GeForce 275.33 Performance analysis
Test Configuration & Driver Release Notes
Test Configuration
Test Configuration – Hardware
- Intel Core i7 920 (reference 2.66 GHz and overclocked to 3.8 GHz); Turbo is on.
- Gigabyte EX58-UD3R (Intel X58 chipset, latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x).
- 6 GB OCZ DDR3 PC 18000 Kingston RAM (3×2 GB, tri-channel at PC 1600 speeds; 2×2 GB supplied by Kingston)
- Nvidia GTX 580 (1.5 GB, reference clocks), supplied by Nvidia
- Galaxy GTX 590 (3 GB, reference clocks) supplied by Nvidia
- Onboard Realtek Audio
- 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 hard drive
- Thermaltake ToughPower 775 W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake
- Thermaltake Element G Case supplied by Thermaltake
- Noctua UD CPU cooler, supplied by Noctua
- Philips DVD SATA writer
- HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD
Test Configuration – Software
- NVIDIA GeForce WHQL 270.61 and WHQL 275.33 for the GTX 580 and the GTX 590. High Quality
- Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
- DirectX July/November 2010
- All games are patched to their latest versions.
- vsync is forced off in the control panel.
- Varying AA enabled as noted in games and “forced” for UT3 (please note that the 8xQ option is not available in the 275.33 series; 8xAA was used for 1920×1200 resolution); all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis and Warhead.
- All results show average, minimum and maximum frame rates except as noted.
- 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
Please note that we are using the same settings that we used for our Introducing the New Phenom II 980 BE vs. Core i7-920 article last month except as noted. Three new games have been introduced to our benching suite since then including, Civilization 5, Shogun Total War II and DiRT3. As with all of our other games, in-game settings are maxed except where noted and levels of AA are noted on the performance summary charts; 2xAA for Shogun II and Civilization 5 and 8xAA for DiRT 3. The performance changes result solely from upgrading each driver from the previous one.
- Vantage
- F.E.A.R.
- X3:Terran Conflict
- Unreal Tournament 3
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Grand Theft Auto IV
- Serious Sam, Second Encounter HD (2010)
- Borderlands
- Wolfenstein
- Left 4 Dead
- Mafia II
- Call of Juarez
- Crysis
- Warhead
- Lost Planet
- World in Conflict
- Far Cry 2
- Just Cause 2
- H.A.W.X.
- Resident Evil 5
- Alien vs. Predator
- Battleforge
- STALKER, Call of Pripyat
- Dirt 2
- F1 2010
- Metro 2033
- Lost Planet 2
- H.A.W.X. 2
- Civilization 5
- Total War: Shogun II
- DiRT 3
- Heaven 2
New Features of GeForce 275.33
First of all, Nvidia’s icon has again been returned to the Windows desktop as a tray icon for easy access to the Nvidia control panel. And automatic driver updates are welcomed beginning with the 270 driver series as the end user has complete flexibility to turn them off or modify the notifications and actions of the updater.
The other main changes we see in the new drivers are performance increases – not only with the GeForce 500 series in games, but extreme performance increases with 3D Vision and in 3D Vision Surround. We are going to cover 3D Vision in an upcoming evaluation this month but can let you know now that everything about 3D Vision has improved with their 275.33 driver release including ease of installation!
Lets look at some of the release notes from Nvidia regarding GeForce 275.33 before we head to performance testing.
Release Notes Highlights for GeForce 275.33
Always check the .pdf release notes for specific issues and resolved and unresolved issues.
What follows are release note highlights from Nvidia’s site. You may find them here and it is also where to begin to download the GeForce drivers for your specific system.
This is the first WHQL-certified release from the Release 275 family of drivers (versions 275.xx to 279.xx). You can read more about this family of drivers on GeForce.com.
This driver package supports GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500-series desktop GPUs as well as ION desktop GPUs. This driver package also includes the 3D Vision Controller driver.
New in Release 275.33
GPU Support
- Adds support for the newly released GeForce GTX 560 GPU.
Performance
- The Release 275 beta driver v275.27 can cause significant performance drop in The Witcher 2. This issue has been resolved in v275.33 drivers. Please read this FAQ for more information on this issue.
