Friday, March 16th 2012

GTX 680 Generally Faster Than HD 7970: New Benchmarks

For skeptics who refuse to believe randomly-sourced bar-graphs of the GeForce GTX 680 that are starved of pictures, here is the first set of benchmarks run by a third-party (neither NVIDIA nor one of its AIC partners). This [p]reviewer from HKEPC has pictures to back his benchmarks. The GeForce GTX 680 was pitted against a Radeon HD 7970, and a previous-generation GeForce GTX 580. The test-bed consisted of an extreme-cooled Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor (running at stock frequency), ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard, 8 GB (4x 2 GB) GeIL EVO 2 DDR3-2200 MHz quad-channel memory, Corsair AX1200W PSU, and Windows 7 x64.

Benchmarks included 3DMark 11 (performance preset), Battlefield 3, Batman: Arkham City, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Lost Planet 2, and Unigine Heaven (version not mentioned, could be 1). All tests were run at a constant resolution of 1920x1080, with 8x MSAA on some tests (mentioned in the graphs).

More graphs follow.

Source: HKEPC
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273 Comments on GTX 680 Generally Faster Than HD 7970: New Benchmarks

#226
beck24
Looks good with pre release drivers. single GPU and especially SLI improvements over time can be dramatic with Nvidia. can't wait for actual release and real benches!
Posted on Reply
#227
amdftw
Good news for HD7970 and 7950 owners!
AMD will release a new performance driver in april which boost 10-15% performance on these cards!
AMD purposely held back the performance on these cards, if the NV will release their new series cards. Now the time has come!
So if GTX680 will lead 5-10% compared with HD7970, with the new driver the AMD will be again the king!
Posted on Reply
#228
N3M3515
amdftwGood news for HD7970 and 7950 owners!
AMD will release a new performance driver in april which boost 10-15% performance on these cards!
AMD purposely held back the performance on these cards, if the NV will release their new series cards. Now the time has come!
So if GTX680 will lead 5-10% compared with HD7970, with the new driver the AMD will be again the king!
MMM, i doubt it.
Source?
Posted on Reply
#229
TRWOV
amdftwGood news for HD7970 and 7950 owners!
AMD will release a new performance driver in april which boost 10-15% performance on these cards!
AMD purposely held back the performance on these cards, if the NV will release their new series cards. Now the time has come!
So if GTX680 will lead 5-10% compared with HD7970, with the new driver the AMD will be again the king!
I was thinking something along these lines when the 7870 got results comparable with the 7950/70 BUT if this turns out to be true, AMD is being lame. :mad:
Posted on Reply
#230
Crap Daddy
amdftwGood news for HD7970 and 7950 owners!
AMD will release a new performance driver in april which boost 10-15% performance on these cards!
AMD purposely held back the performance on these cards, if the NV will release their new series cards. Now the time has come!
So if GTX680 will lead 5-10% compared with HD7970, with the new driver the AMD will be again the king!
Are these the same as the drivers for Bulldozer?
Posted on Reply
#231
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
amdftwGood news for HD7970 and 7950 owners!
AMD will release a new performance driver in april which boost 10-15% performance on these cards!
AMD purposely held back the performance on these cards, if the NV will release their new series cards. Now the time has come!
So if GTX680 will lead 5-10% compared with HD7970, with the new driver the AMD will be again the king!
I have never in the last 4 years seen a AMD driver that boosts the performance up to 10-15%. I had a HD5870 about 2 years ago and there was only one driver that actually gave me good performance. Any of the ones after that causes me microstutter, horrible FPS, etc.
Posted on Reply
#232
HTC
amdftwGood news for HD7970 and 7950 owners!
AMD will release a new performance driver in april which boost 10-15% performance on these cards!
AMD purposely held back the performance on these cards, if the NV will release their new series cards. Now the time has come!
So if GTX680 will lead 5-10% compared with HD7970, with the new driver the AMD will be again the king!
This would explain why the 7870 is so close to the 7950 but i very much doubt it.

I'll believe it when i see it.
Posted on Reply
#233
NHKS
amdftwGood news for HD7970 and 7950 owners!
AMD will release a new performance driver in april which boost 10-15% performance on these cards!
is the performance boost free?
Posted on Reply
#234
cadaveca
My name is Dave
NHKSis the performance boost free?
You know...


I've always wondered why these GPUs, nearly all of which hit 1000 MHz with ease...weren't billed as the world's first 1 GHz DX11 GPU, or some schtuff like that.


But, if there is a planned driver revision that plans to increase performance by 20%, it explains why these cards can for the most part clock higher than 20% over stock, as the increased power draw from delivering that extra perforamnce needs to be planned for too...


