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Graphics How much have graphics cards advanced in 18 months? My own 6870 benchmarks inside.

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Ph4ZeD, 23 Oct 2010.

  1. Ph4ZeD

    Ph4ZeD What's a Dremel?

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    [​IMG]

    Introduction

    When I was getting excited and buying my Sapphire 6870 yesterday, a little thought occurred to me. It was almost exactly the same price as my 260 GTX, and I purchased that card almost exactly 18 months ago. I thought this would be an interested basis for a comparison between the two cards.

    The Cards

    [​IMG]

    My 260 GTX cost me £178 in April 2009. Its a XFX model, only very slightly overclocked. By most measures, its a bog standard 260 GTX. Pretty quiet under load and inaudible at idle. Fast forward, my 6870 is a reference Sapphire model, which cost me £176. I suspect there are lots of people who sitting on nVidia 2 series cards, or ATi 4 series cards, who did not upgrade when their new generations came out. Most benchmarks rightly focus on the cards immediate competitors, the 460 GTX, but do not look at the older cards that lots of people own. So I wanted show people what kind of performance difference you get when you upgrade from the former mid-range champ to the new one.

    The Benchmarks

    I do not have the time or inclination for extensive benchmarks, but the best thing I have to test with is the original Crysis and its benchmarking tool, because it allows for very repeatable and controllable benchmarking. I realise that Crysis is not the best representation and many of you would prefer a more recent favourite, such as Bad Company 2. However to the best of my knowledge there isn't a decent benchmarking tool for BC2, and I was not in the mood for playing maps through for half an hour with FRAPS then doing the same with the new card, as I have doubts about how genuinely comparable those results would really be.

    My System

    As you can see from my signature, its very unlikely any part of my system would be bottlenecking my card, due to the fast CPU and SSDs I have in my rig. All the Crysis benchmarks were performed at the Very High setting, at DX10, on the 32-bit Crysis executable. I ran the 260 GTX benchmarks with the latest nVidia drivers, then formatted my C300 and reinstalled W7 64-bit and downloaded the ATi drivers that were released today.

    Heat and Noise

    I tested heat by running HWID, a hardware monitoring tool from the developers of CPU-Z, and left it running while running the Crysis benchmarks. The benchmarks were run in a loop of 3 for each setting, then immediately to the next setting, so the cards did not have much time for cooling down. HWID records the maximum temperature, current temperature, and lowest temperature. My 260 GTX recorded a maximum temperature 76C. I will be measuring noise subjectively. Please note that I do not enjoy noisy cards, and I have a media PC next to my main rig with a Blu Ray drive and enjoy watching films or television while having casual gaming sessions, so excessive noise disturbs me. The 260 GTX was inaudible while running the benchmarks. I have also noticed that its inaudible even when folding or something like that, so its pretty ideal noise wise. While running the looped Crysis benchmarks, my 6870 hit 85C, and it idled at 38C. Like the 260 GTX, it was inaudible over my general case noise, even when I strained to hear it. Even though it was slightly hotter than the older card, I still prefer quietness over heat. Another user could tweak the fan profile as not everyone wants an inaudible card, so to reduce temperatures. It's also worth pointing out that the 6870 exhausts the air out the back of your case, and won't heat up your other components.

    Results

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    As you can see, the 6870 was dramatically faster than the 260 GTX. With no AA, it was 66% faster (please note the performance improvement column, 100% means it was just as fast), and with AA it was 74-77% faster.

    Conclusion

    I should first point out that I don't play Crysis, or particularly like it. But this does give a rough guide of the kind of improvements in the graphics industry over 18 months. Obviously speed improvements will vary from game to game, but the results clearly demonstrate that an apples to apples comparison from 18 months ago results in considerably faster performance.
     
    Last edited: 23 Oct 2010
    thehippoz, Kovoet, jammy_fred and 2 others like this.
  2. Ph4ZeD

    Ph4ZeD What's a Dremel?

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    Apologies for the delay in getting the Crysis results up. Ludicrously slow Dorset broadband makes me want to stab myself.
     
    pimonserry likes this.
  3. Pookeyhead

    Pookeyhead It's big, and it's clever.

