Enthusiasts want to know about Nvidia's next-generation architecture so badly that they broke into our content management system and took the data to be used for today's launch. Now we can really answer how Kepler fares against AMD's GCN architecture.
G.Skill 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600, F3-12800CL9Q2-32GBZL @ 9-9-9-24 and 1.5 V
Hard Drive
Intel SSDSC2MH250A2 250 GB SATA 6Gb/s
Graphics
Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 2 GB
Row 5 - Cell 0
AMD Radeon HD 7970 3 GB
Row 6 - Cell 0
AMD Radeon HD 7950 3 GB
Row 7 - Cell 0
AMD Radeon HD 6990 4 GB
Row 8 - Cell 0
Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 3 GB
Row 9 - Cell 0
Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 1.5 GB
Power Supply
Cooler Master UCP-1000 W
System Software And Drivers
Operating System
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
DirectX
DirectX 11
Graphics Driver
Nvidia GeForce Release 300.99 (For GTX 680)
Row 15 - Cell 0
Nvidia GeForce Release 296.10 (For GTX 580 and 590)
Row 16 - Cell 0
AMD Catalyst 12.2
Undoubtedly, a number of Tom’s Hardware regulars saw that some of my launch-day data was pulled from the CMS earlier in the week and quickly spread around the Web. Based on the data, many conclusions were prematurely drawn without the context of hardware setup, drivers, or lab time in front of all of these cards. Even another vendor got in on the action, wondering why the stolen Skyrim results with FXAA enabled were so much different from the Skyrim numbers with adaptive anti-aliasing from Don’s Radeon HD 7800-series story.
Understand that, for each of these reviews, we update our test bed to the latest BIOS, we download all of the latest Windows Updates, and we download the games themselves, along with their newest patches. Some variation is expected, and anything out of the ordinary is checked and checked again. In this case, because I looked at some of the feedback, I was able to go back, re-run tests, and have another lab validate the results—everything checks out.
Of course, if you’re truly interested in a discussion about graphics testing methodology, test settings, and analysis, I welcome constructive discourse.
Ultra Quality Settings, No AA / 16x AF, 4x MSAA / 16x AF, v-sync off, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, DirectX 11, Going Hunting, 90-second playback, Fraps
Crysis 2
DirectX 9 / DirectX 11, Ultra System Spec, v-sync off, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, No AA / No AF, Central Park, High-Resolution Textures: On
Metro 2033
High Quality Settings, AAA / 4x AF, 4x MSAA / 16x AF, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, Built-in Benchmark, Depth of Field filter Disabled, Steam version
DiRT 3
Ultra High Settings, No AA / No AF, 8x AA / No AF, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, Steam version, Built-In Benchmark Sequence, DX 11
Ultra Quality Settings, No AA / 16x AF, 8x AA / 16x AF, From Crushblow to The Krazzworks, 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 / 2560x1600, Fraps, DirectX 11 Rendering, x64 Client
SiSoftware Sandra 2012
Sandra Tech Support (Engineer) 2012.SP2, GP Processing and GP Bandwidth Modules
CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5
449 MB MPEG-2 1080i Video Sample to Apple iPad 2 Profile (1024x768)
LuxMark 2.0
64-bit Binary, Version 1.0, Classroom Scene
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Nice results, this is how the transition to 28nm should be.
Now we just need prices to start dropping, although significant drops will probably not come until the GK110 is released :/
Its a midrange card, anyone who disagrees is plain wrong. Thats not to say its a bad card, what happened here is nvidia is so far ahead of AMD in tech that the mid range card purposed to fill the 560ti in the lineup actually competed with AMD's flagship. If you dont believe me that is fine, you will see in a couple months when the actual flagship comes out, the ones with the 384 bit interface.
Wow not too bad. Looks like the 680 is actually cheaper than the 7970 right now, about 50$, and generally beats the 7970, but obviously not at everything.
