GTX 680 vs HD 6990 benchmarks and comparison!

[Darkphox]

Hi all,

 

I had a HD 6990, and was not getting the performance out of DCS A10 that I expected. After much research, I found out that DCS simply DOES NOT support crossfire. The issue is discussed here, where many people claimed insignificant gains with Xfire, or even worse: negative scaling. The issue was finally addressed by Eagle Dynamics here. Basically, its not supported, nothing we can do, and nothing they can do. When Nevada comes out, maybe it'll have better luck.

 

I was curious how the GTX 680 performed against the 6990 on DCS A10 but couldnt really find any comparisons. I felt confident it would perform better in this particular game, and while the 6990 benched better in most other games, I really only play DCS. I did my ebay research, and was able to get enough $ off the 6990 to switch to the new 680, so thats what I did.

 

In the process, I benchmarked the two to see just what the difference really is. The test setup is in my signature, but the actual bench consisted of the following:

 

Two 1-minute fraps benchmarks of a track specifically saved for this benchmark. I wanted an area with buildings, trees, and mountains in view. This was a setup I knew was hard on the 6990. All special settings on both cards were turned off, or to "application controlled".

 

Part1: Runway start at Senaki-Kolkhi with the TAD and TGP (white hot) on my MFCDs. I didnt pan the view, or move the aircraft at all. Just sat on the runway for one minute.

 

Part2: Right after part 1 ends, I throttle up and take off. 1 minute benchmark begins when the wheel brakes are released. Upon take off, the TGP is slewed to a point on the ground (in the trees).

 

I ran both benchmarks on low, medium, and high graphics settings on both cards. The 6990 was ran with cross fire on, and cross fire off (simulating a single 6970). BTW, the 6990 is on stock voltage, but overclocked to reference 6970 clock speeds.

 

here are the results, with specific settings and gpu usage as seen on MSI afterburner:

 

 

To put it simply, I was floored. Not only does the GTX 680 stomp my old 6990, but using crossfire actually reduced my frame rates! the 6990 performed worse than a single 6970 would!

 

This was an amazing and worthwhile upgrade in my opinion. The 680 literally doubles the framerates on high settings. Aoh, and the medium benchmark on the GTX 680, i forgot to turn tree distance down to 1500. It was run at 6000.

 

Clearly, your milage will vary. I'm not sure if SLI has the same issue as crossfire or not, so I can't really speak for anyone upgrading from a current NV setup. From the standpoint of anything AMD 6xx0 though, it's a definite improvement.

 

I plan to continue testing with higher settings, mirrors, and FXAA, so stay tuned for more info in the near future. Let me know if you have any questions or comments!

[Darkphox]

11 Nov 2013: Posted another graphics card comparison, this time the GTX 680 vs R9 290.

 

Check it out here:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=1926626#post1926626

Edited November 11, 2013 by Darkphox
Update

[HiJack]

Great benchmark Darkphox! I'm in for a ASUS 680 and the new Creative soundcard next week I think! :D

 

(HJ)

[hassata]

Awesome-thanks.

[Slayer]

Thanks for the comparison

 

SLI is a negligible performance benefit also on a single monitor. Where the multigpu cards/SLI/Crossfire shine in DCS is multimonitor configurations.

[Pilotasso]

This is why I will always preffer single chip cards. No compatibility problems with paralel GPU's.

[HiJack]

Can you also post the tracks for each of the tests Darkphox?

[Cali]

I wanna see a bench between a 680 and 7970, same gen cards.

[metalnwood]

I wanna see a bench between a 680 and 7970, same gen cards.

 

Me too, I have stopped myself about four times in the last two days from going out and buying either a 7970 or a 680.

 

I use a 6970, 3 in eyefinity and a 4th for helios off the single card.

 

I have had ati for a while now because of eyefinity but now that nvidia has it on one card I am telling myself that nvidia is better for sims. It's better in fsx and better in anything that goes near opengl.

 

ATI has been so good for eyefinity it has me a bit worried about trying out the untested nvidia card.

 

One more thing. I never cared about power consumption from gpus but now my sim in in it's won room and it's not a very big room it can get hot in summer. Now I am thinking that cooler could be better.

 

So, I am undecided!! argh, I so want to spend money :)

[159th_Viper]

One more thing. I never cared about power consumption from gpus but now my sim in in it's won room and it's not a very big room it can get hot in summer. Now I am thinking that cooler could be better.

 

NVidia wins.

 

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402193,00.asp

Edited March 31, 2012 by 159th_Viper

[metalnwood]

NVidia wins.

 

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402193,00.asp

 

I'm confused, it looked like that article gave nvidia the win for general gaming performance?

 

Edit. Hah, you just removed the line in your post I was referring to :)

[159th_Viper]

 

Edit. Hah, you just removed the line in your post I was referring to :)

 

Yeah - apologies for that. One would have thought that I'd learned by now already that reading and posting before my second cup of morning coffee never ends well.......:D

[Darkphox]

Thanks for the comparison

 

SLI is a negligible performance benefit also on a single monitor. Where the multigpu cards/SLI/Crossfire shine in DCS is multimonitor configurations.

