Foreword
We continue this test analogous to our charts with a very special benchmark selection and a new test system. The selection of the individual tests was made on an exemplary basis and after much deliberation. We have therefore also deliberately omitted games that particularly suit the graphics cards of one manufacturer. We also evaluated things like tessellation and physics only within the usual gaming framework and did not use tech demos or special benchmarks. The aim was to be able to evaluate as balanced as possible.
Technology
Test system | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CPU | Intel Core i5 2500K @4.5 GHz | |||||||||
CPU Cooler | Prolimatech SuperMega + Noiseblocker Multiframe PWM | |||||||||
Mainboard | Asus P67 Sabertooth Rev. B3
|
|||||||||
RAM | 8 GB Kingston HyperX 1600 “Genesis |
|||||||||
System SSD | 256GB SAMSUNG MZ5PA256HMDR-01000 | |||||||||
Power supply unit | Cougar GX 1050 – 80 Plus Gold
|
|||||||||
OS | Windows 7 x64 Ultimate | |||||||||
Measuring devices | ||||||||||
Electricity and Consumption Measurement |
Energy Logger 4000 (Conrad Electronic)
– Long-term measurements |
|||||||||
Voltcraft SBC-500 (Conrad Electronic)
– More accurate measurements in the milliwatt range |
||||||||||
Noise level measurement |
Voltcraft SL-400 (Conrad Electronic)
– Noise level measurements |
Synthetic tests
For our tests, we first resort to 3DMark11, where we evaluate the largely processor-independent graphics tests. The results are certainly quite meaningful in view of the benchmark’s topicality. On the other hand, we did not use 3DMark06 and Vantage due to their age and the many dependencies on external circumstances. We chose Sanctuary v. 2.3 from Unigine as our second synthetic test and deliberately did without DirectX-11 functionality, since still many current game titles do not include explicit DirectX-11 support or also rely on DirectX-10 features.
Games
In this area, too, we primarily focus on balance, because some pre-tests have shown that surprises can definitely lurk, especially in the older DirectX modes. The relevance is definitely given, because the game collection of most users does not only contain pure DirectX 11 games, after all. Enough has been written about Tessellation and PhysX, we won’t deal with feasibility studies here, but test the gaming routine.
Syntethic Benchmarks | |
---|---|
3DMark11 |
|
Unigine Sanctuary v. 2.4 |
|
Gaming Benchmarks | |
DirectX 11 | Metro 2033 Aliens vs. Predator |
DirectX 10 | Call of Juarez S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat |
DirectX 9 | Mafia II |
Performance classes: Gamer and enthusiast
After some deliberation, we have decided on two performance classes for the charts, which also take the acquisition costs into account and reflect them. In this regard, the Gamer range with a resolution of 1680 x 1050 pixels and the Enthusiast range with 1920 x 1080 pixels are also given. After internal discussion and consultation with some readers, we have decided to abandon both the oversized resolutions and the smaller ones, as this does not yet or no longer affect the intended target group. The selection of settings was also subordinated to this grouping. Although we explicitly test the mid-range in this article, the results with the upper-range requirements are also of high interest – after all, it shows that quite a few cards can almost catch up with the top class and at least often enough at least the taillights are still visible.
Performance index and calculation bases
Instead of cumulative frame rates for overall ranking, we have therefore created a total of 2 new performance indices for the first time, the Gamer and Enthusiast indices. Thus, each tested card can be rated in the gamer or enthusiast range at the same time. Thus, a card that is too weak in the enthusiast sector can still be quite usable in the gaming sector. Cumulative rates in fact say nothing about performance under certain conditions, so we will replace this with the more transparent index variants.
How do we arrive at the values now? For this purpose, we took a typical representative of each manufacturer from the good mid-range (AMD Radeon HD 6870, Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 Ti) and the upper-range (AMD Radeon HD 6970, Nvidia Geforce GTX 570) and evaluated their behavior in a total of 15 tested games, grouped them in relation to each other and thus created a fictitious “Raforce Gedeon”. We took these “cards” as a yardstick for the respective quality settings in each of the benchmark tests and set the achievable frame rates as a 100% mark for the gamer or enthusiast index of this one benchmark. The sum of all percentages within the two ranges, divided by the number of tests, then gives the Gamer and Enthusiast Indexes for each card respectively. Since the “Raforce Gedeon” is vendor-neutral, the advantages of certain cards are largely excluded in advance. The whole thing may sound complicated, but in the end it’s not. If you limit yourself to common gaming settings, then the indices are certainly a good indication for the price/performance ratio.
Consumption measurement and temperature
After a few attempts, we want to take a different route this time in order to exclude fluctuations. We have our CPU running at 100% capacity with Prime95, but we have these threads running in the background at low priority. Then we measured the consumption of a smaller card, whose values we know very precisely, once at idle and once with Furmark. If you subtract the idle and load consumption values from the two measured total consumption values, you get the total consumption of the system under load without the graphics card as the difference. In our case, both values matched except for the watt, so we only need to subtract 131 watts from all other measured values to conclude the card’s consumption. Of course, we still take the actual values for control and check the results for possible outliers. As usual, we measure the temperatures in idle and under full load. This is based on a constant room temperature of 22° Celsius.
Noise level measurement
Here we go the normal way, 50 cm distance to the center of the card must be enough. We also removed all clocks and other noise sources from the test room during the tests.
- 1 - Einführung und technische Daten
- 2 - Lieferumfang und Ausstattung
- 3 - Bildergalerie und Kühlung
- 4 - Testsystem und Konfiguration
- 5 - Benchmarks: Synthetik
- 6 - Benchmarks: DirectX 11
- 7 - Benchmarks: DirectX 10
- 8 - Benchmarks: DirectX 9 und Leistungsindex
- 9 - Messung: Leistungsaufnahme und Effizienz
- 10 - Messung: Temperaturen und Kühlung
- 11 - Messung: Lautstärke
- 12 - Preis, Leistung, Zusasmmenfassung und Fazit
9 Antworten
Kommentar
Lade neue Kommentare
Urgestein
Veteran
Urgestein
Moderator
1
Urgestein
Mitglied
Urgestein
Alle Kommentare lesen unter igor´sLAB Community →