NO LONGER UPDATED , SINCE 2011

Regular visitors of the site have already noticed a new reviewing force present amongst us these past months. Stefan has pumping out reviews at an incredible pace. In order to help present his test data we are introducing a second VGA database next to the existing one.

Stefan is running each video card through 25 benchmarks at several resolutions and AA/AF settings. On the following pages you can find detailed results of all these benchmarks. Due to the changing nature of the charts (they are generated dynamically and new data added as more cards are tested) we’ll let the numbers do the talking.

On the last two pages of this huge article we’ve included several summary charts per resolution / quality setting, showing you in % the performance differences between the different video cards, with the fastest card representing 100%.

Here you can get also a good idea of the synthetic vs game performance and how they compare.

You will still find detailed reviews of new video cards in their proper article, the raw test data will be present here, with the summary charts appearing in the reviews to give you a general idea of each video card’s performance.

Test Setup

Stefan's Test Setup
CPU	Core i7 920 @ 3.2Ghz
Cooling	Cogage True Spirit
Mainboard	Asrock X58 Extreme
Memory	G.Skill F3-12800CL8T-6GBPI PI Series
VGA	plenty
Other	Power Supply : Antec True Power New 750W HDD : Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200.10

This quite dated benchmark from Futuremark is still being used by enthusiast to gauge the performance of their video card and overall system speed. We're not running it on default settings, we start of at 1280x1024, and then gradually increase that resolution and also add 4xAA in the mix. As you'll see, at the lower IQ setting only the cheapest cards are struggling.

3DMark03 is less about CPU and Memory speed and focuses a lot more on stressing the video card, as you will see in the charts, the difference between slowest and fastest card is very noticeable. With these older benchmarks, which don't use the latest DirectX functions to create visual effects, we see older cards outpacing the latest generation, this of course doesn't translate in a notice advantage in actual games of this day & age. But if you happen to be playing games from 2003, you can use the results as a guideline on what VGA card will give you the best performance.

3DMark05 released in... 2004 is not much different from 3DMark03, adding the requirement for Shader Level 2.0. The playing field is less diverse here, but still noticeable differences present between the contestants:

3DMark06 offers some updated VGA tests... but the major change between this and older versions is the inclusion of the CPU score into the total score calculation. Released in early 2006, the CPU was still playing a major role in gaming performance. With Intel Netburst vs AMD Athlon K8 series going strong, having a fast CPU was crucial to get playable frame rates in games. 3DMark06 offered some indication of gaming performance... up until a few months later Intel released the Core 2 Duo. With that release the CPU was almost removed from the "performance" equation when it came down to gaming.

So now using Core i7 running at 3.2Ghz scores massively in the 3D06 CPU benchmark, skewing the overall score, despite the fact that in games we don't see the same happening, as games rely a lot more on the video card speed.

Futuremark released Vantage 3DMark for Vista(7)/DX10 only in 2008... a little bit fumbling the ball when it came down to producing numbers usable to gauge gaming performance. Including several CPU tests and using them with a large weight in the total score calculation, we end up with a global system performance number which doesn't really tell you anything about how it will serve as a gaming system.

To try and offset the CPU benchmark and focus on VGA performance they added several "standard" profiles, we test Performance and Extreme; as you'll see, neither one gives results comparable to game performance.

3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world’s most popular benchmark for measuring the graphics performance of gaming PCs.

Designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading.

After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine™ engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

Features

• Support of DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.0
• Comprehensive use of tessellation technology
• Advanced SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion)
• Volumetric cumulonimbus clouds generated by a physically accurate algorithm
• Simulation of changing light conditions
• Dynamic sky with light scattering
• Interactive experience with fly/walk-through modes
• Stereo 3D modes:
  • Anaglyph
  • Separate images
  • 3D Vision
  • iZ3D

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine™ engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

Features

• Support of DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.0
• Comprehensive use of tessellation technology
• Advanced SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion)
• Volumetric cumulonimbus clouds generated by a physically accurate algorithm
• Simulation of changing light conditions
• Dynamic sky with light scattering
• Interactive experience with fly/walk-through modes
• Stereo 3D modes:
  • Anaglyph
  • Separate images
  • 3D Vision
  • iZ3D

Heaven Benchmark V2.0 is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine™ engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk. 

Features

• Support of DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.0
• Comprehensive use of tessellation technology
• Advanced SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion)
• Volumetric cumulonimbus clouds generated by a physically accurate algorithm
• Simulation of changing light conditions
• Dynamic sky with light scattering
• Interactive experience with fly/walk-through modes
• Stereo 3D modes:
  • Anaglyph
  • Separate images
  • 3D Vision
  • iZ3D

Rebellion, SEGA and Twentieth Century FOX have released the Aliens vs. Predator DirectX 11 Benchmark to the public.

