Testing
Test Rig
CPU: Phenom II 1090T @4.2GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7
RAM: G Skill Ripjaw 1600 7-7-7-24 4gb
Storage: Seagate Baracuda 7200.12 500GB
PSU: Coolermaster Silent Pro 850W
CASE: Corsair 700D
The driver used for testing was CCC 11.10.
Methodology
For graphics card testing, here at XSReviews our aim is to provide a set of clean, reliable benchmarks. For each test, the test was repeated three times and then an average taken or where results were inconsistent, tests were continued until two concordant results were reached.
The benchmarks consist of a mixture of games and synthetic benchmarks; game testing is carried out through a specifically designed benchmark suite for that particular title or by using a time demo and the utility FRAPS to record the frame rates. The following software was used in the testing of the graphics cards:
3Dmark 11
3Dmark Vantage
3Dmark 06
Furmark – for temperature testing
Unique Heaven
DIRT 3
Crysis Warhead
3Dmark 11
3Dmark11 is the latest benchmark released from industry standard firm Futuremark. It is being touted as the de-facto way to test DirectX 11 enabled graphics cards and their capabilities of processing the latest 3D features found in modern games.
Futuremark describes the 3Dmark score as “an overall measure of your system’s 3D gaming capabilities, based on comprehensive real-time 3D graphics and processor tests. By comparing your score with those submitted by millions of other gamers you can see how your gaming rig performs, making it easier to choose the most effective upgrades or finding other ways to optimize your system.”
3Dmark Vantage
3DMark Vantage is the industry standard performance benchmark for DirectX 10 gaming PCs. It includes two graphics tests, two CPU tests and six feature tests. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark Vantage is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 10 under game-like loads.
3Dmark 06
3DMark06 is a PC benchmark suite designed to test the DirectX9 performance of your graphics card.
A 3DMark score is an overall measure of your system’s 3D gaming capabilities, based on comprehensive real-time 3D graphics and processor tests. By comparing your score with those submitted by millions of other gamers you can see how your gaming rig performs, making it easier to choose the most effective upgrades or finding other ways to optimize your system.
Unigine Heaven
“Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine™ engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magica of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.”
The settings used are: Shaders – High, Tessellation – Normal, AA – Off, Anistropy – 4, 1280 X 1024 Full screen.
DIRT 3
Dirt 3 (stylised DiRT 3) is a rallying video game and the third in the Dirt series of the Colin McRae Rally series, developed and published by Codemasters. Featuring DX11, it’s a great test for the latest graphics cards.
Crysis Warhead
Crysis Warhead is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game developed by the studio Crytek Budapest, Hungary, and published by Electronic Arts. Featuring the renowned CryEngine 2, Crysis Warhead has some of the best graphics ever seen in a game.
Overclocking and Thermals
At stock settings the card idles at 28C and after Furmark ran for twenty minutes with extreme mode enabled, we reached 59C with 44% fan. At idle the card was almost silent, atleast inaudible to my ears, under load the fan did ramp up but was still quieter than the undervolted Gentle Typhoons in my case, excellent.
This is where the IceQ part of the HIS 7870 IceQ comes in.
I installed HIS’ new iTurbo software that comes bundled with the card, the software appears to be similar to the Sapphire TRIXX software.
After twenty minutes I was able to get 1300MHz on the GPU and 1630MHz on the memory, an outstanding overclock.
I tested stability with Furmark and reached 70C at 52% fan, absolutely fine for a GPU. With the fan set to 100% the temperature reached was 52C which is good for benchmarking at higher clock speeds.