GeForce 337.50 – Performance testing with GTX 760 SLI

Less than two weeks ago, Nvidia released their latest GeForce Beta driver 337.50 to gain performance especially in CPU-limited situations for DX11 games.  We saw very good performance gains for single-GPU cards nearly across the board although we did not test SLI.

We received a new GTX 760 from Galaxy last week and we can now give GTX 760 SLI performance results.  Nvidia claims “up to 71%” performance improvements with SLI using the latest 337.50 drivers over WHQL 325.23.  We shall test 22 games, including Rome II and 6 others, that they make specific claims for.

So as not to bottleneck our graphics, we are using Intel’s Haswell platform with our Core i7-4770K overclocked to 4.0GHz which is a good match for Ivy Bridge at 4.5GHz. We also use 16GB of Kingston’s “Beast” DDR3 clocked to 2133MHz, ECS’ flagship Z87 Golden Motherboard and a 2TB Toshiba HDD.

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i7-4770K (reference 3.5GHz, HyperThreading and Turbo boost is on to 3.7GHz; overclocked to 4.0GHz; DX11 CPU graphics), supplied by Intel.
• ECS GANK Domination Z87H3-A2X motherboard (Intel Z87 chipset, latest BIOS, PCOe 3.0 specification, CrossFire/SLI 8x+8x) supplied by ECS
• Kingston 16 GB HyperX Beast DDR3 (2×8 GB, dual-channel at 2133MHz, supplied by Kingston)
• GeForce GTX 750 Ti, 2GB reference design and clocks, supplied by Nvidia
• Galaxy GTX 760, 2GB at reference clocks, on loan from Galaxy.
• 2TB Toshiba 7200 rpm HDD
• Thermaltake ToughPower 775W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake
• Thermaltake Water2.0 Pro watercooler, supplied by Thermaltake
• Onboard Realtek Audio
• Genius SP-D150 speakers, supplied by Genius
• 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 335.23 WHQL and 337.50 drivers. High Quality, prefer maximum performance, single display.
• Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
• Latest DirectX
• All games are patched to their latest versions.
• VSync is 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.
• 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

• 3DMark 11
• Firestrike – Basic & Extreme
• Heaven 4.0

DX9

• The Witcher 2
  
• Borderlands 2
  
• Aliens: Colonial Marines

DX10

• Crysis

DX11

• STALKER, Call of Pripyat
• Civilization V
• Max Payne 3
• the Secret World
• Sleeping Dogs
• Sniper Elite V2
• Hitman: Absolution
• Far Cry 3
• Tomb Raider: 2013
• Crysis 3
• BioShock: Infinite
• Metro: Last Light
• GRID 2
• Splinter Cell: Blacklist
• Total War: Rome II
• Batman: Arkham Origins
• Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
• Thief

Nvidia’s Release Notes

Before we look at GTX 760 SLI performance, let’s again check out Nvidia’s release notes:
http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/74636/en-us

We see some pretty impressive claims for performance increases given by Nvidia and we will test some of these games using GTX 760 SLI since the last WHQLs 335.23. Of course, the increases are given as “up to” and are not necessarily applicable to our system which is not generally CPU-limited.

Here are the games that we test for which Nvidia claimed specific performance increases:

GeForce GTX 700 Series (SLI):

• Up to 71% in Total War: Rome II
• Up to 53% in Sniper Elite V2
• Up to 31% in Sleeping Dogs
• Up to 10% in Hitman Absolution
• Up to 7% in Far Cry 3
• Up to 6% in Metro: Last Light
• Up to 6% in Batman: Arkham Origins

Of course, Rome II would get a large performance increase since there was no SLI profile with the WHQL drivers.  The SLI profile was added with Beta 337.50.

The Results and the Conclusion

First, let’s again look at Nvidia’s new beta drivers compared with the last WHQL for a single GTX 760.  Results are always given as average frame rates expressed in frames per second (fps).

Although we don’t see the huge increases indicated by Nvidia with Rome II, we are also not CPU-limited.  Generally, we see good performance increases for the GTX 760 with the latest Beta drivers.

Next, let’s compare GTX 760 SLI performance between Beta 337.50 and the older WHQL, 335.23.  The first column has the older WHQL 335.23 average frame rates while column two has the latest Beta 337.50 results.  Wins are in bold and both numbers are represented in bold if there is a tie.  Column 3 shows a single GTX 760 using the latest beta drivers to compare with SLI scaling.

Results are always given as average frame rates expressed in frames per second (fps).

Our small sample of DX9 and DX10 games don’t appear to have benefited significantly from the latest Beta drivers.  However, we do see significant performance increases in the games that Nvidia claimed, particularly Rome II (which benefited the most as it had no SLI profile with the last WHQL drivers), Hitman: Absolution (especially at the more CPU-limited 1920×1080), Sleeping Dogs, and to a lesser extent in Metro: Last Light, Tomb Raider 2013, and in Batman: Arkham Origins.

However, we did not see the expected gains with Sniper Elite V2, nor in Far Cry 3, which had mixed results in our testing.  The only DX11 game which saw a mild performance decrease in our testing is Splinter Cell: Blacklist.  We also saw good gains with Thief, Assassin’s Creed IV, the Secret World, and with GRID 2.  Surprisingly, even our oldest DX11 benchmark, Call of Pripyat, also gained in performance.

Conclusion

Nvidia’s GeForce 337.50 beta driver has brought some serious increases to single GPU performance as we saw in Part One.   Further GTX 760 SLI testing found even more significant increases.  This is somewhat surprising as we do not generally suffer from CPU bottlenecks.  These Beta GeForce 337.50 drivers bring great free performance to single-GPU and especially to GTX 760 SLI . Although they are beta drivers, we encountered no issues and we highly recommend them.

Tomorrow, we will have a new Galaxy-clocked GTX 760 evaluation published, and we will compare it to our factory overclocked PowerColor R9 270X PCS+ with interesting results.

Stay tuned and Happy Gaming!