GeForce WHQL 327.23 Performance Analysis
Test Configuration & Driver Release Notes
Test Configuration
Test Configuration – Hardware
- Intel Core i7 3770K (overclocked to 4.5GHz); Turbo is on. Supplied by Intel.
- EVGA Z77 FTW motherboard (Intel Z77 chipset, latest beta 03-12-13 BIOS, PCIe 3.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x using Plex chip), supplied by EVGA.
- 16GB Kingston DDR3 Kingston RAM (8x2GB, dual-channel at 2133MHz; supplied by Kingston)
- Noctua NH-DH14 CPU cooler plus 7 case fans, supplied by Noctua.
- Nvidia GeForce 770, 2GB, reference clocks, supplied by Nvidia
- Nvidia GTX 780 (3GB, reference clocks), supplied by Nvidia
- Onboard Realtek Audio
- Genius SP-HF 800A speakers, two pairs in 4.0 Quadraphonic configuration, 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
- Two Kingston 240GB HyperX SSDs configured and set up identically from drive image; one partition for Nvidia GeForce drivers and one for ATI Catalyst drivers; supplied by Kingston
- 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 WHQL 327.23, Beta 326.19 and WHQL 320.49; High Quality; Single-display Performance mode; Prefer Maximum Performance
- 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- Left 4 Dead 2
- Serious Sam 3 BFE
- Alan Wake: Ameican Nightmare
- The Witcher 2
- Borderlands 2
DX10- Crysis
DX11- BattleForge
- Alien vs. Predator
- STALKER, Call of Pripyat
- 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
- Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Lets look at Nvidia’s release notes regarding the GeForce 327.23 beta driver before we head to performance testing.
Release Notes Highlights for GeForce 327.23
Please see the GeForce 327.23 Release Highlights
Release Summary
This Game Ready WHQL driver ensures you’ll have the best possible gaming experience and is also a recommended driver update for the Windows 8.1 Preview. GeForce R326 drivers also provide performance increases for a variety of different games.
New in GeForce R326 Drivers
- Performance Boost – Increases performance by up to 19% for GeForce 400/500/600/700 series GPUs in several PC games vs. GeForce 320.49 WHQL-certified drivers. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration. Here is one example of measured gains:
- GeForce GTX 770:
-
- Up to 15% in Dirt: Showdown
- Up to 6% in Tomb Raider
- GeForce GTX 770 SLI:
-
- Up to 19% in Dirt: Showdown
- Up to 11% in F1 2012
- SLI Technology
-
- Added SLI profile for Spinter Cell: Blacklist
- Added SLI profile for Batman: Arkham Origins
- SHIELD
-
- Enables GeForce to SHIELD streaming. Learn more here.
- 4K Displays
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- Adds support for additional tiled 4K displays
- Adds support for 4K FCAT testing
- Extended support for tiled 4K features
Additional Details
- Installs new PhysX System Software 9.13.0725.
- Installs HD Audio v1.3.26.4
- Includes support for applications built using CUDA 5.5 or earlier version of the CUDA Toolkit. More information at http://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-toolkit
- Supports OpenGL 4.3 for GeForce 400-series and later GPUs.
- Supports DisplayPort 1.2 for GeForce GTX 600 series GPUs.
- 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
What we can take away from the release notes is that although this is WHQL GeForce 327.13 driver, it is from the family of GeForce 326 drivers, and we should get an interesting comparison by using an early 326.19 Beta driver. These drivers promise significant improvement:
- Performance Boost – Increases performance by up to 19% for GeForce 400/500/600/700 series GPUs in several PC games vs. GeForce 320.49 WHQL-certified drivers. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration.
Nvidia goes on to list two examples for gains with the GTX 770 – up to 15% in DiRT: Showdown and up to 6% in Tomb Raider. Well, we didn’t see quite the gains they suggested with the GK104-based GTX 770, however, we saw significant gains with the GK110-based GTX 780. Let’s head to the charts and compare the driver progress with the GTX 780 and the GTX 770 since we tested them last time.
I updated to this driver on my 8930g laptop with 9700m gt and now it renders chess board squares if I even scroll too fast on an internet page. It seems to occasionally flick to basic colour schemes and back to aero sometimes. I installed it with antivirus disabled and showed no errors.