With the low-low power consumption and cool operating temps of the 7970, and the huge overhead in stock cooler cooling capacity...AMD might just have pulled the wool over nVidia's eyes. It would NOT be the first time, although such has not happened in ages...






OR....





It's all BS.


Occam's Razor says it's BS. I'll go with that. :roll:





:rolleyes:
Posted on Reply
#235
NHKS
:DI would call it 'planned ambush'

Posted on Reply
#236
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
cadavecaYou know...


I've always wondered why these GPUs, nearly all of which hit 1000 MHz with ease...weren't billed as the world's first 1 GHz DX11 GPU, or some schtuff like that.


But, if there is a planned driver revision that plans to increase performance by 20%, it explains why these cards can for the most part clock higher than 20% over stock, as the increased power draw from delivering that extra perforamnce needs to be planned for too...


With the low-low power consumption and cool operating temps of the 7970, and the huge overhead in stock cooler cooling capacity...AMD might just have pulled the wool over nVidia's eyes. It would NOT be the first time, although such has not happened in ages...






OR....





It's all BS.


Occam's Razor says it's BS. I'll go with that. :roll:





:rolleyes:
if the hd7970 has low power consumption then the GTX680 will hve even lower if the TDP is anything like what the consumption will be like. since the HD7970 as a 210w TDP
Posted on Reply
#237
Aquinus
Resident Wat-man
nvidiaintelftwif the hd7970 has low power consumption then the GTX680 will hve even lower if the TDP is anything like what the consumption will be like. since the HD7970 as a 210w TDP
What makes you say that? nVidia has always been a bit high on the side of power consumption and heat.
Posted on Reply
#238
amdftw
N3M3515MMM, i doubt it.
Source?
Inside beta drivers, tested with 7970 which will be the base of a 12.4 driver.
This driver has not available yet for users.
It might be AMD will release beta performance driver in next 1 or 2 weeks, the final will arrive in april.

Watch this bench: www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/13.html
7870 beat the 7970? YES!
That was because the 7870/50 was tested with the very early performance driver which was the very early base of the final perf. driver.
The 7970/50 results only made with the 2 months old driver.

Just look everybody when the 7970/50 get the final perf. driver!
Posted on Reply
#239
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
AquinusWhat makes you say that? nVidia has always been a bit high on the side of power consumption and heat.
yeah but thats also when there TDP was off the charts high.
Posted on Reply
#240
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
amdftwInside beta drivers, tested with 7970 which will be the base of a 12.4 driver.
This driver has not available yet for users.
It might be AMD will release beta performance driver in next 1 or 2 weeks, the final will arrive in april.
I think he asked for a source like a link of reputable information.
Posted on Reply
#241
NHKS
AquinusWhat makes you say that? nVidia has always been a bit high on the side of power consumption and heat.
in case u have nt seen this power consumption chart.... as tested by hkepc.com
Posted on Reply
#242
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
read the charts on here for the 7900,7800,7700 series power charts. I dont trust anything till its officially launched
Posted on Reply
#243
Crap Daddy
From what we see clock for clock 7970 and the 680 are about the same in synthetic benchmarks but games are different. Now, the 680 seem to have an advantage in being more efficient to reach those clocks so I don't think that AMD will stand a chance in an arms race based on who can get higher clocks. I think there is a very good reason why the 7970 was clocked at 925 and I suspect that the GK104 was clocked higher because it has to pull ahead since it's decided it's the GTX680 and not some 670 or 660. And of course... because it can.
Posted on Reply
#244
techtard
I don't think AMD is going to release a magic driver to boost performance. They are notorious for having shoddy drivers.
Unless their new president personally fires their whole software team and hires better software engineers, they will continue to have excellent hardware that is saddled with inferior drivers.
Posted on Reply
#245
NHKS
Crap DaddyFrom what we see clock for clock 7970 and the 680 are about the same in synthetic benchmarks but games are different. Now, the 680 seem to have an advantage in being more efficient to reach those clocks so I don't think that AMD will stand a chance in an arms race based on who can get higher clocks. I think there is a very good reason why the 7970 was clocked at 925 and I suspect that the GK104 was clocked higher because it has to pull ahead since it's decided it's the GTX680 and not some 670 or 660. And of course... because it can.
Add to that effect of FXAA or even new TXAA..
Posted on Reply
#246
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
NHKSAdd to that effect of FXAA or even new TXAA..
the new TXAA looks nuts! Im excited to try it out.
Posted on Reply
#248
cadaveca
My name is Dave
if it's off topic, why post?:shadedshu
Posted on Reply
#249
skullforge
cause it's awesome :P
hoping the 680 will overclock the same!
Posted on Reply
#250
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
skullforgecause it's awesome :P
hoping the 680 will overclock the same!
at this point i think we can all assume that 28nm cards will be able to overclock damn well.
Posted on Reply
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