DiRT: Showdown

As always, starting off our benchmark collection is our racing benchmark, DiRT: Showdown. DiRT: Showdown is based on the latest iteration of Codemasters’ EGO engine, which has continually evolved over the years to add more advanced rendering features. It was one of the first games to implement tessellation, and also one of the first games to implement a DirectCompute based forward-rendering compatible lighting system. At the same time as Codemasters is by far the most prevalent PC racing developers, it’s also a good proxy for some of the other racing games on the market like F1 and GRID.

Though NVIDIA’s goal is to surpass the 7950 – something they generally accomplish – in some titles AMD’s parts still hold such an innate advantage as to hold off the GTX 760, and this is one such case. Performance of the GTX 760 trails the 7950 by 18% here, with the GTX 760 falling just short of averaging 60fps at 1920 with advanced lighting. But as we’ve seen with other reviews, this is the only game where AMD holds an advantage quite this great.

It’s interesting to note though that this is also one of the only games the GTX 760 struggles to beat the GTX 660 Ti, owing to the heavy shader load placed on these cards by the advanced lighting system. The two are essentially tied with that lighting turned off, while the GTX 760 takes a small lead with it off.

The Last of the 700 Series & The Test Total War 2: Shogun
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  • YukaKun - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link

    And where's my beloved GTX670?! Are you guys hiding something here that nVidia doesn't want me to see?

    No, but really; I know it's not it's direct replacement, but I'd really like to see the numbers how they stack up.

    Cheers!
  • Ryan Smith - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link

    The GTX 670 is in all of our charts. All of this data is also on Bench.
  • YukaKun - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link

    Yeah, just realized it is... I wonder why I didn't see it, lol.

    Selective reading at its finest indeed.

    Thanks Ryan!
  • HisDivineOrder - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link

    AMD is now saying the Never Settle Reloaded bundle is running out at retailers. That means, you should be mentioning that it isn't going to last much longer and doesn't really factor into the value of the 7950/7950B unless they decide to renew it.

    I suspect though they'll do a price drop soon.
  • DanNeely - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link

    I'd expect them to create a new bundle instead.
  • kallogan - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link

    Too big, barely better than 660 ti at higher power consumption. What's the point ?
  • MrSpadge - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link

    Too big: there will loads of custom coolers, just like on the current cards. Shorter ones as well.

    barely better than 660 ti at higher power consumption: the additional performance is approximately proportional to the added power draw, so efficiency hardly suffers. Of course I'll stick with my OC'ed 660Ti, but this newcomer is just more balanced for everything but the most pure compute tasks.

    What's the point: cheaper for nVidia to produce (one SMX less) and sold cheaper. It's a win-win.
  • jimwatkins - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link

    I suppose this is of little interest to most readers, but since your doing computer performance, how about a bitcoin GH performance chart. Video cards are actually of waning value in the bitcoin arms race but it's an interesting aspect of compute performance nonetheless and the high end AMD cards certainly still produce value.
  • dcianf - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link

    I'm excited to see them maintain compatibility with my 660Ti/670 full card waterblock. PLEASE LET THIS BE A NEW STANDARD!
  • JimmiG - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link

    Well it's hotter, more power hungry and louder than the GTX 670 while still being slower, which is kind of disappointing for something that's supposed to be an evolution of the GTX 600 series. Still, it does feel like "GTX 660 Done Right" in some ways, as that card was always too slow, forcing people to pay $400 for the GTX 670.

    It's sad that prices have been creeping up so much without people noticing. $499 used to be the "ultra-enthusiast" segment, and $199 would buy you a very decent card. In 2012 and early 2013, $400 was the "mid-range" and $999 the "ultra high-end". GTX 760 brings the mid-range back to $250 again, at least until the GTX 860 come out at $499...

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