Proper Way to Benchmark GPU's (gtx 770 vs 960)

[EduCat]

So I know about the various programs to benchmark, running games, etc. but I was wondering about how people actually go about it. I just ran some benchmarks using a 770 and 960 and essentially just popped the 2nd card in after running benchmarks on the first. I didn't do anything with the drivers or anything like that. Do people generally uninstall/reinstall the drivers each time they add a different card?

Although I tested a higher end 770 vs a smaller ff 960 SC, the results pretty much came out as you would typically read across the web. The 770 was indeed, faster. These were at stock settings:

I was able to get the 960 past 1500mhz and the 770 up to 1300mhz but didn't attempt to go any higher. 960 stayed very cool compared to it's 3-fan opponent. I am not sure if I my eyes were playing tricks on me, but the 960 made things almost a bit prettier it seemed. They were both 2gb models.

Decent cards if you can find them for the right price. :thumbsup: I probably should have done up the fan profiles as well, next time. lol

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

Wrong posting

 

[Techhog]

We needed confirmation that a card that trades blows with the 760 is weaker than the 770?

 

[EduCat]

We needed confirmation that a card that trades blows with the 760 is weaker than the 770?

lmao:whiste:

 

[futurefields]

So I know about the various programs to benchmark, running games, etc. but I was wondering about how people actually go about it. I just ran some benchmarks using a 770 and 960 and essentially just popped the 2nd card in after running benchmarks on the first. I didn't do anything with the drivers or anything like that. Do people generally uninstall/reinstall the drivers each time they add a different card?

Although I tested a higher end 770 vs a smaller ff 960 SC, the results pretty much came out as you would typically read across the web. The 770 was indeed, faster. These were at stock settings:

I was able to get the 960 past 1500mhz and the 770 up to 1300mhz but didn't attempt to go any higher. 960 stayed very cool compared to it's 3-fan opponent. I am not sure if I my eyes were playing tricks on me, but the 960 made things almost a bit prettier it seemed. They were both 2gb models.

Decent cards if you can find them for the right price. :thumbsup: I probably should have done up the fan profiles as well, next time. lol

you should run Heaven at the extreme preset, @ 1080p full screen

you have a bunch of settings turned down which inflates your numbers

 

[futurefields]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2341362

 

[EduCat]

you should run Heaven at the extreme preset, @ 1080p full screen

you have a bunch of settings turned down which inflates your numbers

Just didn't post it for some reason. Here's the ultra run.

 

[Magic Carpet]

So, a faster card has lower minimums? That's no ordinary Wang

 

[ShintaiDK]

We needed confirmation that a card that trades blows with the 760 is weaker than the 770?

You wastly overestimate the GTX760.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-960,4038-4.html
http://techreport.com/review/27702/nvidia-geforce-gtx-960-graphics-card-reviewed/5

 

[SPBHM]

Just didn't post it for some reason. Here's the ultra run.

this looks pretty close all things considered, and the 960 was never a $300+ product, and it brings some nice improvements (power usage, h265 video, hdmi 2.0)

 

[aaksheytalwar]

I'm sorry but neither the 770 or 960 is worth over USD 100-120 or so when you can get a 290 for USD 250 which is 1.5-3 times as fast, or a 280x or 285 for about 200 which are also significantly faster and more future proof because of the vram.

If you could get those cards sub 150 they may be okay. Not steal. But just okay. I doubt you can get them for that price. So although the 770 was decent VFM at one point of time, now these cards aren't worth even giving a look at compared to the competition.

 

[ShintaiDK]

I'm sorry but neither the 770 or 960 is worth over USD 100-120 or so when you can get a 290 for USD 250 which is 1.5-3 times as fast, or a 280x or 285 for about 200 which are also significantly faster and more future proof because of the vram.

Really? And the 280X isnt exactly doing well in games like GTAV when etsselation kicks in.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Really? And the 280X isnt exactly doing well in games like GTAV when etsselation kicks in.

