Scaling and Consistency Examination
Head-to-Head - 2,560x1,440 to 3,840x2,160 |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Card | Setting |
Alien Isolation |
BioShock Infinite |
Grid Autosport |
Middle-earth: SoM |
Tomb Raider |
Total War: Rome II |
| EVGA GTX 970 SSC | 2,560x1,440 | 90.9 |
70.7 |
85.0 |
57.5 |
89.8 |
73.9 |
| 3,840x2,160 | 48.6 |
36.0 |
51.4 |
35.8 |
40.6 |
37.0 |
|
| % drop-off | 46.5 |
49.1 |
39.5 |
37.7 |
54.8 |
49.9 |
|
| Gigabyte R9 290X | 2,560x1,440 | 87.1 |
72.3 |
75.3 |
64.6 |
86.8 |
69.2 |
| 3,840x2,160 | 48.3 |
36.8 |
48.4 |
43.0 |
42.1 |
36.1 |
|
| % drop-off | 44.5 |
49.1 |
35.7 |
33.4 |
51.5 |
47.8 |
|
The EVGA card has a slightly larger drop-off in performance from 2,560x1,440 to 3,840x2,160 than the Gigabyte Radeon R9 290X. The GTX 970 suffers an average 46.3 per cent dip when switching resolutions compared to 43.7 per cent for the AMD model. There's been much said about the GTX 970's memory-related problems, where the last portion of the 4GB memory doesn't work as fast as the rest, but the empirical results paint a different picture; both cards' performance is hampered to almost the same degree.
Secondly, in-game benchmark results are recorded as average frames per second, but to provide further analysis, we can report the percentage of frames rendered within a specified time, as well as the time taken to render the slowest one per cent of frames during the benchmark run. We choose 25ms at 4K which equates to a full 40 frames over a second. This number is chosen for two reasons: it's the lowest we reckon is passable for smooth gameplay and, secondly, is where refresh-rate-adjusting technologies such as G-Sync and FreeSync begin to have a real frame-smoothing impact.
What's Happening At 4K |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Card | Setting |
Alien Isolation |
BioShock Infinite |
Grid Autosport |
Middle-earth: SoM |
Tomb Raider |
Total War: Rome II |
| EVGA GTX 970 SSC | Frames within 25ms, higher is better | 97.9 |
26.3 |
99.2 |
18.6 |
67.8 |
29.3 |
| 99th percentile, lower is better | 25.6 |
51.3 |
24.3 |
34.1 |
28.6 |
43.3 |
|
| Gigabyte R9 290X | Frames within 25ms, higher is better | 93.1 |
2.7 |
86.9 |
74 |
89.8 |
73.9 |
| 99th percentile, lower is better | 33.8 |
36.1 |
28.6 |
43.1 |
40.6 |
37.0 |
|
We want to see the percentage of frames within 25ms to be high while the 99th percentile figure should be as low as possible.
The EVGA and Gigabyte cards share the honours when it comes to frames rendered within 25ms - three apiece. The 99th percentile results, meanwhile, show that EVGA has the better performance in four of the six games, exemplified by the lower ms result.
What does this really mean? Based on our brief analysis, the memory design of the Maxwell GTX 970 card doesn't have an overtly negative impact on the results at a 4K resolution.
