** Single, Dual & Triple Card 7970 - BATTLEFIELD 3 - HIGH RESOLUTION BENCHMARKS **

[Spydell]

Interesting,
No reason not to trust your results but a few quires,
You state "Map Played - Caspian Boarder"
But in the screen shot its clearly "Strike at Karkand"
Also you state first person gameplay [not using vehicles]
but in the 2nd screenshot your clearly in a jet/heli
Also you missed the ssd you used from your system spec list presuming you used an ssd
1 last thing, single card max fps 41 while crossfire is more than double at 86fps.
Single card performance at 1080p does look abit disappointing but hey, thanks for taking the time out to do this.

 

[DamoTourettes]

i run a GTX 590 at 2560X 1600

using all the settings as above but with HBAO off and 2X aa and 2X af

this card is about equal to it performance wise, the 590 does pip it slightly though.

GTX 590 is VRAM limited as has been noted before - 2 x 1.5G versus 3G at this res is definitely going to have an effect. Crossfire 7970's versus SLi 3G 580's would be a much more direct comparison, which in turn would give people seriously considering 2 of these cards (such as myself) a good idea where to plonk our hard earned. Can you do it?

 

[DamoTourettes]

So a 7970 overclocked (too the limits within Overdrive) is more or less matching a GTX 590 a dual GPU card. I'd say pretty good result.

GTX 590's are VRAM limited at 2 x 1.5G versus a 7970 with 3G so it's not really a very good comparison at all, *especially* at 2560 x 1600 resolution.

 

[555BUK]

Toms has a good review of GTX 580 (1.5GB) BF3 performance using single, SLI, and tri-SLI configs using the same settings as Gibbo. The oc'd 7970's are certainly faster, but not by much from what I can see.

What we need is a non-overclocked comparison for both setups within the same same systems.

 

[Cupra]

could you do the same settings with a gtx 580 3gb in this rig im not bothered what other ocuk shop people can get from their systems at home more a like for like

 

[Davefran]

The majority of people that would want to move to this kind of config would want 60+ fps in BF3 with all the candy turned on @ 2560 x 1600. What I find interesting is that whilst these specs are reasonable, the relative cost is going to be the major contributing factor. Anyone that's currently running at 2560 x 1600 already (probably) has at least SLi 470/480's or a GTX 580. When you consider that these benches are only a few FPS faster than SLi 580's at this res you've got to wonder who's going to move to CF 7970's when the potential for them is to be *at least* £250-£300 more expensive than the Nvidia option. (I'm talking 2 x 7970's vs 2 x GTX 580's 3GB, and that's even before Nvidia potentially price cuts to compete with AMD after the 9th Jan).

In my case I was hoping for seriously faster performance in which case I would have gone for CF 7970's the day they were released and sold my 1.5G GTX 580 - as it stands I'm looking to leverage my existing card until Kepler comes out. Disappointed.

The ave price for the GTX580 3GB is £473(based on the ave of the 3 cheapest cards here) = £946 for SLi.
So you're saying CF 7970's will be £1196 - £1246, that's £598 - £623 each

 

[Locky]

Crossfire results are not great if I'm honest, doesn't seem to be much quicker than my SLI 480 setup.

The tri-fire results are good, so at 1450 pounds worth of cards it should be.

 

[DamoTourettes]

Toms has a good review of GTX 580 BF3 performance using single, SLI, and tri-SLI configs using the same settings as Gibbo. The oc'd 7970's are certainly faster, but not by much from what I can see.

What we need is a non-overclocked comparison for both setups within the same same systems.

+1.

*AND* the 7970's are overclocked. Do the same with GTX 580's and why not compare apples with apples eh?

 

[rjk]

Hi

Interesting,
No reason not to trust your results but a few quires,
You state "Map Played - Caspian Boarder" it was. thats where all the benches were taken.
But in the screen shot its clearly "Strike at Karkand" i was messing around trying to find a server i liked to test in. just took the screeny there to show the settings
Also you state first person gameplay [not using vehicles]
but in the 2nd screenshot your clearly in a jet/heli that was just me flying around again, noticed a free jet and wanted some kills on my stats
Also you missed the ssd you used from your system spec list presuming you used an ssd yep, standard crucial 64gb m4
1 last thing, single card max fps 41 while crossfire is more than double at 86fps.
Single card performance at 1080p does look abit disappointing but hey, thanks for taking the time out to do this.

no problem, playing bf3 on unreleased hardware is a really boring job but i know its for the greater good

GTX 590 is VRAM limited as has been noted before - 2 x 1.5G versus 3G at this res is definitely going to have an effect. Crossfire 7970's versus SLi 3G 580's would be a much more direct comparison, which in turn would give people seriously considering 2 of these cards (such as myself) a good idea where to plonk our hard earned. Can you do it?

it is but in fairness my ram usage never goes above 1100mb. sure, 3gb useable would be epic but i dont think it would be entirely game changing.
the only thing i have the option to increase on my system is AA & AF and lets face it, they make little to no difference on that res.

HBAO is a big difference though and i cant get that running on my 590 whereas this card has it enabled with ease, everything looks better too.

GTX 590's are VRAM limited at 2 x 1.5G versus a 7970 with 3G so it's not really a very good comparison at all, *especially* at 2560 x 1600 resolution.

as mentioned above, my 590 doesn't use more than 1300mb of VRAM unless i put more than 2XAA and 2xAF on. I can see the need for the 3GB card, and for eyefinity it will be epic, but its too close for me to consider and an overclocked 590 leaves a single 7970 for dead

Im not selling the card [thats Gibbo's job] and I'm not an nvidia fanboy. so im posting from as much of an unbiased POV as I can

 

[Cupra]

+1.

