{"id":41600,"date":"2014-04-21T15:10:04","date_gmt":"2014-04-21T14:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=41600"},"modified":"2014-04-21T15:40:02","modified_gmt":"2014-04-21T14:40:02","slug":"geforce-337-50-performance-testing-gtx-760-sli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/geforce-337-50-performance-testing-gtx-760-sli\/","title":{"rendered":"GeForce  337.50 &#8211; Performance testing with GTX 760 SLI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ROME-II.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-41609\" alt=\"ROME-II\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ROME-II-300x168.jpg?resize=300%2C168\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ROME-II-300x168.jpg?resize=300%2C168 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ROME-II-150x84.jpg 150w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ROME-II-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ROME-II.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>We saw very good <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/nvidias-detonator-337-50-versus-catalyst-14-2-beta-3\/\">performance gains<\/a> for single-GPU cards nearly across the board although we did not test SLI.<\/p>\n<p>We received a new GTX 760 from Galaxy last week and we can now give GTX 760 SLI performance results.\u00a0 Nvidia claims &#8220;up to 71%&#8221; performance improvements with SLI using the latest 337.50 drivers over WHQL 325.23.\u00a0 We shall test 22 games, including <em>Rome II<\/em> and 6 others, that they make specific claims for.<\/p>\n<p>So as not to bottleneck our graphics, we are using Intel&#8217;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&#8217;s &#8220;Beast&#8221; DDR3 clocked to 2133MHz, ECS&#8217; flagship Z87 Golden Motherboard and a 2TB Toshiba HDD.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 150%; line-height: normal;\"><strong><br \/>\nTest Configuration &#8211; Hardware<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li>ECS GANK Domination Z87H3-A2X motherboard (Intel Z87 chipset, latest BIOS, PCOe 3.0 specification, CrossFire\/SLI 8x+8x) supplied by ECS<\/li>\n<li>Kingston 16 GB HyperX Beast DDR3 (2\u00d78 GB, dual-channel at 2133MHz, supplied by Kingston)<\/li>\n<li>GeForce GTX 750 Ti, 2GB reference design and clocks, supplied by Nvidia<\/li>\n<li>Galaxy GTX 760, 2GB at reference clocks, on loan from Galaxy.<\/li>\n<li>2TB Toshiba 7200 rpm HDD<\/li>\n<li>Thermaltake ToughPower 775W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake<\/li>\n<li>Thermaltake Water2.0 Pro watercooler, supplied by Thermaltake<\/li>\n<li>Onboard Realtek Audio<\/li>\n<li>Genius SP-D150 speakers, supplied by Genius<\/li>\n<li>Thermaltake Overseer RX-I full tower case, supplied by Thermaltake<\/li>\n<li>Philips DVD SATA writer<\/li>\n<li>HP LP3065 2560\u00d71600 thirty inch LCD<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nTest Configuration &#8211; Software<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Nvidia GeForce 335.23 WHQL and 337.50 drivers. High Quality, prefer maximum performance, single display.<\/li>\n<li>Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates<\/li>\n<li>Latest DirectX<\/li>\n<li>All games are patched to their latest versions.<\/li>\n<li>VSync is off in the control panel.<\/li>\n<li>AA enabled as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis.<\/li>\n<li>All results show average frame rates.<\/li>\n<li>Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.<\/li>\n<li>Windows 7 64, all DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths; DX11 titles under DX11 render paths<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nThe Benchmarks<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synthetic<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>3DMark 11<\/li>\n<li>Firestrike &#8211; Basic &amp; Extreme<\/li>\n<li>Heaven 4.0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>DX9<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em> The Witcher 2<br \/>\n<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Borderlands 2<br \/>\n<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Aliens: Colonial Marines<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>DX10<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Crysis<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>DX11<\/strong><em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>STALKER, Call of Pripyat<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Civilization V<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Max Payne 3<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>the Secret World<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Sleeping Dogs<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Sniper Elite V2<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Hitman: Absolution<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Far Cry 3<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Tomb Raider: 2013<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Crysis 3<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>BioShock: Infinite<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Metro: Last Light<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>GRID 2<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Splinter Cell: Blacklist<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Total War: Rome II<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Batman: Arkham Origins<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Assassin\u2019s Creed IV: Black Flag<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Thief<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nvidia&#8217;s Release Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before we look at GTX 760 SLI performance, let&#8217;s again check out Nvidia&#8217;s release notes:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nvidia.com\/download\/driverResults.aspx\/74636\/en-us\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.nvidia.com\/download\/driverResults.aspx\/74636\/en-us', 'http:\/\/www.nvidia.com\/download\/driverResults.aspx\/74636\/en-us']);\" class=\"postlink\">http:\/\/www.nvidia.com\/download\/driverResults.aspx\/74636\/en-us<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"quotecontent\">\n<div class=\"tabcontent\" id=\"tab1_content\" style=\"visibility: visible; display: block;\">\n<p><strong>New in GeForce 337.50 Beta drivers<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Performance<\/strong> &#8211; Introduces key DirectX optimizations which result in reduced game-loading times and significant performance increases across a wide variety of games.Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration. Here are some examples of measured gains versus the previous 335.23 WHQL driver:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">GeForce GTX 700 Series (Single GPU):<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Up to 64% in Total War: Rome II<\/li>\n<li>Up to 25% in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim<\/li>\n<li>Up to 23% in Sleeping Dogs<\/li>\n<li>Up to 21% in Star Swarm<\/li>\n<li>Up to 15% in Batman: Arkham Origins<\/li>\n<li>Up to 10% in Metro: Last Light<\/li>\n<li>Up to 8% in Hitman Absolution<\/li>\n<li>Up to 7% in Sniper Elite V2<\/li>\n<li>Up to 6% in Tomb Raider<\/li>\n<li>Up to 6% in F1 2013<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">GeForce GTX 700 Series (SLI):<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Up to 71% in Total War: Rome II<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Up to 53% in Sniper Elite V2<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Up to 45% in Aliens vs. Predator<\/li>\n<li><strong>Up to 31% in Sleeping Dogs<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Up to 20% in CoD: Black Ops 2<\/li>\n<li><strong>Up to 10% in Hitman Absolution<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Up to 9% in F1 2013<\/li>\n<li><strong>Up to 7% in Far Cry 3<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Up to 6% in Metro: Last Light<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Up to 6% in Batman: Arkham Origins<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>SLI Technology<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Total War: Rome II \u2013 added profile<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>War Thunder \u2013 added profile<\/li>\n<li>Watch Dogs \u2013 updated profile<\/li>\n<li>Diablo III \u2013 updated profile<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>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 &#8220;up to&#8221; and are not necessarily applicable to our system which is not generally CPU-limited.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the games that we test for which Nvidia claimed specific performance increases:<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">GeForce GTX 700 Series (SLI):<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Up to 71% in Total War: Rome II<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Up to 53% in Sniper Elite V2<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Up to 31% in Sleeping Dogs<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Up to 10% in Hitman Absolution<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Up to 7% in Far Cry 3<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Up to 6% in Metro: Last Light<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Up to 6% in Batman: Arkham Origins<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Of course, <em>Rome II<\/em> would get a large performance increase since there was no SLI profile with the WHQL drivers.\u00a0 The SLI profile was added with Beta 337.50.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 150%; line-height: normal;\">The Results and the Conclusion<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>First, let&#8217;s again look at Nvidia&#8217;s new beta drivers compared with the last WHQL for a single GTX 760.\u00a0 Results are always given as average frame rates expressed in frames per second (fps).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/GTX70sGPU1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-41614\" alt=\"GTX70sGPU\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/GTX70sGPU1.jpg?resize=473%2C1144\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/GTX70sGPU1.jpg?resize=473%2C1144 473w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/GTX70sGPU1-62x150.jpg 62w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/GTX70sGPU1-124x300.jpg 124w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/GTX70sGPU1-423x1024.jpg 423w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 473px) 100vw, 473px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Although we don&#8217;t see the huge increases indicated by Nvidia with <em>Rome II<\/em>, we are also not CPU-limited.\u00a0 Generally, we see good performance increases for the GTX 760 with the latest Beta drivers.<\/p>\n<p>Next, let&#8217;s compare GTX 760 SLI performance between Beta 337.50 and the older WHQL, 335.23.\u00a0 The first column has the older WHQL 335.23 average frame rates while column two has the latest Beta 337.50 results.\u00a0 Wins are in <strong>bold<\/strong> and both numbers are represented in bold if there is a tie.\u00a0 Column 3 shows a single GTX 760 using the latest beta drivers to compare with SLI scaling.<\/p>\n<p>Results are always given as average frame rates expressed in frames per second (fps).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Untitled-14.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-41606\" alt=\"Untitled-1\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Untitled-14.jpg?resize=566%2C1144\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Untitled-14.jpg?resize=566%2C1144 566w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Untitled-14-74x150.jpg 74w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Untitled-14-148x300.jpg 148w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Untitled-14-506x1024.jpg 506w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 566px) 100vw, 566px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Our small sample of DX9 and DX10 games don&#8217;t appear to have benefited significantly from the latest Beta drivers.\u00a0 However, we do see significant performance increases in the games that Nvidia claimed, particularly <em>Rome II<\/em> (which benefited the most as it had no SLI profile with the last WHQL drivers), <em>Hitman: Absolution<\/em> (especially at the more CPU-limited 1920&#215;1080), <em>Sleeping Dogs<\/em>, and to a lesser extent in <em>Metro: Last Light<\/em>, <em>Tomb Raider 2013<\/em>, and in <em>Batman: Arkham Origins<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>However, we did not see the expected gains with <em>Sniper Elite V2,<\/em> nor in <em>Far Cry 3<\/em>, which had mixed results in our testing.\u00a0 The only DX11 game which saw a mild performance decrease in our testing is<em> Splinter Cell: Blacklist<\/em>.\u00a0 We also saw good gains with<em> Thief, Assassin&#8217;s Creed IV, the Secret World<\/em>, and with\u00a0<em>GRID 2<\/em>.\u00a0 Surprisingly, even our oldest DX11 benchmark, <em>Call of Pripyat<\/em>, also gained in performance.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 150%; line-height: normal;\"><strong> Conclusion<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Nvidia&#8217;s GeForce 337.50 beta driver has brought some serious increases to single GPU performance as we saw in <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/nvidias-detonator-337-50-versus-catalyst-14-2-beta-3\/\">Part One<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ROME-II2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-41610\" alt=\"ROME-II2\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ROME-II2.jpg?resize=300%2C168\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ROME-II2.jpg?resize=300%2C168 300w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ROME-II2-150x84.jpg 150w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ROME-II2-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ROME-II2.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Further GTX 760 SLI testing found even more significant increases.\u00a0 This is somewhat surprising as we do not generally suffer from CPU bottlenecks.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned and Happy Gaming!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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.\u00a0 We saw very good performance gains for single-GPU cards nearly across&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":41608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7814,4454,4453,7],"tags":[1291,7494,7465,7493,121,3338,488],"class_list":["post-41600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-mini-reviews","category-software-2","category-technology","tag-dx11","tag-geforce-335-23","tag-geforce-337-50","tag-gtx-760-gtx-760-sli","tag-nvidia","tag-performance-analysis","tag-sli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}