Ok so as some of you know i did a platform swap and GPU upgrade/sidegrade a week ago today. I've been gaming like mad for the last week and have logged well over 40 hours now, been up almost 2 days strait now with only small naps since i got off work 7am Wednesday morning(Coffee FTW) and will share my impressions. This is going to be completely based on my actual gaming experiences with fraps to keep a eye on FPS but mostly not even paying attention to fraps. Not benchmarks, i can run benchmarks if requested on the new setup but the old setup has been broken up to diff comps now and the GPU is no longer in my possession(returned to XFX, occasional coil whine)
Old setup was AMD 940 BE @ 3.6Ghz, XFX 4890XC @ 1000/1150
New setup in sig(i7 930@4Ghz, 460 running 900/1000)
I'll start off by saying i know the platform swap is probably providing more of a boost gaming than the GPU swap so this is not going to be a direct 4890 to 460 comparison unfortunately, if XFX sends me back a 4890(unlikely) i can do a direct comparison on the i7 platform at that point.
L4 Dead:
Noticed no difference, framerate was locked at 60(Vsync) and never dropped below on either platform at 1080p max settings 8xMSAA, no IQ diff that i noticed. Might as well have been playing it on the same system and would not have been able to tell them apart blind tested, ive put over 600 hours into this game i would have noticed a change if there was one.
L4D2:
Stayed locked at 60fps both setups, 1080p max settings 8xMSAA. IQ was the same. It was noticeably "smoother" for lack of a better word on the Nvidia card, was noticed immediately within 5 min of gameplay. Ive logged over 400 hours into this game on the old setup so was VERY used to how it played. And it was very noticeable especially when trying to shoot fast moving targets while zoomed in with a rifle, much easier, mouse scrolling also much smoother even at the exact same DPI. I dont know how to explain this, no other game saw this much of a difference in actual gameplay(except ME1 in the opposite direction). Perhaps this was a ATI driver issue? I was always running newest ATI drives i updated them monthly.
Far Cry 2:
This game was rough on my old setup, the 4890 just didnt like running in DX 10 mode and took a huge performance hit, even in DX 9 it would dip into the mid thirties in FPS sometimes lower. 1080P max settings 4xAA. The new setup destroys the old, will run close to 50FPS minimum even when pushed to 8xAA. I attribute this to Intel CPU's and Nvidia GPU's doing better in this game and it being well optimized for quad cores. Alot smoother overall on the Nvidia but still very playable on the ATI card. IQ was better IMO on the nvidia, hard to say for sure though mostly played DX 9 on the 4890. Better gaming experience on the intel/nvidia for sure, no question.
Crysis:
Are we ever going to be able to play this game with AA at max settings and 60FPS without spending $1000+ on GPU's? Old setup struggled along at about 23 min FPS and 30avg in dx10, 1080p High settings 2xAA. For this game this was actually pretty smooth, i have no idea how they pulled that off, usually i would LMFAO at 30fps on avg. On the new setup it still blows hard, drops down to 27-28 min FPS and AVG around 40-45. Smoother on the new setup but not by much. IQ looks better on the nvidia card to my eyes. Still waiting for SLI before i give actually playing this game a real shot.
ME 2:
1080P Highest settings 4xAA. Old setup did very well, usually stayed above 55FPS and only dropped down to 40-45 or so in very intense scenes with 6+ bad guys on screen. New setup does better, never goes below 50FPS. IQ is the same. No diff in actual gameplay, seems just as smooth on both even with the FPS difference.
ME 1:
1080P 8xAA highest settings. Stayed at 60FPS both setups(vsync). Was noticeably smoother and had better IQ on the 4890. Maybe this is driver related, i dont know how to explain it but was defiantly better playing this game on the AMD system and the 4890. This result surprised me.
Doom:
Still the same, man you would really think that new hardware would be optimized for older games but this game has looked the same since my ATI 3d Rage...... I am dissapoint. Im also kidding lol.
So thats it for now. As i put more hours into gaming with different games i will update this thread.
My opinion is that the Nvidia Card was still a sidegrade, i got better performance for sure, no question if you look at the benchmarks. But for actual gameplay other than l4d2 it was not a huge amount or very noticable.