*AND* the 7970's are overclocked. Do the same with GTX 580's and why not compare apples with apples eh?

this very much

we need to see like for like so no overclocks on both and overclocked to the max on both and both on the same test system not some randoms 3 month old bloated install

 

[555BUK]

The ave price for the GTX580 3GB is £473(based on the ave of the 3 cheapest cards here) = £946 for SLi.
So you're saying CF 7970's will be £1196 - £1246, that's £598 - £623 each

GTX580 3GB's can be had MUCH cheaper than that. The first place I looked listed them in-stock for £380. We are in the internet era where nobody pays the average price.

 

[Vir]

CPU at 3.4GHz, does not support overclocking, but it will do.

Yes a 5GHz SB would give better results.

Probably not? I've seen some CPU scaling benchmarks and there wasn't much difference between a i7 920 @ 2.66Ghz and 4.0Ghz, like 1fps...

 

[Davefran]

Crossfire results are not great if I'm honest, doesn't seem to be much quicker than my SLI 480 setup.

The tri-fire results are good, so at 1450 pounds worth of cards it should be.

How do you know they're £1450 for 3, that's £483.33333333333333333333 each. Can you provide a link to where they are on sale at this price please.

 

[koooowweeee]

could you do the same settings with a gtx 580 3gb in this rig im not bothered what other ocuk shop people can get from their systems at home more a like for like

this

bench marks are nothing without a proper comparison

 

[DamoTourettes]

The ave price for the GTX580 3GB is £473(based on the ave of the 3 cheapest cards here) = £946 for SLi.
So you're saying CF 7970's will be £1196 - £1246, that's £598 - £623 each

No, I'm saying you can get 3GB GTX 580's for about £380 (offsite - check Google shopping for confirmation), which means if these 7970's sell at £550 at launch (which is more than feasible based on what we're seeing from Euro e-tailers) we're looking at a difference of ~£250 - £300 on an SLi setup.

2 x 3GB GTX 580's - £760.
2 x 7970's - £1100

FPS difference in BF3? Negligible.

Even if we call the 7970's @ £500 (and I DEFINITELY can't see them launching less than that), we're still talking £250 difference, before any kind of Nvidia cut pricing comes into play. I can understand OCUK hyping these cards, but for BF3 unfortunately they're not all that, especially at the prices we're all expecting them to launch them at.

 

[Davefran]

GTX580 3GB's can be had MUCH cheaper than that. The first place I looked listed them in-stock for £380. We are in the internet era where nobody pays the average price.

No, I'm saying you can get 3GB GTX 580's for about £380 (offsite - check Google shopping for confirmation), which means if these 7970's sell at £550 at launch (which is more than feasible based on what we're seeing from Euro e-tailers) we're looking at a difference of ~£250 - £300 on an SLi setup.

2 x 3GB GTX 580's - £760.
2 x 7970's - £1100

FPS difference in BF3? Negligible.

Even if we call the 7970's @ £500 (and I DEFINITELY can't see them launching less than that), we're still talking £250 difference, before any kind of Nvidia cut pricing comes into play. I can understand OCUK hyping these cards, but for BF3 unfortunately they're not all that, especially at the prices we're all expecting them to launch them at.

But this is OcUK forum you're not allowed to discuss competitor prices

 

[Cupra]

also how many people were in each server, its no good running round with no action to test

 

[~>Dg<~]

Probably not? I've seen some CPU scaling benchmarks and there wasn't much difference between a i7 920 @ 2.66Ghz and 4.0Ghz, like 1fps...

yep bf3 doesnt make much difference whether cpu is at stock or over 5ghz.

 

[DamoTourettes]

Hi


it is but in fairness my ram usage never goes above 1100mb. sure, 3gb useable would be epic but i dont think it would be entirely game changing.
the only thing i have the option to increase on my system is AA & AF and lets face it, they make little to no difference on that res.

HBAO is a big difference though and i cant get that running on my 590 whereas this card has it enabled with ease, everything looks better too.



as mentioned above, my 590 doesn't use more than 1300mb of VRAM unless i put more than 2XAA and 2xAF on. I can see the need for the 3GB card, and for eyefinity it will be epic, but its too close for me to consider and an overclocked 590 leaves a single 7970 for dead

Im not selling the card [thats Gibbo's job] and I'm not an nvidia fanboy. so im posting from as much of an unbiased POV as I can

With you. I'm similarly not an Nvidia fanboy - was just very interested in running BF3 maxed out. I've got a GTX 580 1.5G that I'm getting 60 fps with at 2560 x 1600 (Ultra textures but not much of anything else) and I'm using 1300MB VRAM - however based on what I've written elsewhere in this thread I just can't justify moving to Crossfire 7970's at such massive price.

Roll on high-end Kepler.

 

[rjk]

also how many people were in each server, its no good running round with no action to test

server was 40/60
benchmarking was activated when I was around capture points so quite a similar action scenario on each run.

its impossible to be subjective without a proper time demo for the game but i did the best I could.
I had my smoke launcher on

still have a bit of work to do with the 7970s before we test the 580s [Gibbo is testing the system on Quake 3]

and Cupra, you are not allowed to buy 7970s because I refuse to listen to you moaning about the drivers in vent