Do New Drivers Really Boost Performance?

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Comparing Chips And Configurations

Nvidia has revised the name of its graphics driver to reflect another round of confusing marketing (we weren’t particularly impressed with the naming of its newest mobile GPUs in our high-end notebook roundup). ForceWare has become GeForce. Anyone unfamiliar with the naming conventions will have trouble telling the difference between hardware GeForce GTX 280 and software GeForce 177.92.

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Chip	Code name	Memory	GPU rate	Shader	Memory rate	SPs
GeForce GTX 280	GT200	1024 GDDR3	602 MHz	4.0, 1296 MHz	2214 MHz	240
GeForce 9600 GT	G94	1024 MB GDDR3	650 MHz	4.0, 1625 MHz	1800 MHz	64

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Chip	Memory bus	Manufacturing process	Transistors	Interface
GeForce GTX 280	512 bit	65 nm	1400 million	PCIe 2.0
GeForce 9600 GT	256 bit	65 nm	505 million	PCIe 2.0

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Chip	Code name	Memory	GPU rate	Shader	Memory rate	SPs
Radeon HD 4870 CF	RV770	512 MB GDDR5	750 MHz	4.1	3600 MHz	800
Radeon HD 4870	RV770	512 MB GDDR5	750 MHz	4.1	3600 MHz	800

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Chip	Memory bus	Manufacturing process	Transistors	Interface
Radeon HD 4870 CF	256 bit	55 nm	965 million	PCIe 2.0
Radeon HD 4870	256 bit	55 nm	965 million	PCIe 2.0

^{Memory rate=DDR clock rate doubled, physical rate is halved
DDR5 clock rate quadrupled, physical rate is a quarter
SPs=stream processors, P and V=Pixelshader and Vertexshader
TC=Turbo Cache
HM=Hyper Memory
OC=overclocked (clock rate higher than default)
SLI=Parallel operation with 2 Nvidia cards
3SLI=Parallel operation with 3 Nvidia graphics chips
4SLI=Parallel operation with 4 Nvidia graphics chips
CF=CrossFire parallel operation with 2 ATI cards
3CF=CrossFire parallel operation with 3 ATI graphics chips
4CF=CrossFire parallel operation with 4 ATI graphics chips
R680=2xRV670
Shader 2.0=DirectX 9.0, 3.0=DirectX 9.0c, 4.0=DirectX 10, Shader 4.1=DirectX 10.1}

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CPU	Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 @ 2.93 GHz (11x266 MHz),Socket 775, 1.28 Volt, 65 nm, L2 cache 4096 KB
CPU overclocked	Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 @ 3.47 GHz (13x266 MHz)
FSB	1066 MHz (4x266 MHz)
Motherboard	Asus P5E3 Deluxe, PCIe 2.0 2x16, ICH9R
Chip set	Intel X38
Memory	2x1 GB, Ballistix (Crucial Technology) 1.5 Volt,DDR3 1066 7-7-7-20 (2x533 MHz)
Audio	Intel High Definition Audio
LAN	Intel 1000 Pro
Drives	Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500 GB, S-ATA, Cache 16 MB,Hitachi 120 GB, S-ATA, Cache 8 MB
DVD	Gigabyte GO-D1600C
Power Supply	CoolerMaster RS-850-EMBA 850 Watt

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Motherboard	Asus P5N-T Deluxe, PCIe 2.0 2x16
Chip set	Nvidia nForce 780i SLI
Memory	2x1 GB, A-Data Technology 1.8 Volt, DDR2 800 5-5-5-18 (2x400 MHz)
Audio	ADI 1988B SoundMax
LAN	Marvell 88E1116 Gigabit

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Graphic	Radeon HD 4870 and HD 4870 CrossFire ATI Catalyst 8.6 and 8.8(8.7 for Quake Wars)GeForce 9600 GT Nvidia ForceWare 175.16 and GeForce 177.92GeForce GTX 280 ForceWare 177.39 and GeForce 177.92
Operating system	Windows Vista Enterprise SP1
DirectX	10 and 10.1
Chip set driver	X38 Intel 8.3.1.1009780i Nvidia nForce 9.64