Performance tests

Testbed:

• Intel Core i7-3960X CPU (overclocked to 4 GHz)
• ASUS Sabertooth X79 motherboard on the Intel X79 chipset
• MSI X79A-GD45(8B) motherboard on the Intel X79 chipset
• 8GB of 1866MHz DDR3 SDRAM from Corsair
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 3TB SATA2 HDD
• WD Caviar Blue WD10EZEX 1TB SATA2 HDD
• Enermax Platimax 1200W PSU
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, DirectX 11
• 30" Dell UltraSharp U3011 monitor
• VSync disabled
• AMD Catalyst 12.7 beta; NVIDIA Drivers 304.79

Benchmarks:

• 3DMark 11 (FutureMark) — DirectX 11.0, Performance settings.
• Aliens vs. Predator (Rebellion/SEGA) — DirectX 11.0, Shaders 5.0, Very High settings, run from in game.
• Crysis Warhead (Crytek/EA) — Cargo, DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0, Very High settings, batch file, timedemo available by e-mail request.
• Crysis 2 Maximum Edition (Crytek/EA) — DirectX 11.0, Very High settings, Central Park level, launched with the Adrenaline Crysis 2 Benchmark Tool.
• DiRT: Showdown (Codemasters) — DirectX 11.0, Ultra High settings, launched as follows: dirt showdown.exe -benchmark example_benchmark.xml.
• F1 2010 (Codemasters) — DirectX 11.0, Ultra High settings, run as follows: "formulaone.exe -benchmark example_benchmark.xml". Game provided by NVIDIA.
• Hard Reset (Flying Wild Hog) — DirectX 10.0, built-in benchmark, maximum quality settings.
• Heaven Benchmark 2.0 (Unigine) — DirectX 11.0, High settings.
• Just Cause 2 (Avalanche Studios/Eidos Interactive) — DirectX 11.0, Super High settings, run from in game.
• Metro 2033 (4A Games/THQ) — DirectX 11.0, Super High settings, PhysX disabled, run from in game.
• Total War: Shogun 2 (Creavive Assembly/SEGA) — DirectX 11.0, maximum quality settings.

In our i3DSpeed, the overclocked Radeon HD 7870 works at 1150 MHz. Since MSI R7870 Hawk easily achieves 1200 MHz, we'll assume it works at the same frequency as our oveclocked Radeon HD 7870. In turn, AFOX Radeon HD 7850 (Single Slot) has the standard clock rates, so we'll consider the same as the reference Radeon HD 7850.

Final thoughts

The capability rating compares each graphics card with GeForce GT 630, 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)

The new NVIDIA GTX 660 Ti adapter slightly outdoes Radeon HD 7870 in our capability rating, but you should consider the usability rating as well. The overclocked HD 7870 outperforms the previous leader Radeon HD 7950. As for the Radeon HD 7850, the closest competitor NVIDIA can offer is GTX 560 Ti 448 as yet.

Sorted by usability (high to low)

Here, Radeon HD 7850 runs the show, being definitely the best videocard for its price. The overclocked Radeon HD 7870 (e.g., MSI R7870 Hawk) outperforms a bunch of NVIDIA cards as well. Now let's return to our graphics adapters.

AFOX Radeon HD 7850 (Single Slot) is one of the best Radeon HD 7850 graphics cards for its price. The biggest disadvantage is the noisy cooling system. It efficiently prevents you from using this single-slot card in barebone rigs, for which it was made in the first place.

MSI R7870 Hawk 2048MB 256-bit GDDR5 is certainly an overclocker's choice. It outperforms Radeon HD 7950 and at times even catches up with Radeon HD 7970. Just be careful when you overclock this card, because the GPU Reactor really removes the limitations introduced by AMD. Speaking of disadvantages, it's the noise again. In this case, loud high-frequency whistling. Not that many overclockers would care, though. Who knows, some might even like it.

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