As with many of the already released DirectX 11 benchmarks, the Aliens vs. Predator DirectX 11 benchmark leverages your DirectX 11 hardware to provide an immersive game play experience through the use of DirectX 11 Tessellation and DirectX 11 Advanced Shadow features. In Aliens vs. Predator, DirectX 11 Geometry Tessellation is applied in an effective manner to enhance and more accurately depict HR Giger’s famous Alien design. Through the use of a variety of adaptive schemes, applying tessellation when and where it is necessary, the perfect blend of performance and visual fidelity is achieved with at most a 4% change in performance. Your DirectX 11 hardware also allows for higher quality, smoother and more natural looking shadows as well. DirectX 11 Advanced Shadows allow for the rendering of high-quality shadows, with smoother, artifact-free penumbra regions, which otherwise could not be realized, again providing for a higher quality, more immersive gaming experience. Let’s not forget ATI Eyefinity Technology! As an ATI Eyefinity Validated title, Aliens vs. Predator has undergone extensive testing to ensure a great experience, providing an easy path to a truly immersive gaming experience.

Call of Juarez is a Western-themed first-person shooter from the Polish developer Techland. The North American release of the PC version is one of the first games to utilize Microsoft's DirectX 10. First released for Windows in 2006.

Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek Frankfurt, published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, and released in November 2007. Crysis uses Microsoft's new API, Direct3D 10 (DirectX 10) for graphics rendering, and includes the same editor that was used by Crytek to create the game. The game runs on a new engine (CryEngine 2) that is the successor to Far Cry's CryEngine. CryEngine 2 is among the first engines to use the Direct3D 10 (DirectX 10) framework of Windows Vista, but can also run using DirectX 9, both on Vista and Windows XP. Roy Taylor, Vice President of Content Relations at NVIDIA, has spoken on the subject of the engine's complexity, stating that Crysis has over a million lines of code, 1 GB of texture data, and 85,000 shaders.

Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek Frankfurt, published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, and released in November 2007. Crysis uses Microsoft's new API, Direct3D 10 (DirectX 10) for graphics rendering, and includes the same editor that was used by Crytek to create the game. The game runs on a new engine (CryEngine 2) that is the successor to Far Cry's CryEngine. CryEngine 2 is among the first engines to use the Direct3D 10 (DirectX 10) framework of Windows Vista, but can also run using DirectX 9, both on Vista and Windows XP. Roy Taylor, Vice President of Content Relations at NVIDIA, has spoken on the subject of the engine's complexity, stating that Crysis has over a million lines of code, 1 GB of texture data, and 85,000 shaders.

Colin McRae: Dirt 2 (known as Dirt 2 outside Europe and stylised, DiRT) is a racing game released in September 2009, and is the sequel to Colin McRae: Dirt. This is the first game in the McRae series since McRae's death in 2007. It was announced on 19 November 2008 and features Ken Block, Travis Pastrana, Tanner Foust, and Dave Mirra. The game includes many new race-events, including stadium events. Along with the player, an RV travels from one event to another, and serves as 'headquarters' for the player. It features a roster of contemporary off-road events, taking players to diverse and challenging real-world environments. The game takes place across four continents: Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. The game includes five different event types: Rally, Rallycross, 'Trailblazer,' 'Land Rush' and 'Raid.' The World Tour mode sees players competing in multi-car and solo races at new locations, and also includes a new multiplayer mode.

GameSpot revealed that the PC version would have exclusive features, including more modes and visual customization. Turbo Mode is featured, giving the game a slightly faster speed, and a new difficulty called Legendary Dark Knight Mode is implemented. The PC version also has both DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 mode. It is labeled Games for Windows and runs on both Windows XP and Vista.[30] (also works on Windows 7). It assumes a Gamepad is present and only uses the mouse in the menus, providing virtually the same user interface as the console versions.

Far Cry 2 (commonly abbreviated as "FC2") is an open-ended first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released on October 21, 2008 in North America and on October 23, 2008 in Europe and Australia. It was made available on Steam on October 22, 2008. Crytek, the developers of the original game, were not involved in the development of Far Cry 2.

The Dunia engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers realistic semi-destructible environments, special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system and non-scripted enemy A.I actions.

The engine takes advantage of multi-core processors as well as multiple processors and supports DirectX 9 as well as DirectX 10. Only 2 or 3 percent of the original CryEngine code is re-used, according to Michiel Verheijdt, Senior Product Manager for Ubisoft Netherlands. Additionally, the engine is less hardware-demanding than CryEngine 2, the engine used in Crysis.

Far Cry 2 also supports the amBX technology from Philips. With the proper hardware, this adds effects like vibrations, ambient colored lights, and fans that generate wind effects.

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X is an arcade-style flight simulator video game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and iPhone OS.