The 280X beats the GTX 960 in almost every current game, has more headroom for VRAM hungry console ports like Shadows of Mordor, and the best model of it can be had for $190 AR (aka cheaper than the best GTX 960):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202137

Everyone compares the GTX 960 to the 290, but for gaming at the $200 price point those 280X's still around (especially that one which has a massive stock overclock) can easily beat the 960. From my experience with a 1100 MHZ 280x it should beat the 770 in OP too.

 

[ShintaiDK]

The 280X beats the GTX 960 in almost every current game, has more headroom for VRAM hungry console ports like Shadows of Mordor, and the best model of it can be had for $190 AR (aka cheaper than the best GTX 960):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202137

Everyone compares the GTX 960 to the 290, but for gaming at the $200 price point those 280X's still around (especially that one which has a massive stock overclock) can easily beat the 960. From my experience with a 1100 MHZ 280x it should beat the 770 in OP too.

You can also get GTX960 at 190$+Witcher 3(Worth 50$?). The compares are all over the places.

 

[poofyhairguy]

The compares are all over the places.

For the 280x vs the GTX 960? Maybe you are confusing it with the 280 or the 285. The 280X beats the GTX 960 in every game that isn't heavily biased towards Nvidia. Heck, even on some that are biased that overlocked 280x I linked would still win out.

The GTX 960 SLAYS the 280X on power use, or efficiency, or HTPC use. But for gaming the 280X seems like a clear winner. The 960 2GB of ram will be a universal liability before the tessellation performance of the 280X will be. At the end of the day many of these games are designed for consoles first that have the same GCN limitations but have a massive amount of VRAM. That gives the 280X a clear edge going forward.

Now a 4GB GTX 960 Ti would slay the 280X I bet.

 

[RussianSensation]

Really? And the 280X isnt exactly doing well in games like GTAV when etsselation kicks in.

Way to cherry-pick his excellent post. Everyone knows 280X shouldn't even be considered when there are $240-250 after-market 290 cards in the US like XFX R9 290 or Sapphire Tri-X 290.

Secondly, are all other GTA V reviews irrelevant now because HardOCP shows the data you want to see?

http://www.computerbase.de/2015-04/...ich/2/#abschnitt_15_grafikkarten_im_vergleich

Also, way to cherry-pick GTA V to prove that 960 is a better buy over the 280X and ignore 99% of all other PC games. Even if we take the best 960 OC card, it still loses to a stock 280X.
http://www.computerbase.de/2015-01/nvidia-geforce-gtx-960-im-test/7/

I see other astute forum members already called you on our cherry-picked statements.

I'm sorry but neither the 770 or 960 is worth over USD 100-120 or so when you can get a 290 for USD 250 which is 1.5-3 times as fast,

Excellent post. $360-480 GTX960 2GB / 4GB SLI barely competes with a stock reference R9 290. After-market 290 = reference 290X.

960 is a failure of a card for gaming for the $. The best after-market 960 is only 13% faster than a 760 despite being released more than 1.5 years later. 2GB is a serious compromise right out of the gate which means one almost has to get a $240 960 4GB which completely ruins its value proposition.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Way to cherry-pick his excellent post. Everyone knows 280X shouldn't even be considered when there are $240-250 after-market 290 cards in the US like XFX R9 290 or Sapphire Tri-X 290.

Right, AMD and nVidia should simply stop selling cards below the GTX970 and 290, because thats what you say.

Yet another one that havent thought things through.

 

[ocre]

960 is a failure of a card for gaming for the $

Isn't that what you say about very nvidia card?

You say pretty much the same thing in all your post. It is not surprising that you would once again dog and dis an nvidia card while championing the price and performance of AMD.

It is the same thing over and over.

I have no idea why you are spamming every thread with this stuff but tell me how in the heck you can relate this to the OP? How is this acceptable?

