GTX470 Performance Test Part 3: Driver 258.96
Introduction
It’s no secret that I’m not particularly satisfied with the GTX470’s level of performance compared to my previous GTX285. Sure, the GTX470 is a lot faster in a handful of games, but it’s also horrifically slower in a few others. But for the most part it’s about the same speed as the GTX285, and thus cannot be considered a convincing performance upgrade.
I base this opinion on two of my previous articles which used an extensive selection of games. Part 1 tested Windows XP, while part 2 tested Windows 7 (64 bit). Overall the GTX470 performed a bit better on Windows 7, but it was still quite close to the GTX285 in most games.
With the release of the 256 drivers from nVidia, it’s time to run some more tests. These drivers specifically mention performance improvements with transparency anti-aliasing; the scheme is now implemented at the hardware level as opposed to the previous software implementation. Given I use TrAA in every Direct3D game I play, the previous slow TrAA performance could account for the poor performance I was seeing before.
Where possible, archived driver results from the GTX285 running on XP (32 bit) using driver version 197.13 will be used as a baseline. After all, performance gains on the GTX470 don’t mean much if the card still can’t significantly beat the GTX285.
