A lot of time has passed since the official announcement of the new Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 and GeForce GTX 470 video cards based on Fermi chips, but only now we were able to get samples of these video accelerators for our gaming tests. This time we conducted a special generalized test of these cards together with our direct competitors, the AMD Radeon HD 5850 and Radeon HD 5870 in DirectX 11 modes.
In addition to DirectX 11 tests, we will compare the new Nvidia flagships with their predecessors in games that support NVIDIA CUDA technologies and PhysX and determine what the purchase of a new generation of video cards will bring to fans of the Californian company. The architecture of these video cards has been described far and wide on many resources, but if you want to refresh your memory, then you can view it on our website. Below are the comparative architectural features of the new video cards in comparison with their competitors in the form of Cypress and their predecessors in the person of GeForce GTX 2XX:
| Video adapter | Radeon HD 5870 | Radeon HD 5850 | GeForce GTX 480 | GeForce GTX 470 | GeForce GTX 275 | GeForce GTX 285 |
| Core | RV870 | RV870 | GF100 | GF100 | GT200b | GT200b |
| Number of transistors, million pieces | 2154 | 2154 | 3200 | 3200 | 1400 | 1400 |
| Process technology, nm | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 0.055 | 0.055 |
| Core area, sq. mm | 334 | 334 | 530 | 530 | 400 | 400 |
| Number of stream processors | 1600 | 1440 | 480 | 448 | 240 | 240 |
| Number of texture blocks | 80 | 72 | 60 | 56 | 80 | 80 |
| Number of rendering units | 32 | 32 | 48 | 40 | 28 | 28 |
| Core frequency, MHz | 850 | 725 | 701 | 608 | 633 | 648 |
| Shader domain frequency, MHz | 850 | 725 | 1401 | 1215 | 1404 | 1476 |
| Memory bus, bit | 256 | 256 | 384 | 320 | 448 | 512 |
| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR3 | GDDR3 |
| Memory frequency, MHz | 4800 | 4000 | 3696 | 3348 | 2268 | 2484 |
| Memory capacity, MB | 1024 | 1024 | 1536 | 1280 | 896 | 1024 |
| Supported DirectX Version | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 10 |
| Interface | PCIe 2.1 | PCIe 2.1 | PCIe 2.0 | PCIe 2.0 | PCIe 2.0 | PCIe 2.0 |
| Declared maximum power consumption, W | 188 | 170 | 250 | 215 | 219 | 183 |
It is immediately clear that the GeForce GTX 480 has a huge advantage over its predecessor, the GeForce GTX 285 – all architectural characteristics are almost doubled, and the core frequency is even higher than that of the previous flagship. The only downside is the reduced number of texture blocks, which in some situations can have a detrimental effect on the performance of the new champion. The architecture of the new chip turned out to be very complex and at the same time the core area has increased noticeably – it is almost 1,6 times larger than that of the competitor and 1,3 times than that of the GeForce GTX 285. Accordingly, the heat dissipation of the new cards has also increased. Many Internet resources were very upset by this fact and hastened to move it to the biggest minus in the evaluation of new Nvidia products. After some brainstorming, we decided to find a solution to this problem, not too complicated and not very expensive:
Without hiding, we’ll say right away that a regular cheap case is in no way suitable for the GeForce GTX 480. But if you have the money for this dragon, then most likely there will be something for a reputable case. We have at our disposal an Aerocool Zero case, made in the BTX standard and everything that is in it is located in a mirror image from the ATX format. As a result, the video card is located not at the bottom, but under the top. On the one hand, this is a plus – all the main elements of the PC do not heat up – the processor, memory, power supply, which are located at the very bottom of the system unit. On the other hand, the entire thermal shock falls on the video card, which creates some difficulties with cooling. To combat the heating of video cards, we placed two fans next to it – one in front of the video card and the other behind it. One directs a fresh stream of air into the turbine and onto the finned top surface of the GeForce GTX 480, while the other draws heated air out of the case.
