Performance tests

Testbed:

• Intel Core i7-975 3340 MHz CPU
• ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard on the Intel X58 chipset
• 6GB of 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM from Corsair
• WD Caviar SE WD1600JD 160GB SATA HDD
• Tagan TG900-BZ 900W PSU
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, DirectX 11
• 30" Dell 3007WFP monitor
• VSync disabled
• AMD Catalyst 12.1; NVIDIA Drivers 295.52

Benchmarks:

• Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft) — DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0 (HDR), built-in benchmarking utility (the Middle level), maximum settings.
• Tropics Benchmark 1.3 (Unigine) — DirectX 10.0, High settings.
• 3DMark 11 (FutureMark) — DirectX 11, Performance settings.
• Aliens vs. Predator (Rebellion/SEGA) — DirectX 11, Shaders 5.0, Very High settings, run from in game.
• Crysis Warhead (Crytek/EA) — Cargo level, DirectX 10.0, Very High settings, batch file, timedemo available by e-mail request.
• F1 2010 (Codemasters) — DirectX 11, Ultra High settings, run as follows: "formulaone.exe -benchmark example_benchmark.xml". Game provided by NVIDIA.
• Heaven Benchmark 2.5 Pro (Unigine) — DirectX 11, High settings.
• Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (Codemasters) — DirectX 11, Ultra High settings, run as follows: "dirt2.exe -benchmark example_benchmark.xml".
• Metro 2033 (4A Games/THQ) — DirectX 11, Super High settings, PhysX disabled, run from in game.
• Just Cause 2 (Avalanche Studios/Eidos Interactive) — DirectX 10.0, Super High settings, run from in game.

Final thoughts

The capability rating compares each graphics card with GeForce GT 430, which is considered a baseline, or 100%. The rating is based on both synthetic and gaming results and shows, as the name implies, what a product is capable of.

The usability rating is obtained by dividing each card's capability rating by its price. It basically shows whether a given product is over or underpriced, considering what it can do, and thus how reasonable it is to buy it.

The complete ratings can be found in our i3Dspeed. Below are just the parts relevant to today's review.

Sorted by capability (high to low)

You can clearly see that GeForce GTX 680 leads both at reference frequencies and when overclocked.

Sorted by usability (high to low)

Due to its price, the overclocked Radeon HD 7970 wins, but GeForce GTX 680 is right on its heels. However, since the price of Radeon HD 7970 has decreased recently, its usability rating will grow accordingly.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 Overclock Edition is an amazing graphics card with an excellent cooling system that is hardly noisy and not too big. Moreover, Gigabyte offers an improved PCB as well as a better supplementary power connector layout. This might be the best version of GeForce GTX 680 as yet.

Palit GeForce GTX 680 JetStream is also a good choice with all the necessary adapters bundled. Overclocked, too. The only disadvantage is its noisy cooling system.

Write a comment below. No registration needed!