Test Methodology
HEXUS Driver Test Bench | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware Components | HEXUS Review | Product Page | |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-4790K (quad-core, overclocked up to 4.40GHz) | June 2014 | Intel.com |
| Motherboard | Asus Z97-A | May 2014 | Asus.com |
| Memory | 16GB GeIL EVO Veloce (2x8GB) DDR3 @ 1866MHz | September 2012 | Geil.com.tw |
| Power Supply | Corsair AX760i | - | Corsair.com |
| Storage Device | Hynix SH910A 256GB SSD | August 2014 | SKHynix.com |
| Chassis | Corsair Graphite Series 600T | October 2010 | Corsair.com |
| Monitor | Philips Brilliance 4K Ultra HD LED (288P6LJEB/00) | - | Philips.co.uk |
| Operating system | Windows 8.1 (64-bit) | October 2012 | Microsoft.com |
HEXUS Driver Benchmark Suite | |
|---|---|
| Synthetic Benchmarks | |
| 3DMark | Fire Strike and Fire Strike Extreme |
| Gaming Benchmarks | |
| Title | Settings at 1,920 x 1,080 (FHD) |
| BioShock Infinite | AA Enabled, Ultra Preset inc. Depth of Field |
| Crysis 3 | 4xMSAA, Very High Textures, Very High System Spec |
| Grid Autosport | 8xMSAA, Maximum Quality Settings (Soft Ambient Occlusion On, Advanced Lighting On, Rear View Mirror Off, Global Illumination On) |
| Tomb Raider | FXAA, Ultra Quality Preset, TressFX Disabled |
| Total War: Rome II | Extreme Preset |
Notes
To analyse AMD and Nvidia's driver progress throughout 2014 we tested high-end and mid-range GPUs at a popular 1080p resolution. For AMD the R9 290 and R7 265 with driver packages Catalyst 13.12 and Catalyst 14.12 represent the start and end of the year, respectively. For Nvidia we have the GTX 780 Ti and GTX 750 Ti with the GeForce 332.21 and GeForce 334.89 for the start of the year, the GTX 750 Ti was released in late-february hence the slightly later driver version, and the GeForce 347.09 driver for the end of the year.