Both fans are low-speed, and the noise they create is almost inaudible. As a result of this simple maneuver, the heating of video cards at full load in FurMark decreased from 94 to 88 degrees. When overclocking the card to 835/1670 MHz for the core and up to 3960 MHz for the memory, raising the voltage to 1,05, the maximum the GTX 480 warmed up to is 92 degrees. At the same time, the turbine speed was absolutely not regulated and was in automatic mode.
At the same time, the video card worked relatively quietly and its noise in games can be compared with GeForce GTX 285, the turbine started up gradually and slowly reached the turnover level of 60%. In this case, only a slight rustle of the turbine was heard. We applied a similar approach to cooling to the GTX 470, as a result of which we were able to achieve fast and silent operation at 730/1460 MHz core and up to 3570 MHz from memory. Undoubtedly, setting the turbine speed to maximum will help you squeeze out a few more tens of precious megahertz, but your ears are unlikely to like it…
Our red-skinned brothers were also out of work and were exposed to moderate acceleration Radeon HD 5870 was overclocked to 980/5200 MHz, and Radeon HD5850 is almost at the same level, namely 970/5000 MHz. As you can see, the Radeon cards overclocked to almost the same level, which cannot be said about the GeForce 4XX cards – they race equally well, but the frequency limit for stable and quiet operation is much higher for the GTX 480 (probably a more massive cooling system plays a role). Our “oldies” GeForce GTX 285 and GeForce GTX 275 showed more modest overclocking rates and reached the milestone of 715/1600/1400(2800) MHz and 710/1558/1335(2670) MHz, respectively. Next we will move on to the test configuration and directly to the tests themselves.
|
Hardware configuration |
|
| Processor |
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550@ 4.25 GHz L2 cache 12 MB, |
| Motherboard | MSI P45 Platinum 7512 (LGA 775) P45/ICH10R |
| Memory | 4 GB OCZ DDR2-1150 @ 11160, 5-5-5, 2,2 V |
| Video Cards |
GeForce GTX 275 896 MB |
| HDD | 2 RAID0 Western Digital Caivar WD2500GL 250 GB, 7200 rpm, SATA 3 Gbit/s |
|
System software and drivers |
|
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition x64 |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| Platform Driver | Intel INF Chipset Update Utility 9.1.0.1012 |
| Graphics driver |
Nvidia GeForce/ION Driver Release 197.75 ATI Catalyst 10.4 |
All video cards used were tested at maximum graphics quality by the Fraps program in the most resource-intensive place in the game or the built-in gaming benchmark. On many sites, their employees performed tests in 3DMark Vantage, Crysis, Far Cry and other well-known projects. But who is interested in performance at the level of 50-100 frames in applications that have long been completed and are currently not interesting to gamers and are used only as a form of benchmark. It’s much more interesting how the new generation of video cards will perform in modern games and in graphics modes of the near future.
Therefore, our testing was carried out at our maximum resolution of 1920×1080 with different graphics settings for each game separately. To test the performance of the new Fermi video cards in comparison with their competitors in DirectX 11 mode, we took such games and tests as Stone Giant, Heaven Benchmark v2.0, STALKER Call of Pripyat, Dirt 2, Aliens vs. Predator, Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Metro 2033. Batman Arkham Asylum and Just Cause 2 were used to test the performance of the new Fermi video cards in comparison with their predecessors.
STALKER Call of Pripyat DirectX 11 test GPU
And the first one to fall under the hot hand for testing was the game from the Ukrainian developers STALKER Call of Pripyat. This game became the third product in this series and, to be honest, we didn’t see any special evolution in graphics compared to the original.
You can find a detailed review of the game at this link. Now we would like to remind you that during the testing process we abandoned the benchmark presented by the developers and carried out internal game testing, which is noticeably different from the synthetic one. During tests, anti-aliasing was set to the maximum level for the game, 4X, and anisotropic filtering was set to 16X.
Unlike the benchmark, in the game itself, GeForce GTX 4XX cards show greater dominance in frames. GeForce GTX 480 is the undisputed leader and even without overclocking it outperforms all “matched” participants. The GeForce GTX 470, both overclocked and not, shows almost identical performance to the Radeon HD 5870.
