The GTX 680 Arrives! – Part Two, Maximum Overclocking vs. the HD 7970
Test Configuration – Hardware
- Intel Core i7 920 reference 2.66 GHz, overclocked to 4.2 GHz using the 21x multiplier; Turbo and HyperThreading are on.
- Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P (latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x).
- 6 GB OCZ DDR3 PC 1800 Kingston RAM (3×2 GB, tri-channel at 1200MHz; 2×2 GB supplied by Kingston)
- GeForce GTX 680, 2 GB (1006/3000MHz and also overclocked), supplied by Nvidia
- PowerColor Radeon HD 7970, 3 GB with custom cooling at stock clocks (925/1375MHz) and also overclocked.
- Onboard Realtek Audio
- 2 x 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 hard drives; one for AMD and one for Nvidia
- Thermaltake ToughPowerXT 775W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake
- Thermaltake Element G Case supplied by Thermaltake
- Frio OCK CPU cooler, supplied by Thermaltake
- Philips DVD SATA writer
- HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD.
Test Configuration – Software
- Nvidia GeForce 300.10 WHQL drivers for the GTX 680; High Quality
- AMD 12.3 WHQL Catalyst drivers; High Quality – optimizations off; use application settings
- Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
- Latest DirectX
- All games are patched to their latest versions.
- VSync is forced off in the control panel.
- AA enabled as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis.
- All results show average frame rates except as noted.
- Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
- Windows 7 64, all DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths; DX11 titles under DX11 render paths.
The Benchmarks
Synthetic
- Vantage
- 3DMark 11
- Heaven 3.0
OpenGL
- Wolfenstein
DX9
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Serious Sam 3 BFE
DX10
- Crysis
- Far Cry 2
- Just Cause 2
- World-in-Conflict
- Resident Evil 5
DX11
- BattleForge
- Alien vs. Predator
- STALKER, Call of Pripyat
- Metro 2033
- F1 2010
- H.A.W.X. 2
- Lost Planet 2
- Civilization V
- Total War: Shogun II
- Crysis 2
- Dirt 3
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
- Batman: Arkham City
Before we get to the performance charts, let’s look at overclocking, power draw and temperatures.
Where are BF3 results?
No Battlefield 3 results. Although just about every other tech site includes it, we did not deliberately leave it out. Unfortunately, we have had issues with Origin since the last patch.
Hopefully we will have these issues solved pretty soon.
Thanks for the info.
Really useful as I’ve got a 2560×1440 monitor and was looking between the 680 and the 7970. As I intend to water cool and overclock. This information is great.
This has led me to get a second hand 7970 (about 25% cheaper than new).