GeForce WHQL 331.58 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 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 with Power target and temperature slider set to maximim, supplied by Nvidia
- EVGA GTX 780 (3GB, reference clocks) with Power target and temperature slider set to maximim, on loan from EVGA
- Onboard Realtek Audio
- VisionTek Radeon HD 7970 reference clocks, PowerTune+20%
- Genius SP-D150 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
- 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 and WHQL 331.58; High Quality; Single-display Performance mode; Prefer Maximum Performance
- AMD Catalyst 13.9 WHQL; all optimizations off in Control Panel; 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- 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 331.58 WHQL driver before we head to performance testing.
Release Notes Highlights for GeForce 331.58
Please see the GeForce 331.58 Release Highlights
Release Highlights
Release Summary
This Game Ready WHQL driver ensures you’ll have the best possible gaming experience in Batman: Arkham Origins and Battlefield 4. GeForce Game Ready drivers also provide performance increases for a variety of different games.
New in GeForce R331 Drivers
- Performance Boost – Increases performance by up to 13% for GeForce 400/500/600/700 series GPUs in several PC games vs. GeForce 327.23 WHQL-certified drivers. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration. Here is one example of measured gains:
GeForce GTX 770/780/TITAN:
- Up to 11% in Dirt: Showdown
- Up to 9% in Metro: Last Light
- Up to 8% in Sleeping Dogs
- Up to 13% in Sniper Elite V2
- SLI Technology
- Batman: Arkham Origins – updated profile
- Battlefield 4 – updated profile
- Shadow Warrior – added DX9 profile
- War of the Vikings – added DX11 profile
- Dragon Sword – updated DX9 profile
- GRID 2 – updated DX11 profile
- Euro Truck Simulator 2 – updated profile
- Gaming Technology
- Civilization 5 – added HBAO+;
- SHIELD
- Enables GeForce to SHIELD streaming (Beta). Learn more here.
- 4K Displays
- Adds support for 4K Surround
Additional Details
- Installs new PhysX System Software 9.13.0725.
- Installs HD Audio v1.3.26.4
- Installs GeForce Experience v8.3.23.1
- 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.
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.