Dirt 2 DirectX 11 – PC performance graphics benchmarks of Graphics Cards
With a detailed review You can also check out Dirt 2 on the pages of our website. In it you can find all the comprehensive information on the performance of other video adapters.
Dirt 2 was practically the first game in which support for DirectX 11 was introduced. Of course, its presence can be called formally conditional, but on the other hand, this formality is a little reassuring. Anti-aliasing during benchmarking was set to the maximum level for Radeon video cards, 8X, and anisotropic filtering was set to 16X.
Although the performance of the GeForce GTX 480 remained unattainable, AMD cards still managed to outperform the competitor GeForce GTX 470 when overclocked and showed formal superiority…
Aliens Vs. Predator Direct X 11 – PC performance graphics benchmarks of Graphics Cards
Aliens vs. Predator is another game that was released under the patronage of AMD. If you haven’t read our review yet, you can safely read it at the following link.
In general, the game was not very voracious. But she had a remarkable interest in video memory, and even cards with 1 gigabyte at times suffered from a lack of it. With the release of new Nvidia cards, which have an increased amount of video memory, this trend has changed for the better and slowdowns caused by a lack of memory have not been observed. During testing, anti-aliasing was again set to 8X for games, and anisotropic filtering was set to 16X.
This is where overclocking helps the Radeon HD 5870 overtake its unoverclocked competitor, the GeForce GTX 480. But overclocking the latter allows it to remain the leader. As in Dirt 2, the GeForce GTX 470 without overclocking shows performance between the Radeon HD 5850 and Radeon HD 5870, but with overclocking the latter it barely catches up with them.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 Direct X 11 test GPU
You can learn more about Battlefield Bad Company 2 at this link. Battlefield Bad Company 2 is quite a good and exciting shooter today. And in combination with an unsurpassed network mode and the presence of newfangled technologies, it may appeal to many gamers.
The test in Battlefield Bad Company 2 took place as always in the most resource-intensive place in the game when crossing a waterfall on a boat. Some foreign resources also classified this moment as the most resource-intensive part of the game. Anti-aliasing during the test was set to 8X, and anisotropic filtering was set to 16X.
In many reviews you will notice that Radeon cards are ahead, but this is where GeForce cards show more stable and higher FPS. An unconditional victory for the Fermi generation.
Metro 2033 Direct X 11 – PC performance graphics benchmarks of Graphics Cards
Here it is – another achievement of our compatriots. No one has yet been able to outdo my friend Crysis in terms of technology and slowness. However, we won’t go into details – you can read everything you’re interested in yourself.
Metro 2033 mostly stutters in scenes that use a lot of light sources. And activating DOF adds fuel to the fire and brings all modern video accelerators to their knees. Anti-aliasing during tests was set to AAA, and anisotropic filtering was set to 16X. Let’s move on to the results themselves…
The FPS of all video cards can hardly be called comfortable, but when overclocking the GTX 480 you can experience more or less acceptable playability. I was very pleased with the GTX 470, which, when overclocked, overtook the overclocked duo Radeon HD 5850 and Radeon HD 5870.
Stone Giant Direct X 11 test GPU
Now it’s the turn of synthetics. The engine used in Stone Giant is not yet licensed and is under development. There is essentially no bench as such and we had to manually fly and measure frames.
During the test, the rasterization level was turned up to maximum and the DOF function was enabled. There are practically no settings in the test and everything was set to the maximum with a single item.
Nvidia cards showed simply stunning performance. Their minimum FPS turned out to be higher than the maximum on Radeon cards.
Heaven Benchmark v2.0 Direct X 11 test GPU
Heaven Benchmark is the first and only measurement of video cards to date that support Direct X 11. The second version was slightly modified compared to the first. New tasseling modes and objects have been added.
During the test, tasseling was set to the normal level; we considered the extreme mode to be somewhat unnecessary and oversaturated. Anti-aliasing was not turned on during tests, and anisotropic filtering was set to 4X.