Left 4 Dead is a cooperative first-person shooter video game. It was developed by Turtle Rock Studios, which was purchased by Valve Corporation during development. The game uses Valve's proprietary Source engine, and is available for Windows and the Xbox 360. Development on the game was completed on November 13, 2008 and was released digitally on November 17, 2008 and at retail on November 18, 2008 in the United States and on November 21, 2008 in Europe.

A decade has passed since the first game, and the face of E.D.N. III has changed dramatically. Terra forming efforts have been successful and the ice has begun to melt, giving way to lush tropical jungles and harsh unforgiving deserts. Players will enter this new environment and follow the exploits of their own customized snow pirate on their quest to seize control of the changing planet.

Test A

The primary purpose of Test A is to give an indication of typical game play performance of the PC running Lost Planet 2. (i.e. if you can run Mode A smoothly, the game will be playable at a similar condition). In this test, the character’s motion is randomized to give a slightly different outcome each time.

Test B(the used test in the benchmark)

The primary purpose of Test B is to push the PC to its limits and to evaluate the maximum performance of the PC. It utilizes many functions of Direct X11 resulting in a very performance-orientated, very demanding benchmark mode.

Resident Evil 5, known in Japan as Biohazard 5 , is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on March 5, 2009 in Japan and on March 13, 2009 in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A Windows version of the game was released on September 15, 2009 in North America, September 17 in Japan and September 18 in Europe. Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional town in Africa.

The Windows version of Resident Evil 5 features online play for co-operative play like the console versions and also takes advantage of NVIDIA’s new GeForce 3D Vision technology. The PC version comes with exclusive content, such as additional costumes (which have since been made available on consoles as DLC) and a new mode in the Mercenaries minigame, No Mercy. Resident Evil 5 was released on the 15 and 18 September 2009 in North America and Europe respectively, to moderate critical praise. This has been preceded by a benchmark tool release for both system performance evaluation as well as to test the new 3D technology which is implemented in all the cutscenes within the game.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat is the sequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, a first-person shooter computer game by Ukrainian developer GSC Game World. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat is the third game in the survival FPS S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series.

Call of Pripyat utilizes the XRAY 1.6 Engine, allowing advanced modern graphical features through the use of DirectX 11 to be fully intregrated; one outstanding feature being the inclusion of real-time GPU tesselation. Regions and maps feature photo realistic scenes of the region it is made to represent. There is also extensive support for older versions of DirectX, meaning that Call of Pripyat is also compatible with DirectX 8, 9, 10 and 10.1.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat is the sequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, a first-person shooter computer game by Ukrainian developer GSC Game World. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat is the third game in the survival FPS S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series.

Call of Pripyat utilizes the XRAY 1.6 Engine, allowing advanced modern graphical features through the use of DirectX 11 to be fully intregrated; one outstanding feature being the inclusion of real-time GPU tesselation. Regions and maps feature photo realistic scenes of the region it is made to represent. There is also extensive support for older versions of DirectX, meaning that Call of Pripyat is also compatible with DirectX 8, 9, 10 and 10.1.

Street Fighter IV is a 2008 fighting game produced by Capcom. The Windows version of Street Fighter IV includes all the features found in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and some extras, that Capcom representatives say could make it "the definitive version" of the game. The game features online play via Games for Windows - LIVE, with built-in voice chat and PC-exclusive achievements, but no cross-platform playability would be available with Xbox 360 players. Also, the game features higher resolutions, and three new freely selectable visual styles, named "Ink", "Watercolor" and "Posterize".

Unreal Tournament 3 (UT3) is a first-person shooter and online multiplayer video game by Epic Games, and is the latest installment of the Unreal series. It is published by Midway Games, and was released for Microsoft Windows on November 19, 2007.

The third generation Unreal Engine (UE3) was designed for DirectX 9/10 PCs, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Its renderer supports many advanced techniques including HDRR, per-pixel lighting, and dynamic shadows, and builds upon the tools available in previous versions of the engine.

World in Conflict, or WiC, is a real-time tactical video game developed by the Swedish video game company Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft (formerly Sierra Entertainment) for Microsoft Windows. The game was released in September 2007.

A few days of coding and figuring out what an SQL query means, we got our first batch of grouped charts. These charts below are split between Synthetic and Game Benchmarks. For the game benchmarks one chart per resolution and IQ setting. We first converted the obtained scores/FPS for each benchmark to a percentage in comparison to the highest score (=100%), we then averaged all the benchmark scores per resolution/IQ and the results are put into these charts. So these are relative performance charts in % to the fastest card.

Same as on the previous page, we first converted the obtained scores/FPS for each benchmark to a percentage in comparison to the highest score (=100%), we then averaged all the benchmark scores per resolution/IQ and the results are put into these charts. So these are relative performance charts in % to the fastest card.