You have no interest in either the 960 or the 770, you just felt the need to advocate the 290 in a thread where the OP asked the best way to benchmark 2 nvidia cards he has. Wow

It wouldn't even be a big deal except you already have said this same thing in countless other threads, whether it was remotely relate to the OP or not.

By looking at the first few post, it looks like you aren't the only person completely ignoring the OP completely. If I didn't know any better, I might even call some of them rude.

I would like to apologize to the OP.
As for your questions,

Since you are running nvidia vs nvidia, I don't think you need to uninstall drivers but you might try this if your numbers look wonky.

If it were an AMD card vs nvidia, you would most likely be better off with a complete driver sweep and fresh install when you go between cards.

I think many reviewers have multiple drives and partitions to boot up on when benching hardware across vendors.

The best way to bench off is to leave one card in and do all the runs and benchmarks you intend to, then switch out to the other card and repeat the runs. This way you don't swap back and forth many times. It can be risky if you aren't careful, just make sure your aligned and the card seats evenly and completely.

Every game or app you benchmark has multiple settings that you could use. Running different settings can exploit and highlight different aspects of each architecture. You can find strengths and weakness that you may not have known was there

 

[RussianSensation]

Isn't that what you say about very nvidia card?

Wrong. Had a lot of praise for GTX460/470/560Ti's overclocking back in the day. Myself had 470 SLI. Also, many times on these boards I've recommended the 970 and even recently the excellent Gigabyte GTX970 for $295. Before that, recommended GTX670 many times. Pay attention.

You say pretty much the same thing in all your post. It is not surprising that you would once again dog and dis an nvidia card while championing the price and performance of AMD.

Nope. I just rip all cards that are bad value like 960 or 285. Did you see me recommend R9 260/265? Did you see me recommend R9 290X when it was overpriced? Nope. Did you see me recommend reference blower 7950/7970 cards? Nope. 960 is a horrible card for gaming for the price, period. If 960 was an AMD card, I wouldn't' recommend it either. Do you see me recommend R9 280X over 290? Nope.

It is the same thing over and over.

No, it's not. You aren't paying attention to my posts and have not since you've joined the forum.

I have no idea why you are spamming every thread with this stuff but tell me how in the heck you can relate this to the OP? How is this acceptable?

He decided to share his benches with 770 OC vs. 960 OC and we see that 960 is an under-performer for the price. I reflected on his scores that yes it's indeed a disappointing product for today's marketplace.

You have no interest in either the 960 or the 770, you just felt the need to advocate the 290 in a thread where the OP asked the best way to benchmark 2 nvidia cards he has. Wow

Nope. The point was 960 is not an upgrade over the 770 so not sure what the OP expected. If he thought 960 number > 770 number so 960 should have been faster, he didn't do his research. Alternatively if he is disappointed that 960 - supposedly a next gen mid-range - can't even beat a 3-year-old GK204, then I agree with him wholeheartedly that it's disappointing.

It wouldn't even be a big deal except you already have said this same thing in countless other threads, whether it was remotely relate to the OP or not.

Good. Anyone with a GTX770 thinking of upgrading might type in GTX770 vs GTX960 and come to this thread and realize that it's a stupid move to buy a GTX960 as an upgrade from a 770. Then they can read this thread to see why and realize for a bit more they can get 50-60% more performance in the R9 290. As a result, my advice would get this gamer a ton more performance and double the VRAM for $40-60 more. Sounds like that person searching random information on the Internet would benefit from me repeating again that 960 is not worth buying at today's prices for gaming. :thumbsup:

By looking at the first few post, it looks like you aren't the only person completely ignoring the OP completely. If I didn't know any better, I might even call some of them rude.

A lot of brand agnostic gamers are just upset that 960 is getting away with highway robbery in terms of generational improvements. What did you expect them to say when the OP had a 770 but bought a 960 too?

Since you are running nvidia vs nvidia, I don't think you need to uninstall drivers but you might try this if your numbers look wonky.

