GTX 660 SLI vs. GTX 680 vs. HD 7970 GHz – Value & Performance Evaluation

Test Configuration & Driver Release Notes

Test Configuration

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i7 3770K (overclocked to 4.5GHz); Turbo is on.
• EVGA Z77 FTW motherboard (Intel Z77 chipset, latest beta BIOS, PCIe 3.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x using Plex chip.)
• 8GB Kingston DDR3 PC1866 Kingston RAM (4×2 GB, dual-channel at 1866MHz; supplied by Kingston)
• Power Color Radeon HD 7970 (3GB, overclocked to GHz Edition speeds 1050/6000MHz)
• Nvidia GTX 680 (2GB, 1006/6008MHz, reference clocks), supplied by Nvidia
• EVGA GTX 660 (2GB, underclocked to reference clocks), supplied by EVGA
• Galaxy GTX 660 (2GB, underclocked to reference clocks), supplied by Galaxy
• Onboard Realtek Audio
• 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
• Thermaltake ToughPower 775 W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake
• Thermaltake Overseer RX-I full tower case, supplied by Thermaltake
• Thermaltake Water2.0 Pro CPU cooler, supplied by Thermaltake
• Philips DVD SATA writer
• HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD

Test Configuration – Software

• ATi Catalyst 12-11 Beta drivers; highest quality mip-mapping set in the driver; use application settings; surface performance optimizations are off
• Catalyst Control Center used to set power draw to maximum for the HD 7970; clocks, voltage and fan profiles are stock
• EVGA PrecisionX used to set power draw to maximum for Nvidia cards; clocks voltage and fan profile are stock
• NVIDIA GeForce WHQL 310.33. 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
  • Vantage
  • 3DMark 11
  • Heaven 3.0
  DX9
  • Left 4 Dead 2
  • Serious Sam 3 BFE
  • Alan Wake: Ameican Nightmare
  DX10
  • Crysis
  • Far Cry 2
  • Just Cause 2
  • World-in-Conflict: Soviet Assault
  • Resident Evil 5
  DX11
• BattleForge
• Alien vs. Predator
• STALKER, Call of Pripyat
• Metro 2033
• F1 2010
• H.A.W.X. 2
• Lost Planet 2
• Total War: Shogun II
• Civilization V
• Crysis 2
• Dirt 3
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution
• Batman: Arkham City
• Battlefield 3
• Max Payne 3
• Sleeping Dogs
• Borderlands 2

Let’s head to the charts and see the performance comparison in 25 games and in 3 synthetics.