Catalyst 10.5 and GeForce 197.75 performance analysis
Test Configuration
Test Configuration – Intel Hardware Core i7
- Intel Core i7 920 reference 2.66 GHz and overclocked to 3.8 GHz); Turbo (21X multiplier for 3.97 GHz of a single core) is on.
- Gigabyte EX58-UD3R (Intel X58 chipset, latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x).
- 6 GB DDR3 PC 1800 Kingston RAM (3×2 GB, tri-channel at PC 1600 speeds; 2×2 GB supplied by Kingston)
- ATi Radeon HD 5870 PCS+ by PowerColor at reference clocks, 850/1200 MHz
- GeForce GTX 480 (NVIDIA reference version stock clocks)
- Onboard Realtek Audio
- 2 – 250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives
- Thermaltake ToughPowerXT 775 watt power supply and Element G case supplied by Thermaltake
- HP LP 3065 2560×1600 30 inch LCD
Test Configuration – Software
- ATi Catalyst 10-4 and 10-5 (WHQL); highest quality mip-mapping set in the driver, Catalyst AI set to “Standard”
- GeForce 197.41 and 197.75 (WHQL) “High Quality”
- Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium; very latest updates
- DirectX February 2010.
- All games are patched to their latest versions.
- vsync is off in the control panel and is never set in-game.
- 4xAA enabled in all games (unless specified as 8xAA) and “forced” in Catalyst Control Center for UT3; all in-game settings at “maximum” or “ultra” with 16xAF always applied
- All results show average, minimum and maximum frame rates except as noted.
- Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
- Windows 7, all DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths; DX11 titles under DX11 render paths and DX9c, etc.
The Benchmarks
- Far Cry 2
- Crysis
- F.E.A.R.
- Unreal Tournament 3
- Just Cause 2
- World in Conflict
- Call of Juarez
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Left4Dead
- Lost Planet
- Call of Duty 4
- X3:Terran Conflict
- Enemy Territories: Quake Wars
- ARMA2
- H.A.W.X.
- Battleforge
- Dirt 2
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Call of Pripyat
- Resident Evil 5
- Alien versus Predator
- Heaven (Unigine) 1.0
Let’s head right for the results of our performance testing of Catalyst 10-4 versus 10.5 and GeForce 197.41 versus 197.71
Doesn’t look like the site gets much love. Anyway, just wanted to know I appreciated these type of articles. Rarely do you get up to date driver performance reviews with so many games on other mainstream sites.
Thanks, Edwin
I am not sure what you mean about ABT not getting much love. We are also going to try and keep this kind of driver analysis up to date and perhaps make it a regular feature here at ABT as I am always benching.
When the new WHQL GeForce drivers come out, I intend to put GTX 480 against HD 5870 and Catalyst 10-6 to see what changes may have taken place since the GTX 480 was first released. In the meantime, I am working on a PowerColor HD 5870 PCS+ review where it is overclocked as far as it can go and we will try to find diminishing returns and the performance limits of its architecture. Stay tuned. There are a lot of good articles and reviews coming from us very soon!
Edwin, we always strive to put up stuff that’s different to the standard fare.
Thanks for the detailed tests!
Could you ad some source engine based game like team fortress 2 or left 4 dead(2) please?
You’re welcome, Thad.
We do feature Source Engine’s original Left4Dead. Perhaps later on we can add L4D 2.
Thanks for the detailed results, very easy and straightforward to understand without having to go through endless pages of graphs. added site to my favourites