Best Of The Best: High-End Graphics Card Roundup

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Graphics Chips And Test Configuration

We used an Intel Core i7-920 CPU for our testing purposes, boosting its clock speed to 3.8 GHz in order to circumvent any potential CPU bottlenecks.

This time, our technical tables are more comprehensive to help us detail how our retail test cards differ from the clock rates for standard reference cards. You'll find three different generations of manufacturing technology represented here as well: 65, 55, and 40 nm all exert influence on maximum power consumption and operating temperatures for graphics chips. These tables also illustrate how overclocking on specialty models boosts fill rates and raw computing power for their graphics chips.

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Nvidia Graphics Cards
Manufacturer and Chipset	Code Name	Graphics RAM	GPU clock	Shader	RAM clock	SPs
EVGA GTX 295 Hydro Copper (GeForce GTX 295)	2 x GT200b	2 x 896 GDDR3	720 MHz	4.0, 1,548 MHz	2 x 1,080 MHz	2 x 240
GeForce GTX 295	2 x GT200b	2 x 896 GDDR3	576 MHz	4.0, 1,242 MHz	2 x 999 MHz	2 x 240
Zotac GTX285 AMP Edition (GeForce GTX 285)	GT200b	1,024 GDDR3	702 MHz	4.0, 1,512 MHz	2 x 1,296 MHz	240
MSI N285GTX SuperPipe OC (GeForce GTX 285)	GT200b	1,024 GDDR3	680 MHz	4.0, 1,476 MHz	2 x 1,250 MHz	240
GeForce GTX 285	GT200b	1,024 GDDR3	648 MHz	4.0, 1,476 MHz	2 x 1,242 MHz	240
MSI N280GTX OC HydroGen (GeForce GTX 280)	GT200	1,024 GDDR3	700 MHz	4.0, 1,400 MHz	2 x 1,150 MHz	240
GeForce GTX 280	GT200	1,024 GDDR3	602 MHz	4.0, 1,296 MHz	2 x 1,107 MHz	240
BFG GTX 275 (GeForce GTX 275)	GT200b	896 GDDR3	648 MHz	4.0, 1,440 MHz	2 x 1,152 MHz	240
GeForce GTX 275	GT200b	896 GDDR3	633 MHz	4.0, 1,404 MHz	2 x 1,134 MHz	240
GeForce GTX 260 216SPs	GT200b	896 GDDR3	576 MHz	4.0, 1,242 MHz	2 x 999 MHz	216
GeForce GTX 260	GT200	896 GDDR3	576 MHz	4.0, 1,242 MHz	2 x 999 MHz	192
GeForce 9800 GTX+	G92b	512 MB GDDR3	738 MHz	4.0, 1,836 MHz	2 x 1,100 MHz	128
GeForce 9800 GTX	G92	512 MB GDDR3	675 MHz	4.0, 1,688 MHz	2 x 1,100 MHz	128

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Manufacturer and Chipset	Memory bus	Fab technology	Transistors	Interface
EVGA GTX 295 Hydro Copper (GeForce GTX 295)	2 x 448-bit	55 nm	2 x 1,400 million	PCIe 2.0
GeForce GTX 295	2 x 448-bit	55 nm	2 x 1,400 million	PCIe 2.0
Zotac GTX285 AMP Edition (GeForce GTX 285)	512-bit	55 nm	1,400 million	PCIe 2.0
MSI N285GTX SuperPipe OC (GeForce GTX 285)	512-bit	55 nm	1,400 million	PCIe 2.0
GeForce GTX 285	512-bit	55 nm	1,400 million	PCIe 2.0
MSI N280GTX OC HydroGen (GeForce GTX 280)	512-bit	65 nm	1,400 million	PCIe 2.0
GeForce GTX 280	512-bit	65 nm	1,400 million	PCIe 2.0
BFG GTX 275 (GeForce GTX 275)	448-bit	55 nm	1,400 million	PCIe 2.0
GeForce GTX 275	448-bit	55 nm	1,400 million	PCIe 2.0
GeForce GTX 260 216SPs	448-bit	55 nm	1,400 million	PCIe 2.0
GeForce GTX 260	448-bit	65 nm	1,400 million	PCIe 2.0
GeForce 9800 GTX+	256-bit	55 nm	754 million	PCIe 2.0
GeForce 9800 GTX	256-bit	65 nm	754 million	PCIe 2.0

