WHOOHOO!!!! I have just finished a set of benchmarks. I'll draw a conclusion at the end.
I am comparing two cards: Sapphire HD 7870 OC vs. eVGA GTX 660 Ti FTW Signature 2. Drivers used were the Cat 12.11 Beta11 for the HD 7870 and the newly released Forceware 310.70 WHQL drivers.
HD 7870:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102983
GTX 660 Ti:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130837
For comparison, I paid $209.99 for the HD 7870 on newegg, while I paid a whopping $299.99 for the GTX 660 Ti. Granted, the 7870 was on sale and marked down about $40, but that's what it cost to get it.
Now for the benchmarks. I ran both cards at stock for every test. The resolution was exactly the same on all the games (1920x1200), and the details were left unchanged so that there could be an accurate comparison. Straight off the line, I was pretty sure that the 660 Ti was going to be faster on framerates, but lets see what happened.
The games I benchmarked were Battlefield 3 (multiplayer), Crysis, Far Cry 3, and Skyrim. Each benchmark was run for 2 minutes using FRAPS, and the resulting file was put into the FRAPS bench viewer utility.
Let's get started with
Battlefield 3:
NOTE: All pictures submitted are done with the 660 Ti as the top graph, and the 7870 on the bottom. This can be proven because the time stamps on the files. The 7870 benchmarks were done first, so the time stamps on those files are earlier (by about 45 minutes or so) than the 660 Ti benchmarks.
The benchmark was done on a 64-man Caspian Border server which was full for both runs. I ran around the map, shooting and taking points as if I was playing a normal game.
You can draw your own conclusion, but both cards were set to the same detail settings (all Ultra with no MSAA), and the results were not even close. The 7870 wins this one by a landslide. The 7870 was smoother and much more enjoyable. There was a constant frame stutter exhibited by the 660 Ti while the 7870 exhibited very smooth gameplay. This REALLY surprised me, but the graphs back up exactly what I felt in game.
Before anyone goes crying foul, I have to believe that this is either a driver issue or possibly an issue with my CPU. However, the 7870 ran just fine on my Phenom II X4, and the more powerful 660 ti didn't, so I don't believe my CPU is the culprit here. Software is more than likely to blame.
BF3 Winner: HD 7870
Next, let's look at
Crysis:
Everything was set to very high with no aa on for this test. I started from the beginning of mission 2 on Crysis (not Warhead). I ran down to the small outpost, ran around the building two times, ran down the road, cloaked and shot the passing humvee in the gas tank (big explosion) then ran into the forest until the end.
This one was a little tougher, but again the 7870 pulled ahead. The average framerate was exactly the same, but the 660 Ti had a lower minimum framerate. Also, you can see by the graph that the 660 ti had quite a few more frame spikes throughout the run. I also noticed several areas where the 660 ti's framerate dipped that did not occur on the 7870. This means that the 7870's framerate and gameplay experience felt more consistent, and thus more enjoyable.
This could be a CPU issue, but I doubt it. Crysis only uses 2 threads, and even then, it ran perfectly on a stock Core 2 Duo. This probably has to do with the Kepler architecture and the driver as well.
Crysis Winner: HD 7870
Next let's look at
Far Cry 3:
The settings on this were very high, HDAO, and no MSAA. I started from the same point on the island and ran for 2 minutes. Unfortunately, this was a little more difficult because the baddies spawned differently during both runs, so I couldn't even get close to reproducing the runs. However, I tried to stay in the same area for both.
This time things are quite a bit closer. First, the 660 Ti did maintain an average 5 fps higher than the 7870, and that could be felt (barely) in game. It did feel like the 660 ti maintained its framerate better than the HD 7870 this time, although based on the graphs, it's sort of hard to tell. The 660 ti has more frame spikes towards the end while the HD 7870 has more towards the beginning. However, since the 660 Ti maintained a higher framerate, it did provide a smoother gameplay experience, and thus the 660 Ti takes this one.
Far Cry 3 Winner: GTX 660 Ti
Finally, lets talk about
Skyrim:
Settings were maxed except for MSAA, which was set to 4x for both cards. For this test, I spawned at a quick save point near White run and ran up the road for two minutes, both runs following the same path.
I'm not sure how to approach this one. The 660 Ti most definitely had a higher framerate for this game BUT it also had a more inconsistent one. It wasn't much more inconsistent, but when you turn off vsync, it's noticeable. There were a couple of times where the 7870 exhibited some bigger stutters, but they didn't last for that long. That could even be contributed to a background task on the computer. However, you will see on the 7870's graph (lower) thant at about 50 seconds, the frame times become almost a tight line, whereas the 660 Ti is unable to achieve that at any time.
Long story short, I'm confused. My gut is telling me that the 7870 was smoother for most of it, but the 660 ti's framerate was more consistent. Needless to say, if you turn on vsync on either card, that eliminates virtually every issue period. Because of this, I'm going to call it a draw. I simply do not have a preference in this instance.
Skyrim Winner: DRAW
Conclusion: Based on these 4 games, I have to give the nod to the 7870. The performance wasn't higher, but the framerates were more consistent. This lead to the gameplay experience being smoother overall. Since BF3 is my favorite game, I choose the 7870 without a shadow of a doubt. The fact that the 7870 is far cheaper than the 660 Ti makes this an easy decision for me... I choose the HD 7870.
If anyone else has requests for games, let me know. I'm tight on cash, but I'll do the best I can here. Let me know if you guys need any clarification on these tests or would like to see something done differently. Thanks. :thumb:
.
.
.
