With the latest Intel chipset release we decided to update our ageing X58 setup to the new X79 chipset. Not only that but we will be using the flagship Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor clocked to 4.5GHz to ensure we have no CPU bottlenecks. With 16GB of ram on board there should be minimal paging so the benchmarks we run today will hopefully give a true reflection of the graphics card's performance.
Some of the components for our test bench were kindly donated by CORSAIR who provided the majority of components without whom we would not have been able to bring you this review so a big thanks to them.
Graphics cards on test:
ZOTAC GTX650 Ti 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD7770 1GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX660 2GB GDDR5
GIGABYTE GTX680 Super Overclock
MSI GTX680 Twin Frozr 2GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX660Ti AMP! Edition 2GB GDDR5
MSI R7870 Hawk 2GB GDDR5
EVGA GTX680 SuperClocked Signature 2GB GDDR5
GIGABYTE GTX680 Windforce 2GB GDDR5
NVIDIA GTX670 2GB GDDR5
HIS HD 7870 IceQ Turbo 2GB GDDR5
MSI HD 7870 Twin Frozr III OC 2GB GDDR5
GIGABYTE HD7850 OC WindForce x2 2GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX680 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD7870 2GB GDDR5
Zotac GTX580 AMP2! 3GB GDDR5
XFX R7970 Black Edition 3GB GDDR5
XFX R7770 Black Edition 'S' 1GB GDDR5
AMD HD7750 1GB GDDR5
HIS HD7970 3GB GDDR5
XFX DD Radeon R7950 3072MB GDDR5
PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7970 3072MB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX570 AMP! 1280MB GDDR5
NVIDIA GTX570 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-448 Twin Frozr III 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-384 Twin Frozr III 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD6990 4GB GDDR5
***NOTE*** Pre-release Forceware drivers (306.28) were used with the ZOTAC GTX650Ti.
Benchmarks
Normally we would run the tests at four settings however at 2560x1600 both the NVIDIA GTX650 Ti and AMD HD7770 could not produce adequate (playable) frames per second at 2560x1600 so these tests were omitted as they served no purpose other than to state that 1920x1080 is the maximum resolution one could hope to utilise these two cards for.
Let's see how today's graphics card performed...
Some of the components for our test bench were kindly donated by CORSAIR who provided the majority of components without whom we would not have been able to bring you this review so a big thanks to them.
Graphics cards on test:
GIGABYTE GTX650 Ti 2GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX650 Ti 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD7770 1GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX660 2GB GDDR5
GIGABYTE GTX680 Super Overclock
MSI GTX680 Twin Frozr 2GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX660Ti AMP! Edition 2GB GDDR5
MSI R7870 Hawk 2GB GDDR5
EVGA GTX680 SuperClocked Signature 2GB GDDR5
GIGABYTE GTX680 Windforce 2GB GDDR5
NVIDIA GTX670 2GB GDDR5
HIS HD 7870 IceQ Turbo 2GB GDDR5
MSI HD 7870 Twin Frozr III OC 2GB GDDR5
GIGABYTE HD7850 OC WindForce x2 2GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX680 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD7870 2GB GDDR5
Zotac GTX580 AMP2! 3GB GDDR5
XFX R7970 Black Edition 3GB GDDR5
XFX R7770 Black Edition 'S' 1GB GDDR5
AMD HD7750 1GB GDDR5
HIS HD7970 3GB GDDR5
XFX DD Radeon R7950 3072MB GDDR5
PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7970 3072MB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX570 AMP! 1280MB GDDR5
NVIDIA GTX570 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-448 Twin Frozr III 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-384 Twin Frozr III 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD6990 4GB GDDR5
***NOTE*** Pre-release Forceware drivers (306.28) were used with the ZOTAC GTX650Ti.
Motherboard: MSI X79 Big Bang X-Power II
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition @ 4.5GHz
RAM - 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance (Red) DDR3 @ 1866MHz 9-10-9-27
Power Supply – ANTEC High Current Pro 1200W
Hard Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB
Cooler – Corsair H100
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition @ 4.5GHz
RAM - 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance (Red) DDR3 @ 1866MHz 9-10-9-27
Power Supply – ANTEC High Current Pro 1200W
Hard Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB
Cooler – Corsair H100
Benchmarks
Normally we would run the tests at four settings however at 2560x1600 both the NVIDIA GTX650 Ti and AMD HD7770 could not produce adequate (playable) frames per second at 2560x1600 so these tests were omitted as they served no purpose other than to state that 1920x1080 is the maximum resolution one could hope to utilise these two cards for.
Battlefield 3
Crysis 2
Crysis Warhead
Metro 2033
Batman: Arkham City
Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
DiRT 3
Futuremark 3DMark 2011
Unigine: Heaven 2.5
Crysis 2
Crysis Warhead
Metro 2033
Batman: Arkham City
Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
DiRT 3
Futuremark 3DMark 2011
Unigine: Heaven 2.5
Let's see how today's graphics card performed...