- Increases performance for GeForce 400 Series and 500 Series GPUs in several PC games vs. v270.61 WHQL drivers. The following are some examples of improvements measured on Windows 7. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:
-
- Up to 4% in Crysis 2
- Up to 5% in Civilization V with SLI
- Up to 9% in Portal 2
- Up to 13% in Bulletstorm with Antialiasing enabled
- Up to 15% in Batman: Arkham Asylum with PhysX High
- Up to 6% in Crysis 2
- Up to 8% in Portal 2
- Up to 14% in Batman: Arkham Asylum with PhysX High
- Up to 15% in Bulletstorm with Antialiasing enabled
GeForce GTX 580 GeForce GTX 560:
- Increases gaming performance by up to 12% for dual-core CPUs in CPU-limited cases.
NVIDIA Update
- In Release 275, NVIDIA Update adds automatic SLI, multi-GPU, and antialiasing (AA) profile updates. These profile updates are automatically downloaded from NVIDIA and silently installed on your PC, keeping it up-to-the-minute with the latest game profiles. When you install a Release 270 or later GeForce driver from www.nvidia.com, you will be presented with the option to install NVIDIA Update. Click here to learn more about NVIDIA Update.
Desktop Scaling
- New NVIDIA Control Panel user interface for configuring desktop scaling, including new preview window.
- Now consistently available for all displays (including VGA and HDMI connections).
- New scaling override option for Windows 7 gaming.
- Improved desktop resizing user interface that guides the user to disable overscanning using their HDTV controls and also provides a fallback option to enable desktop resizing via the NVIDIA Control panel.
- NVIDIA desktop resizing now creates a custom, resized resolution with 1:1 pixel mapping and resizes standard resolutions for games that don’t support custom resolutions.
NVIDIA 3D Vision
- With Release 275 drivers, the 3D Vision Controller driver is now included with all GPU driver installations. This driver package includes v275.33 3D Vision Controller driver. Users are no longer required to install a separate 3D Vision Controller driver or CD driver. For more information, please view this knowledgebase article for more information.
- 3D Vision Window Mode support. Please view this knowledgebase article for more information.
- Added support for 3D Vision Photo viewer to now work in Window Mode. When you have opened a 3D picture file check the “View” section for this new option.
- Improved 3D Vision IR emitter and 3D Vision glasses synchronization
- Adds support for new 3D Vision projectors: NEC NP-V300X series
- Added the following 3D Vision game profiles:
- Age of Empires Online
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
- Battlefield Play4Free
- Duke Nukem Forever
- Dungeon Siege III
- Super Street Fighter IV
- World of Tanks
- Update the following 3D Vision game profiles
- Portal 2 – fixed water reflection problem and updated convergence setting to provide a better user experience
- The Witcher 2 – Improved 3D Vision compatibility for all in-game effects
Other
- Installs HD Audio driver version 1.2.23.3
- Installs PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0514
- Supports playing back Blu-ray 3D discs when connecting your GPU to an HDMI 1.4 3D TV. Playback requires compatible software application from CyberLink, ArcSoft, Roxio, or Corel. For GPU and system requirements, visit the NVIDIA Blu-ray 3D website.
- Supports the new GPU-accelerated features in Adobe CS5.
- Supports GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with Adobe Flash 10.1. Learn more here.
- Supports the new version of MotionDSP’s video enhancement software, vReveal, which adds support for HD output. NVIDIA customers can download a free version of vReveal that supports up to SD output here.
- Supports DirectCompute with Windows 7 and GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
- Supports OpenCL 1.0 (Open Computing Language) for all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
- Supports OpenGL 3.3 for GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
- Supports OpenGL 4.1 on GeForce 400 series and later GPUs.
- Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI technology on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11, and OpenGL, including 3-way SLI, Quad SLI, and SLI support on SLI-certified Intel X58-based motherboards.
- Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.
- Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver here.
Let’s head to the charts and see if the promised performance improvements that Nvidia has made are realistic.
hmm no BFBC2…
From what I’ve gathered 275.33 brings substantial performance drop in that game – ON SANDY BRIDGE(!)
On my sck.775 Core Duo 275.27 BETA are a gift from Heaven.
I am not exagerating, it’s like having a new CPU.
Didn’t bother to upgrade to .33 because they are basically the same.
Just FYI, if you check over at Bioware’s forums, this latest driver release causes confirmed crashes with Dragon Age 2.
Also, I would be interested to see the differences with The Witcher 2.