Perfomance
Performance
In order to compare the relative performance of the Asus ENGTX480 and the Sapphire Toxic we compared their prowess in 9 of the hottest PC games available. Few people are likely to spend £350+ on a video card and pair them with anything less than a full HD resolution screen so we restricted our testing to 1920 x 1200 and 2560 x 1600. In each test we used either the maximum settings available, or adjusted the FSAA levels down until a (mostly!) playable frame rate was achieved. Our hardware for each test was the same; a Core i7 920 processor overclocked to 3.8GHz, 12GB of Corsair Memory, a 700W Xigmatek Bronze-certified PSU and a Danamics LMX liquid metal CPU cooler. When recording temperatures we used the exceptional Silverstone Fortress FT02 case.
In Batman the GTX 480 takes a strong early lead, besting the Sapphire by 28% at 1920 x 1200 and by the same margin with the resolution increased to 2560 x 1600
In Crysis Warhead the ATi GPU racks up its first victory, matching the GTX 480 for pace at 1920 x 1200 but pulling 16% ahead at 2560 x 1600.
In Far Cry 2 the advantage swings back to the Green corner with leads of 22% and 16% respectively.
In Stalker: Call of Pripyat we once again see the lead flip-flop back to ATi with a lead of 4% to the HD5870 at 1920 and 10% at 2560 x 1600.
Another victory goes to Sapphire in Aliens Vs Predator in DX11 mode, with the margins of victory being 10% and 7% respectively.
GTA IV is a game where the GTX 480 really trounced the 1GB 5870 at maximum detail as the standard ATi card ran out of video memory. This time around things are far closer, though the NVIDA card still has a healthy lead of 11% and 14% respectively.
Left 4 Dead 2 again sees the NVIDIA card come out on top, leading by 18% at 1920 x 1200. With the resolution raised the lead drops to zero, suggesting that the Radeon is more efficient at ultra-high resolutions.
COD World at War again sees a small lead go to the NVIDIA card, with an 11% lead at 1920 and a dead heat once again at 2560 x 1600.
3DMark 2006 may not be a game but it is still the most popular video card benchmark on the planet. We include it for your reference. At default settings the NVIDIA holds a lead of 1% over the Radeon; well within the margin for error of this benchmark. Things are tied once again at 2560 x 1600, with the ATi card bringing home a statistically insignificant lead.
Analysis
All in all things are extremely close between the two cards, with the NVIDIA card winning five of our games and the ATi winning three. When taking a mean average of the leads the GeForce is around 8% quicker at 1920 x 1200 and just 3% quicker at 2560 x 1600 across the spectrum of our 9 benchmarks.
|
