the opportunity of giving you more meaningful data. Alongside the usual average FPS graphs we're including per-second framerates for both resolutions. This should give you a better idea of just how each card performs.