And again, in synthetics, Nvidia cards are ahead. Overclocking the Radeon HD 5870 allows you to snatch a victory over the GTX 470, but only at the latter’s native frequencies… Well, we see a slight advantage of GeForce cards in games and a huge advantage in synthetics, although in the future, with the release of new games for Direct X 11, the situation is quite can change.
Batman Arkham Asylum NVIDIA PhysX – PC performance graphics benchmarks of Graphics Cards
Now we will test Fermi cards in applications specially adapted for Nvidia cards. Prominent representatives of these are Batman Arkham Asylum and Just Cause 2. The first is full of physical effects, and the second allows you to reveal the hidden effects of graphical calculations. Radeon cards did not take part in these tests due to their incompetence.
Batman Arkham Asylum is considered by many resources to be one of the best games of last year. You can find out more about this here. In the Batman Arkham Asylum benchmark, all settings were turned up to maximum, anti-aliasing was set to 16QX, and physics effects were set to high.
The new generation of video cards performed quite loudly and was able to provide a minimum acceptable FPS of 25 frames. With overclocking, the GTX 285 and GeForce GTX 275 can show more or less suitable results and approach quite normal playability.
Just Cause 2 NVIDIA CUDA test GPU
Just Cause 2 is one of the most beautiful and technologically advanced games to date. You can find a more detailed description of all the technologies used and the quality of the graphic design in this article.
The game was tailored for Nvidia’s computing power, but at that time even the GTX 2XX series of cards could not provide acceptable performance in this game. With the release of Fermi, the situation should have improved for the better, and the graph below is a clear example of this. In Just Cause 2, all settings were turned on to maximum, anisotropy and anti-aliasing were turned on at 16X. The Bokeh filter effect and water surface simulation were activated as expected.
The results here are much more interesting than in Batman Arkham Asylum. GeForce GTX 480 and GeForce GTX 470 showed unsurpassed performance both without overclocking and overclocking, and are the most optimal cards for this game.
Our review is over, our readers have seen the balance of power and will be able to independently form their own opinion about any tested video card. We can state An obvious fact is that Fermi-based cards are quite competitive. They demonstrate excellent overclocking potential and confidently compete with their competitors. We were able to roll back one stone from Nvidia’s garden, namely to achieve moderate heating and noise, as a result of which it became quite comfortable and no longer strained the ears. The only problem is power consumption. For normal power supply, you will have to stock up on high-quality power supplies with a power of 600 W or more. Now let’s draw conclusions about each card separately.
GeForce GTX 285 и GeForce GTX 275 are already a thing of the past and their purchase is almost pointless if you have no other choice or minimum funds (relevant only for the GeForce GTX 285 model, which is almost on a par with the GeForce GTX 275).
Radeon HD 5850– quite an excellent video card. It has excellent performance, and after overclocking it catches up with the overclocked Radeon HD 5870. Thanks to its speed characteristics, power consumption and low noise level, the card will become an indispensable purchase for budget-conscious enthusiasts.
Radeon HD 5870– AMD’s current single-chip flagship. Purchasing these video cards is a completely controversial decision. AMD itself could not even imagine what kind of pig it had played for itself in the form of the Radeon HD 5850 by releasing it to the masses. The difference of $100, which is more than compensated for by simple overclocking, is unjustified.
GeForce GTX 470– in our opinion, the most optimal product to purchase. As we can see from today’s test, it often overclocks its rivals from the ATI team and comes close to its older sister. And although its cost often reaches $400, which is $50 higher than the recommended one, it is more attractive than Radeon HD 5870.
GeForce GTX 480is the current single-chip champion. An excellent purchase if you have the money for it. The card feels very confident in modern games (excluding Metro 2033), has all the bells and whistles expected of Nvidia products and is a good foundation for the future. The only problem is the price, which differs from the recommended $500 by $100-200. We recommend waiting until cards flood our market and the price stops biting.
That’s all for now. Look forward to the release of new games and new reviews featuring modern flagships. Then we will draw separate conclusions for each game.
See you.