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Manufacturer and Chipset	Pixel Fill Rate Gpixel/s	Texture Fill Rate Gtexel/s	Memory Bandwidth GB/s	Die Size mm²
EVGA GTX 295 Hydro Copper (GeForce GTX 295)	2 x 20.2	2 x 46.1	2 x 121.0	2 x 470
GeForce GTX 295	2 x 16.1	2 x 36.9	2 x 111.9	2 x 470
Zotac GTX285 AMP Edition (GeForce GTX 285)	22.5	51.4	165.9	470
MSI N285GTX SuperPipe OC (GeForce GTX 285)	21.8	49.8	160.0	470
GeForce GTX 285	20.7	47.4	159.0	470
MSI N280GTX OC HydroGen (GeForce GTX 280)	22.4	51.2	147.2	576
GeForce GTX 280	19.3	44.1	141.7	576
BFG GTX 275 (GeForce GTX 275)	18.1	41.5	129.0	470
GeForce GTX 275	17.7	40.5	127.0	470
GeForce GTX 260 216SPs	16.1	36.9	111.9	470
GeForce GTX 260	16.1	36.9	111.9	576
GeForce 9800 GTX+	11.8	47.2	70.4	276
GeForce 9800 GTX	10.8	43.2	70.4	330

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ATI Graphics Cards
Manufacturer and Chipset	Codename	Graphics RAM	GPU Clock	Shader	Memory clock	SPs
Radeon HD 4890	R790	1,024 MB GDDR5	850 MHz	4.1	4 x 975 MHz	800
Radeon HD 4870 X2	R700 (2 x RV770)	2 x 1,024 MB GDDR5	750 MHz	4.1	4 x 900 MHz	2 x 800
Radeon HD 4870	RV770	512 MB GDDR5	750 MHz	4.1	4 x 900 MHz	800
Radeon HD 4850	RV770	512 MB GDDR3	625 MHz	4.1	2 x 993 MHz	800
Radeon HD 4770	RV740	512 MB GDDR5	750 MHz	4.1	4 x 800 MHz	640

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111 Comments Comment from the forums

Only one ATi card? What happened to all those OC'd 4890s?
Reply
And those HAWX benchmarks look ridiculous. ATi should wipe floor with nvidia with that. Of course you didn't put dx10.1 support on. Bastard...
Reply
cangelini

quarzOnly one ATi card? What happened to all those OC'd 4890s?
These are the same boards that were included in the recent charts update, and are largely contingent on what vendors submit for evaluation. We have a review upcoming comparing Sapphire's new 1 GHz Radeon HD 4890 versus the stock 4890. It'll be up in the next couple of weeks, though.
Reply
ohim

Am i the only one that find this article akward since looking at the tests done on Ati cards on The Last Remnant game makes me wonder what went wrong ... i mean it`s UT3 engine ... why so low performance ?
Reply
curnel_D

Ugh, please tell me that The Last Remnant hasnt been added to the benchmark suite.

And I'm not exactly sure why the writer decided to bench on Endwar instead of World In Conflict. Why is that exactly?

And despite Quarz2's apparent fanboism, I think HAWX would have been better benched under 10.1 for the ATI cards, and used the highest stable settings instead of dropping off to DX9.
Reply
anamaniac

The EVGA 295 is the stuff gods game with.

I would love that card. I would have to replace my whole system to work it properly however.
I want $1500 now... i7 920 (why get better? They all seem to be godly overclockers) and EVGA 295.

How about a test suit of the EVGA GTX 295 in crossfire for a quad-gpu configuration? I know there's driver issues, but it would be fun to see what it could do regardless. Along with seeing how far Toms can OC the EVGA GTX 295.
Actually... Toms just needs to do a new system building recommendation roundup. I find them useful personally, and would have used it myself had my cash source had not lost his job...
Reply
Weird test:
1) Where are the overclocking results?
2) Bad choice for benchmarks: Too many old DX9 based graphic engines (FEAR 2, Fallout 3, Left4Dead with >100FPS) or Endwar which is limited to 30FPS. Where is Crysis?
3) 1900x1200 as highest resolution for high-end cards?
Reply
EQPlayer

Seems that the cumulative benchmark graphs are going to be a bit skewed if The Last Remnant results are included in there... it's fairly obvious something odd is going on looking at the numbers for that game.
Reply
armistitiu

Worst article in a long time. Why compare how old games perform on NVIDIA's high end graphic cards? Don't get me wrong i like them but where's all the Atomic stuff from Saphire, Asus and XFX had some good stuff from ATI too. So what.. you just took the reference cards from ATI and tested them? :| That is just wrong.
Reply
pulasky

WOW what a piece of s********** is this """"""review"""""" Noobidia pay good in this days.
Reply

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Graphics Chips And Test Configuration

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