Many benchmarks of 180 drivers - Performance increases

MR.B · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:08

Just a quick post for anyone interested.
A lot of the below benchmarks also compare the GTX260 (core 216) to 4870 1GB with these 180 drivers - it used to be pretty equal between 'em, but not anymore.

Benchmarks using WHQL 180.48 drivers:

- Here
- Here
- Here
- And here

Also some new 180.70 BETA drivers are now out on guru3D.com (not had any trouble with them on Vista x64 + GTX280):
Vista 64-Bit
Vista 32-Bit
XP 32-Bit

GJ02 · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:16

yes they do kick ass !
im going to give the new betas a try this eve after my reformat

Rroff · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:25

Looks like ATI is gonna have to pull out a miracle in the Dec update to beat the 260-216 again... just matching it in a lot of games will take some work.

willhub · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:27

Pull out a miracle? what makes you think that? If Nvidia can do this ATi can do it, no such thing as miracles.....

MR.B · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:32

I looked for another thread that showed in depth benchmarks of these drivers and there was none...

HangTime · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:50

I dunno, it seems a bit strange to me that people don't want benchmarks out in the open - IMO it's good to help people make informed purchasing decisions, rather than having to look back at old benchmarks from a few months ago when most of these cards came out.

The bottom line is that ATI used to be totally dominant in the £160-£240 sector thanks to the 4870, but now they have some serious competition.

HangTime · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:55

Tute said:
They don't. This is probably the most balanced generation ever.

gf6/7 were fairly well balanced with the x800/x1800 series/refreshes IMO. When you look at the current market, the top end isn't very balanced as you've got the 4870x2 being faster and more expensive than the GTX280. So depending on how much you want to spend there isn't really much in the way of competition.

LoadsaMoney · 22 Nov 2008 at 14:03

Nvidia faster in their own TWIMTBP games eh, ******* speechless here :eek:

pastymuncher · 22 Nov 2008 at 14:32

mosleypup said:
lets face it guys, nvidia have the edge !

Let's face it, they are a damn sight more expensive too. I got my overclocked 4870 last week for £166. Only a bit more than a 9800GTX+. Before i am called an ATI fanboy i came from a 8800GT. I just get the best card for my money at the time and that was the 4870.

Rroff · 22 Nov 2008 at 14:39

I'm not bothered about who has the edge as such - unless one card is resoundingly beating the other - tho in some cases it was 27 v 41 fps which is quite a difference...

I've banged on about it because the 260 was getting much maligned against the 4870 - when infact its just as good a card if not better and with this driver update it might better align the performance v price.

willhub · 22 Nov 2008 at 14:40

Rroff said:
I'm not bothered about who has the edge as such - unless one card is resoundingly beating the other - tho in some cases it was 27 v 41 fps which is quite a difference...

I've banged on about it because the 260 was getting much maligned against the 4870 - when infact its just as good a card if not better and with this driver update it might better align the performance v price.

"260 was getting much maligned against the 4870"

More like the other way round.

gurusan · 22 Nov 2008 at 14:43

I might actually be getting a GTX 260 192core with a xspc block in a couple weeks....maybe I'll do some benchmarks to compare it vs my current OC'd 4850 (of course the GTX 260 will be overclocked)

Yamahahahahaha · 22 Nov 2008 at 14:46

Well, Bjorn3d do that stupid thing where they don't start their graphs at 0;

OMG IT TRASHED IT!... Or not. 20% is a lot, but it's not the 50%+ the graph is depicting.

I wonder if these drivers offer a benefit to the 8 / 9 series of cards too? Could be a nice boost for those people with older cards!

HangTime · 22 Nov 2008 at 14:56

^Yes, they have misleading graphics, but if you look at the numbers on some of the benchmarks there is a fair difference especially at high rez.

Agree it would be good to see some numbers from the 9800GTX+ though, which is another maligned card (the reality is, it is very competitive with the 4850). Considering it costs under £130 it could offer a good alternative depending on what these drivers do.

LoadsaMoney · 22 Nov 2008 at 15:05

Yeah that blue bars more than double the length, so if we go by that, 4870 gets 25fps, the 260 should be getting 51fps.

Credo · 22 Nov 2008 at 15:09

Yamahahahahaha said:
Well, Bjorn3d do that stupid thing where they don't start their graphs at 0;

OMG IT TRASHED IT!... Or not. 20% is a lot, but it's not the 50%+ the graph is depicting.

I wonder if these drivers offer a benefit to the 8 / 9 series of cards too? Could be a nice boost for those people with older cards!

If that's average FPS it's not enough anyway - 31fps -woo - bet that plays a treat! Daft measuring crap framerates at super-high resolutions... if my maths is correct that's a range of 15 - 45 fps.

Decent graphics reviews seem had to come by these days...

RavenXXX2 · 22 Nov 2008 at 15:12

Looks like the 260-216 is now the card to for if you have no bias towards either company, 4870 had a good run but the 260 is the way to go for best in performance.

LoadsaMoney · 22 Nov 2008 at 15:14

I really don't know what all the fuss is about tbh, Nvidia are faster in their own games, every man and his dog knows that they should be, if they wern't, it would have been an embarrasing failure.

Thats taking nothing away from the 260-216, as it is a great card.

RavenXXX2 · 22 Nov 2008 at 15:19

The last time I looked left 4 dead was not part of TWIMTBP, yet ATI is still losing ground in them, the fact the 260 can in most cases be OC'd far more than the 4870 can, makes the 260 the card to go for.

LoadsaMoney · 22 Nov 2008 at 15:21

Fallout 3 is on the TWIMTBP list over at Nzone.