What causes lower performance of the same GPU's?

[futurefields]

I have been checking my 970 against anandtechs benchmarks and my cards are all about 8-10% slower.

For example when I run the Bioshock Infinite benchmark tool on the same settings I get 111fps average

Anandtech gets 116fps on their stock 970 and 122 on the FTW model

 

[SPBHM]

maybe your 486DX2-66 (or whatever the actual CPU being used) is not as fast as their i7?

 

[f2bnp]

It's probably your CPU man. Don't get me wrong, your 486DX2-66 is still a great performer, but I think that you'll find moving to a 5x86 133 or even a Pentium 133-166 will do wonders to boost your performance, especially in all the latest games such as Duke Nukem 3D and the upcoming Quake.

I think 16MB is enough, if you don't feel like going to 32MB, maybe 24MB would be a sweet spot!

On a more serious note, they may be running their bench systems without any additional applications/programs in the background. It could be tighter memory timings. Your question is a bit too vague without knowing the rest of your hardware and if it completely matches the anandtech bench systems.

 

[futurefields]

i've got a 2500k @ 4.2ghz

i had the same thing with my 7950

any card i put in my rig goes 10% slower

i'm talking clock for clock too, my 970 is factory OC to 1.4ghz

 

[Silverforce11]

CPU, Ram Speeds & Latency, background programs, lower in-game boost clocks..

 

[flexy]

Card is *likely* throttling and not holding its max boost. This is one issue which really angers me seeing that with MANY GTX 970s, the nice numbers printed on the box are entirely meaningless. Advertizing 1380 boost is meaningless when the card by Brand X is throttling as soon there is any serious load on it...and MANY do that, unless you mod your bios. (Asus Strix for example at 145W w/ stock bios which is ridiculous seeing that demanding benchies and games normally pull 195W-200W, this alone, the 145W TDP or 170W like with EVGA (in the stock bios) are an indication that such a card CAN not actually hold its advertised speed, they HAVE TO clock down to satisfy their lowly TDP/power target limits)

Do you use Afterburner/Precision and have your Power Target at least all the way up? If you check the graphs in afterburner, at what actual speed is your card running in game?

Edit: I can increase your BIOS power limit/target *sensibly* if you're knowledgeable with BIOS flashing etc...just send me your BIOS should you see it's throttling. (Of course BIOS flashing, warranty etc.etc.. all at your own risk )

 

[futurefields]

The card isn't throttling, I think Anandtech's benchmarks are just crazy good for some reason. Could be a CPU issue on Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite that holds back my slightly aging 2500k.

After reading this thread I'm pretty sure my card is performing fine (good, even):
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2313396/asus-gtx-970-unigine-heaven-benchmark.html

I get 1450 on Unigine Heaven 4.0 using the extreme preset with 8xAA @ 1080p

 

[alcoholbob]

Anandtech tests with a 4960X at 4.2 so on average they are gonna get a few more fps in games. There is a slight delta between quad core and hexcore CPUs in most games, although a few games (Frostbite engine for instance) there's noticeable gap in performance between hex cores and quad cores).

 

[lyssword]

well if they use 4960x, it will be at least ~10% faster in games at same clock(ivy bridge + bigger cache)