Battle of the Betas – GF 326.19 vs. Catalyst 13.8 Performance Analysis – 30 games

Test Configuration & Driver Release Notes

Test Configuration

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i7 3770K (overclocked to 4.5GHz); Turbo is on.
• EVGA Z77 FTW motherboard (Intel Z77 chipset, latest beta 03-12-13 BIOS, PCIe 3.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x using Plex chip.)
• 16GB Kingston Beast HyperX DDR3 Kingston RAM (8x2GB, dual-channel at 2133MHz; supplied by Kingston)
• Noctua NH-DH14 CPU cooler, supplied by Noctua plus 7 case fans.
• Nvidia GeForce 780, 3GB, reference design and clocks, supplied by Nvidia
• Nvidia GTX 770 (2GB, reference design and clocks), supplied by Nvidia
• PowerColor HD 7970 3GB at stock clocks (925/1375MHz) and at GHz Edition Boost speeds (1050/1500MHz)
• Onboard Realtek Audio
• Genius SP-D150 notebook speakers, supplied by Genius
• Two identical 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives configured and set up identically from drive image; one partition for Nvidia GeForce drivers and one for ATI Catalyst drivers
• Cooler Master Platinum Pro 1000W PSU, supplied by Cooler Master
• Thermaltake Overseer RX-I full tower case, supplied by Thermaltake
• Philips DVD SATA writer
• HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD

Test Configuration – Software

• Nvidia GeForce Beta 326.19 High Quality; Single-display Performance mode; Prefer Maximum Performance
• AMD Catalyst 13.6 and 13.8 beta drivers. All optimizations off (Use application settings); High Quality
• Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
• Latest DirectX
• All games are patched to their latest versions.
• Vsync is forced off in the control panels.
• Varying 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
• Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
• Windows 7 64, all DX9 titles were run under DX9 render paths, DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths and DX11 titles under DX11 render paths.

The Benchmarks

• Synthetic
  • FireStrike (and FireStrike Extreme)
  • 3DMark 11
  • Heaven 4.0
  • Valley 1.0

   

  DX9
  • Serious Sam 3 BFE
  • Alan Wake: Ameican Nightmare
  • The Witcher 2
  • Borderlands 2
  • Aliens: Colonial Marines

   

  DX10
  • Crysis

   

  DX11
  • BattleForge
  • Alien vs. Predator
  • STALKER, Call of Pripyat
  • Metro 2033
  • Lost Planet 2
  • Civilization V
  • Total War: Shogun II
  • Crysis 2
  • DiRT 3
  • DiRT: ShowDown
    
  • Batman: Arkham City
  • Battlefield 3
  • Max Payne 3
  • the Secret World
  • Sleeping Dogs
  • Sniper Elite V2
  • Hitman: Absolution
  • Far Cry 3
  • Tomb Raider: 2013
  • Assassin’s Creed 3
  • Crysis 3
  • BioShock: Infinite
  • Metro: Last Light
  • GRID 2

Lets look at the release notes from AMD regarding the Catalyst 13.8 beta before we head to performance testing. Release notes, performance analysis and the comparison with GeForce 320.xx for the GeForce 326.19 beta can be found here. First up, the release notes from AMD regarding Catalyst 13.8 Beta drivers.

Always start here to download AMD graphics drivers.

Feature Highlights of The AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta Driver for Windows:

• Support for AMD CrossFire™ Frame Pacing
  • Frame Pacing ensures that frames rendered across multiple GPUs in a CrossFire configuration will be displayed at an even and regular pace.
  • Enabled through the AMD Catalyst Control Center; Globally or on a per application basis.
  • Frame Pacing is enabled by default.
  • Supported for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications, and resolutions up to and including 2560×1600 (single display).
• OpenGL 4.3 support – full support for the OpenGL 4.3 feature set
• Performance improvements found in AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta for Windows:
  • Metro: Last Light – improves performance up to 7% on the AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series
• OpenGL support for User Profiles and Catalyst Application Profiles:
  • Users can now create per application 3D setting profiles for OpenGL applications.
  • OpenGL applications are now supported through Catalyst Application Profile updates (for single GPU and AMD CrossFire configurations).
• AMD Enduro Technology enhancement – Catalyst Control Center will now show which applications are active on the Performance GPU, and the Power-Saving GPU
• Resolved issues:
  • Resolved crash when enabling AMD CrossFireX™ on some AMD 970 platforms
  • Improved stability for AMD Radeon HD 7790
  • Resolved intermittent mouse cursor corruption when rapidly moving the cursor across window borders

System Requirements:

• Windows® 8 (32 & 64-bit versions)
• Windows 7 (32 & 64-bit versions with SP1 or higher)

AMD Product Compatibility:

• AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 8000M Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 7000M Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6000M Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5000M Series

Let’s head to the charts and see the performance comparison in 30 games and in 4 synthetics since we last tested the GTX 770 versus the HD 7970.