GeForce 285.62 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
- EVGA GTX 550 Ti (1GB factory overclocked to 951/2178MHz), supplied by EVGA
- 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 285.62 and WHQL 280.26 for the GTX 550 Ti, 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.
- 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
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. The performance changes result solely from upgrading each driver from the previous one.
- Vantage
- 3DMark 11
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Serious Sam, Second Encounter HD (2010)
- Wolfenstein
- Left 4 Dead
- Mafia II
- Crysis
- World in Conflict
- Far Cry 2
- Just Cause 2
- Resident Evil 5
- Alien vs. Predator
- Battleforge
- STALKER, Call of Pripyat
- F1 2010
- Metro 2033
- Lost Planet 2
- H.A.W.X. 2
- Civilization 5
- Total War: Shogun II
- DiRT 3
- Crysis 2
- Heaven 2
New Features of GeForce 280.26
These are highlights only. For example, the .pdf gives assistance on how to resize your big screen TV’s resolution with sliders in the new drivers for for gaming.
The .pdf is 60 pages and can be downloaded from here.
From Nvidia’s site here are the release note highlights and the link to download the Windows 7 64-bit driver:
- Release Highlights
- Supported products
- Additional information
This is the first WHQL-certified release from the Release 285 family of drivers. 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.
New in Version 285.62
- This is the recommended driver for Battlefield 3. It contains several performance and compatibility enhancements for the final release of the game. Check here to see if your PC is ready for Battlefield 3.
- This is also the recommended and enhanced driver for Batman: Arkham City and RAGE.
- Check here to see if your PC is ready for Batman: Arkham City
- Contains a fix for the driver timeouts reported with the R285 beta drivers.
New in R285 Drivers
Performance
- Increases performance for GeForce 400 and 500-series GPUs in several PC games vs. v280.26 WHQL drivers. The following are some examples of improvements measured on Windows 7. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:
GeForce GTX 580:
- Up to 6% in Battlefield 3
- Up to 5% in Call of Duty: Black Ops
- Up to 7% in Civilization V with SLI
- Up to 5% in Crysis 2 DX11 with SLI
- Up to 7% in F1 2010 with SLI
- Up to 5% in Lost Planet 2 with SLI
- Up to 5% in Mafia 2 with SLI
- Up to 13% in Metro 2033 with SLI
- Up to 8% in STALKER: Call of Pripyat with SLI
- Up to 5% in StarCraft 2
GeForce GTX 560:
- Up to 4% in Bulletstorm
- Up to 5% in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 with SLI
- Up to 11% in Battlefield 3
- Up to 6% in Call of Duty: Black Ops
- Up to 5% in Crysis 2 DX11 with SLI
- Up to 7% in Dragon Age 2 with SLI
- Up to 7% in F1 2010 with SLI
- Up to 5% in Just Cause 2 with SLI
- Up to 5% in Lost Planet 2 with SLI
- Up to 4% in Mafia 2 with SLI
- Up to 7% in Metro 2033 with SLI
- Up to 11% in STALKER: Call of Pripyat with SLI
- Up to 7% in StarCraft 2
NVIDIA PhysX
- Updates PhysX System Software to version 9.11.06.21.
NVIDIA SLI
- Added or updated SLI profiles for Battlefield 3, Dead Island, Diablo III, Dragon Age 2, Need for Speed: The Run, and Saints Row: The Third.
HD Audio
- Updates HD Audio driver to version 1.2.24.0.
OpenGL
- Adds support for OpenGL 4.2 for GeForce 400 series and 500 series GPUs.
NVIDIA 3D Vision
- The 3D Vision Controller (USB) driver is included in this driver package. Users are no longer required to install the 3D Vision CD driver or a separate 3D Vision Controller driver. For more information, please view this knowledgebase article.
- Adds support for viewing 3DVisionLive.com and YouTube 3D with NVIDIA SLI PCs. Please view this knowledgebase article for more information on 3D Vision Window Mode.
- Window mode is now the default viewing option for the 3D Vision Photo Viewer.
- Added the following 3D Vision game profiles:
- Aion
- Diablo 3
- Dead Rising 2: Off The Record
- Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) 2
- From Dust
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2
- Last Remnant Benchmark
- Men of War Assault Squad
- Stock Car
- Update the following 3D Vision game profiles:
- Dirt 3 – updated rating to Excellent
Other Details
- Supports multiple languages and APIs for GPU computing: CUDA C, CUDA C++, CUDA Fortran, OpenCL, DirectCompute, and Microsoft C++ AMP.
- 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 and AMD 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. We are testing some of the very games that they show improvements in!