I am surprised by your response "I don't think" since you've only owned NV cards since HD5850 and seamlessly upgraded from the 970 to a 980, which means you should know that you don't need to uninstall NV drivers. But even if he did uninstall NV drivers and installed new ones, it wouldn't have hurt his performance/experience. There is really no right answer here as a result. You can do either or.

Since the OP already had NV drivers, simply inserting a new NV card and having the drivers up to date is everything he needed to do. Since he just popped the NV card and used the same drivers, he already answered his own question. Since NV's driver covers all latest generations of cards including Kepler and Maxwell, there is no need to uninstall previous NV drivers. I am surprised by your response "I don't think" since you've only owned NV cards since HD5850.

 

[EduCat]

LoL no harm no foul guys. I just wanted to see if people were reinstalling drivers each time they added a new card and figured it would be fun to post the benchmarks that I took.

As for the cards themselves, I actually don't even use them myself. I bought the $960 open box from Microcenter for $170 out the door and got a free copy The Witcher 3 with it to boot. I already sold it on Ebay for $175 and am debating whether or not to sell The Witcher 3 code as well. (Card was mint)

The 770 I purchased on CL for a cool $135, and I'll probably put that one up on ebay this weekend as well. Ultimately I hope to use any profit made on the card to purchase a new pair of glasses, which I may use to view The Witcher 3 with good clarity.

I've had a 980 since launch pretty much so ultimately I have no skin in the game between the two, just felt like testing them and posting my results.

 

[xthetenth]

Flipping a card for a free copy of the witcher might be the best performance I've seen someone get out of a 960. Good job!

 

[poofyhairguy]

I've had a 980 since launch pretty much so ultimately I have no skin in the game between the two, just felt like testing them and posting my results.

It was interesting for sure, thank you. My upstairs rig with an overclocked 7970 hits the EXACT same score as the 770 with a lower top FPS but a higher minimum FPS. That kind of stuff is fun to compare.

You got a really good deal on both cards it seems, you are quite the card flipper!

 

[RussianSensation]

As for the cards themselves, I actually don't even use them myself. I bought the $960 open box from Microcenter for $170 out the door and got a free copy The Witcher 3 with it to boot. I already sold it on Ebay for $175 and am debating whether or not to sell The Witcher 3 code as well. (Card was mint)

That's epic winning. :thumbsup:

The 770 I purchased on CL for a cool $135, and I'll probably put that one up on ebay this weekend as well.

I wish more people on the forums paid attention to gamers like you getting awesome deals on last gen used cards like the 770! Great job there getting a smoking deal.

Now your post explains everything

Would be fun then if you add 980 OCed scores to your original post.

 

[EduCat]

That's epic winning. :thumbsup:

I wish more people on the forums paid attention to gamers like you getting awesome deals on last gen used cards like the 770! Great job there getting a smoking deal.

Now your post explains everything

Would be fun then if you add 980 OCed scores to your original post.

Hah, thanks. Moving to the city has been the best thing to happen to me, tech wise. (Besides the sales tax lol) You can find almost anything, it's pretty sweet. I would do the 980 but it's in my main rig and I don't even want to touch it atm lol. I could do the test but it would be with a 3770k instead of the 2500.

I actually setup a little test bench out of some other parts I had in order to test the cards before I sold them. I put the 770 on Ebay earlier today as a short auction so we'll see what happens. Someone else is probably going to get a sweet deal on this 770 as well tbh. Sorry for the crappy pictures, camera on the phone is going out. The little test bench setup, put it in the opposite corner of my tiny little office.

Here are a few more benchmarks using the ole' Chinese PLA Game Benchmark.

RAM is lower for the 770 in this screenshot but I ran the test with 8gb as well and got the same basic scores.

 

[EduCat]

Told you it might have been a bit lopsided. The contenders.

770 Enthusiast Edition

960 SC SFF