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    There's still little to better my GTX295 and that is 18 months old. I've never seen such a period of slow development in GPUs. I recall upgrading GPUs every 9 months or so not too mny years back. At this rate I'll be keeping this card for a while yet.
     
  4. Ph4ZeD

    Ph4ZeD What's a Dremel?

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    I think thats more to do with the fact that SLI/Xfire has gone from a gimmick to very decent gaming setup. Two older cards are hard to beat for a single new one.
     
  5. Jux_Zeil

    Jux_Zeil What's a Dremel?

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    I know what you mean. You're better off waiting until late evening to download really. :sigh:
     
  6. Zeus-Nolan

    Zeus-Nolan Minimodder

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    im sitting with a 4890, i'm wanting a cooler, less noisy card and less power hungry so i'm really thinking about getting a 70 or a 50 just because they are just in the price range worth buying, I too am in dorset (bournemouth) :p.
     
  7. Ph4ZeD

    Ph4ZeD What's a Dremel?

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    Hopefully my thread will be able to help you out then :) Well, when I finally get the drivers downloaded! 78MB should NOT take over an hour to download...
     
  8. Jux_Zeil

    Jux_Zeil What's a Dremel?

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    Me too. Lovely weather for this time of year eh?

    Just out of interest, have you got 3D MARK06? I'm going to benchmark my new GTX 470 using it and I would be interested in comparasons also. Am waiting for 11 to come out instead of getting Vantage.
     
  9. Ph4ZeD

    Ph4ZeD What's a Dremel?

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    I do have 3D mark 06, but I've already removed my 260 GTX ><
     
  10. Jux_Zeil

    Jux_Zeil What's a Dremel?

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    No probs. All data is relevant.
     
  11. okenobi

    okenobi What's a Dremel?

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    Hurry up Darrset broadband FFS!!
     
  12. Ph4ZeD

    Ph4ZeD What's a Dremel?

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    Oh I've actually installed the drivers and am running the benchies now. Will update my first post in around 10 minutes.
     
  13. fingerbob69

    fingerbob69 Minimodder

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    A good 4890 is still a fantastic card ...yup I'm biased!:D

    To the point where while I'm whatching this current round of releases with intrest, especially as it seems AMD has got the 40nm die size down pat, it wont be til we get to 28nm next year that I'll consider upgrading.
     
  14. Siberdine

    Siberdine Safety Not Guaranteed.

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    This is good information to know, especially since I own GTX 260. Thanks Ph4zed :)
     
  15. Pete J

    Pete J Employed scum

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    Cheers for the review!

    Would you consider trying Crossfire (I remember from another thread you have an expansion card in the way)?
     
  16. Ph4ZeD

    Ph4ZeD What's a Dremel?

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    I would definitely consider Crossfire, especially as reviews have indicated exceptional Crossfire scaling. My problem is with my motherboard and case. I have a P6TD Deluxe, which does not support SATA 3. It has a PCI slot between the first two PCI-E slots so that if your running 2 cards, you get a nice gap for better temperatures. So, I hear you say, why don't you pop your SATA 3 card in the second PCI-E slot, and put your second card in the third PCI-E slot, and alls good. However, even the monstrous Corsair Obsidian only has 8 expansion slots, meaning you can't fit a dual slot card in the third PCI-E slot. So in short, I have to choose between SATA 3 or dual GPU :( Or another motherboard.
     
  17. Elton

    Elton Officially a Whisky Nerd

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    Hmm, so that would be an almost 100% FPS gain (well about 70% seeing as i'm a bit CPU limited) from my HD4850.

    Not bad at all, although perhaps the HD6850 may satiate my needs, when it's in stock. :mad:
     
  18. Aterius Gmork

    Aterius Gmork smell the ashes

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    Two unrelated questions since you already got one:

    1. How long is the card?

    2. How loud is the cooler?
     
  19. Fingers66

    Fingers66 Kiwi in London

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    +1 on this ^.

    A pic of it in your rig would be nice too.:thumb:
     
    Last edited: 23 Oct 2010
  20. Instagib

    Instagib Minimodder

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    And a semi-unrelated question to go with the two unrelated questions above; what's in the box please? :p
     

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