 

Keep in mind, everything I did is on three 1920x1080 displays in a portrait setup (check the image for the resolution on the settings).

 

Also, this is something else that surprised me...I find NVSurround to be more enjoyable than Eyefinity. Let me clarify, in gaming it's pretty much the same. On the desktop though, Nvidia captured several nuances that AMD missed.

 

For example, on Eyefinity if you make a window full screen, it spans across all 3 displays. Nvidia spans it across only the monitor that the window started on. Much easier to read a webpage when it doesnt span across the bezels and make me adjust it.

 

Also, the task bar only spans the bottom of the center screen. You can stretch it across all 3 if you want, but eyefinity starts it that wide. Lot of looking left or right across empty space.

 

Lastly, when shutting down it puts any notifications on the center screen (again instead of spanning).

 

Overall, it just feels more refined and thought out. I loved AMD in the 6xxx series, but Nvidia seems to finally be catching up with them in regards to features and ease of use.

[Kuky]

one word about 680 vs 7970 benchmarks... the 680 has auto overclock feature so to compare apples for apples to be fair 7970 should be run overclocked to same frequency, and 7970 can be easily overcloked to 1125Mhz in CCC with no voltage increase and I run mine at 1100MHz so this should be taken into consideration

Edited September 7, 2012 by Kuky

[emenance]

Im for sure done with ATI until a mirical happens. Remember anatech or someone did a review with LOMAC. Remember the GTX 6600 how great it was with LOMAC. Those were the days! The 6600 was incredible. beating alot of other overpriced cards in frame rates that were supposed to be a better card!

[Vlerkies]

Sorry for resurrecting this older thread, but is anyone else here running a HD6990?

 

I am and its not giving me much more than 25-30, if it really is a problem I will ditch it and get something else.

[Fishbreath]

I've got a pair of 6970s, and right now I'm trying to squeeze more performance out. So far as I can tell, I'm not CPU-limited, Crossfire is indeed worse than a single card, and 30-35fps is what I can expect out of an ATI card of that generation, with less around trees and buildings. The Black Shark 2 relative performance thread seems to suggest the same thing. I suspect that the DCS engine has a ton of Nvidia-specific optimizations that aren't getting ATI equivalents, which is unfair but unsurprising. Most games are that way.

[EtherealN]

I suspect that your suspicion is incorrect. ;)

 

However, in the case of CF, this is something AMD needs to do. No AMD support for DCS World = poor CF performance. (Same goes for SLI with nVidia.)

[Fishbreath]

Obviously you'd know better than me, but from my games-consumer perspective, Nvidia's better dev support and AMD/ATI's usual performance well below what the hardware ought to be capable of is kind of a common factor. The comparative performance thread suggests that if I had an Nvidia card which benchmarked about the same in other games as my 6970, I'd get an easy 10 extra FPS over my current setup. Unfortunately, since I'm not about to go buy an Nvidia card to prove myself right, I'll just have to deal with it. I'm not exactly swimming in helo sim choices here. :P

[Darkphox]

Hi there, sorry for the late response Vlerkies. The benchmarks at the beginning prove my point that the 6990 was not performing as well as it should have in this game. My move to the 680 was a big improvement that I am still enjoying...

 

That being said, DCS is pretty much the only game that I play. The 6990 benches better in several other popular titles, so it's sort of an individual choice whether the move to a single card will be beneficial or not.

 

One of my friends had two GTX 560's in SLI and he sold those off for a 680...he noticed a similar improvement as well. So as far as Xfire vs SLI here, I would still recommend a single card from whichever mfgr. When the Nevada terrain comes out, perhaps it will be get more multi-gpu compatability but its honestly not something that I'd pin my hopes on.

[Vlerkies]

Darkphox thanks.

 

I reckon the 680 is the way to go for DCS, my machine is not limited in any area and my mates with lower spec'ed machines and 680 cards are getting smoother gameplay than I am with a 6990.

 

Im running i7 3770K (oc about 4200mhz) 2x8Gb Corsair Dominator platinum ram, SSD, and the 6990 slowcoach :puke:

 

Suitably unimpressed with the results.

[BIGNEWY]

Try running it without overclocking your CPU, I was OC mine but found when I returned it to stock settings my game play was a lot smoother.

 

My I3 550 @3.2ghz and Sapphire 7850 oc run great :)

[Vlerkies]

I have been running a i7 2600 (non K) cpu for some time stock, recently upgraded to the 3770K have run it stock and OC'ed makes no diff, but thanks.

[metalnwood]

I would say that I would take the 680 over the 6990. You are only using one of them and that single 6970 you are running is less powerful than a stand along 6970.

 

I have a 7970 which is more comparable to the 680 and it goes fine, I can't compare first hand but it's driving my 5 monitors with good frames.

 

If you were running other sims like Fsx as well then nvidia does seem the way to go. I stick with ati because I can do the 5 screens off the single card.

[Vlerkies]

Yeah, embarrassed to say I'm only running one screen, at 1920 or something to the effect and 20fps when you are near anything just doesn't cut the mustard.

 

In clear blue skies it goes up above 30.

Have civ traffic and heat blur et al turned off even.