New Games and Compute Performance
DiRT Showdown
Though we didn’t include the new DiRT Showdown in our full gaming suite, I did run a couple of tests on the GTX 680, and the new Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, to see how the performance stacked up according to AMD’s claims. We ran it at 2560×1600 with 4xMSAA enabled and the Ultra quality presets.
Obviously there is a HUGE performance delta between the AMD and NVIDIA results here – a gap of 89% is seen here at these settings. People inside NVIDIA are telling me that there is an unpatched bug in the game that is causing these massive performance hits on NVIDIA’s Kepler architecture but in general, gamers don’t care who is at fault, just that something is wrong.
GPU Compute Benchmarks
In addition to the DiRT Showdown test, we wanted to include a couple of showings of GPU compute performance as AMD claims its Tahiti GPU can definitely outperform the GTX 680. Though we aren’t yet ready to explore the custom implementations of Handbrake or GIMP, we did run both the GTX 680 and the HD 7970 GHz Edition through a couple of the standard available OpenCL benchmarks.
LuxMark is an OpenCL-based raytracing engine.
This particular benchmark seems to demonstrate the power of the Tahiti GPU and its 4+ TFLOPS of computing power available to the developers that target it.
ComputeMark is an OpenCL-based physics engine.
The OpenCL physics engine benchmark here results in a much closer match up, but still, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition has a 15% performance advantage.
That Maingear block.
That Maingear block.
Yes?
Yes?
Is pimpin’
Is pimpin’
funny its OC’ed that much but
funny its OC’ed that much but barly beats a 670 and cost how much more?
Which games are you referring
Which games are you referring to? BF3?
Don’t know about barely,
Don’t know about barely, seems to me that it has good amount of extra frames to throw around, compared to the 670. But it doesn’t beat the 680 by much, at least in the game department.
But if you consider that the
But if you consider that the card is built apon the present architecture and manages to beat (modestly in games, trashes nvidia in computing) it is quite good if not utterly impressive.
Yes, no?
AMD’s making car’s ?
typo on
AMD’s making car’s ?
typo on the 2’ed line bud.
“graphics cars”
Thanks!
Thanks!
hehe, nice catch. I thought I
hehe, nice catch. I thought I had fixed that but must have snuck through. thanks 🙂
keep in mind everyone…. the
keep in mind everyone…. the lightning is clocked higher, cos muuuuuch higher, and as I said on the lightning and 680 review,the 7970 has always been stupidly underclocked. It has always been the better performer oc vs oc and the 680 reviews have been such a wash with things drastically swaying per site…. I’ll take my lightning any day of the week, and I’m getting a 2nd one very soon.
Overclocking can be hit or
Overclocking can be hit or miss, I wouldn’t buy a 7970 card relying on OC’s to out perform the 680. I can agree that they may have binned the chips a little too low.. But they would have for a reason, some may never have been good OC’ers.
Although I would buy one if it was cheaper.. That’s where AMD have Nvidia beat.
Only 50mhz of boost? That’s
Only 50mhz of boost? That’s … pretty pointless..
Nice to see AMD not settle for 2nd best, although I don’t know how they’ll be able to sell a OC edition for $499 when you can already buy OC versions with 1GHZ for 479 (xfx black edition)
Well its nice to see the
Well its nice to see the under dog win, even if it is by a hair.
It would be nice to see a new comparison of the 7970 and 680 Lightning cards.
I also have to say how impressed i am in the raw compute performance, that was a large gap.
I just finished with the [H] review, and the card they tested got lower frame rates at stock.
This makes me think that there will be “Golden Cards” as AMD previously stated.
Maybe, but I don’t think
Maybe, but I don’t think there will be. AMD is very firm in their “NVIDIA is doing it wrong” stance in that they think every card should perform the same at stock settings in everyone’s scenario.
I was trying to point out the
I was trying to point out the difference in performance between just 2 cards, based on the results here, and the [H]ardOCP results.
The differences seem large compared to how little difference there usually is in GPU reviews
You can also see the gap present with the 680 as well
Nice to see amd put out a
Nice to see amd put out a faster clocked product due to TSMC’s 28nm process improvements. yes folks this is a new stepping of the same old chip. kudos to them and not bad for a 6 month old gpu.
SO……this isnt Tahiti 2?
SO……this isnt Tahiti 2? Is this just filler to say they got one over on Nvidia?
The question of price is a
The question of price is a big one but other question or questions, “How hot does it run?” and “how loud is it?” cause being labeled a jet engine space heater is not a good thing.
GTX 670 is still the best
GTX 670 is still the best option and a hundred dollars less!
Great review as always Ryan.
Great review as always Ryan.
Ok, I’m impressed. We all
Ok, I’m impressed. We all joke about AMD treading water these days but they do seem to be keeping their head above water quite well. I’m normally alot more interested in the low cost parts of the ‘puter world, most of the rigs I build are for people on a budget, but this is DEFF worth considering if I get asked to build a power rig sometime soon. Thanks for keeping me “in the know” Mr. Shrout!
Ok, I’m impressed. We all
Ok, I’m impressed. We all joke about AMD treading water these days but they do seem to be keeping their head above water quite well. I’m normally alot more interested in the low cost parts of the ‘puter world, most of the rigs I build are for people on a budget, but this is DEFF worth considering if I get asked to build a power rig sometime soon. Thanks for keeping me “in the know” Mr. Shrout!
its unfair.. nvidia already
its unfair.. nvidia already release a beta driver for 680 which improves the performance. but on the test setup they use the old one..
Now you sound like an AMD
Now you sound like an AMD fanboy “wait for the drivers.” 🙂
how about the gtx 690? it is
how about the gtx 690? it is the best card out there right?
help every one….some one is
help every one….some one is selling this card in Pakistan city lahore with complete full box.
He asking for 65,500 Pakistani Rupees
request to community that how much it should be if open box not used (in case) ..
Regards
Waqas M.