Now the platform swap was a upgrade, period! Anyone who thinks AMD can hold a candle to intel clock for clock or in single threaded apps is out of there minds. The question is was it worth spending $1000 on a platform swap, honestly probably not. But if i had to do it all over again, over a year ago when i built the AMD system i would have saved up and went with a i7 920.
Old setup was AMD 940 BE @ 3.6Ghz, XFX 4890XC @ 1000/1150
New setup in sig(i7 930@4Ghz, 460 running 900/1000)
I'll start off by saying i know the platform swap is probably providing more of a boost gaming than the GPU swap so this is not going to be a direct 4890 to 460 comparison unfortunately, if XFX sends me back a 4890(unlikely) i can do a direct comparison on the i7 platform at that point.
L4 Dead:
Noticed no difference, framerate was locked at 60(Vsync) and never dropped below on either platform at 1080p max settings 8xMSAA, no IQ diff that i noticed. Might as well have been playing it on the same system and would not have been able to tell them apart blind tested, ive put over 600 hours into this game i would have noticed a change if there was one.
L4D2:
Stayed locked at 60fps both setups, 1080p max settings 8xMSAA. IQ was the same. It was noticeably "smoother" for lack of a better word on the Nvidia card, was noticed immediately within 5 min of gameplay. Ive logged over 400 hours into this game on the old setup so was VERY used to how it played. And it was very noticeable especially when trying to shoot fast moving targets while zoomed in with a rifle, much easier, mouse scrolling also much smoother even at the exact same DPI. I dont know how to explain this, no other game saw this much of a difference in actual gameplay(except ME1 in the opposite direction). Perhaps this was a ATI driver issue? I was always running newest ATI drives i updated them monthly.
Far Cry 2:
This game was rough on my old setup, the 4890 just didnt like running in DX 10 mode and took a huge performance hit, even in DX 9 it would dip into the mid thirties in FPS sometimes lower. 1080P max settings 4xAA. The new setup destroys the old, will run close to 50FPS minimum even when pushed to 8xAA. I attribute this to Intel CPU's and Nvidia GPU's doing better in this game and it being well optimized for quad cores. Alot smoother overall on the Nvidia but still very playable on the ATI card. IQ was better IMO on the nvidia, hard to say for sure though mostly played DX 9 on the 4890. Better gaming experience on the intel/nvidia for sure, no question.
Crysis:
Are we ever going to be able to play this game with AA at max settings and 60FPS without spending $1000+ on GPU's? Old setup struggled along at about 23 min FPS and 30avg in dx10, 1080p High settings 2xAA. For this game this was actually pretty smooth, i have no idea how they pulled that off, usually i would LMFAO at 30fps on avg. On the new setup it still blows hard, drops down to 27-28 min FPS and AVG around 40-45. Smoother on the new setup but not by much. IQ looks better on the nvidia card to my eyes. Still waiting for SLI before i give actually playing this game a real shot.
ME 2:
1080P Highest settings 4xAA. Old setup did very well, usually stayed above 55FPS and only dropped down to 40-45 or so in very intense scenes with 6+ bad guys on screen. New setup does better, never goes below 50FPS. IQ is the same. No diff in actual gameplay, seems just as smooth on both even with the FPS difference.
ME 1:
1080P 8xAA highest settings. Stayed at 60FPS both setups(vsync). Was noticeably smoother and had better IQ on the 4890. Maybe this is driver related, i dont know how to explain it but was defiantly better playing this game on the AMD system and the 4890. This result surprised me.
Doom:
Still the same, man you would really think that new hardware would be optimized for older games but this game has looked the same since my ATI 3d Rage...... I am dissapoint. Im also kidding lol.
So thats it for now. As i put more hours into gaming with different games i will update this thread.
My opinion is that the Nvidia Card was still a sidegrade, i got better performance for sure, no question if you look at the benchmarks. But for actual gameplay other than l4d2 it was not a huge amount or very noticable.
Now the platform swap was a upgrade, period! Anyone who thinks AMD can hold a candle to intel clock for clock or in single threaded apps is out of there minds. The question is was it worth spending $1000 on a platform swap, honestly probably not. But if i had to do it all over again, over a year ago when i built the AMD system i would have saved up and went with a i7 920.