DiRT 3

For racing games our racer of choice continues to be DiRT, which is now in its 3rd iteration. Codemasters uses the same EGO engine between its DiRT, F1, and GRID series, so the performance of EGO has been relevant for a number of racing games over the years.

DiRT 3 - 2560x1600 - DX11 Ultra Quality + 4xAA

DiRT 3 - 1920x1200 - DX11 Ultra Quality + 4xAA

DiRT 3 - 1680x1050 - DX11 Ultra Quality + 4xAA

First it loses, then it ties, and then it starts to win.

After a very poor start in Crysis NVIDIA has finally taken a clear lead in a game. DiRT 3 has historically favored NVIDIA’s video cards so this isn’t wholly surprising, but it’s our first proof that the GTX 680 can beat the 7970, with the GTX 680 taking a respectable 6% lead at 2560. Interestingly enough the lead increases as we drop down in resolution, which is something we have also seen with past Radeon and GeForce cards. It looks like Fermi’s trait of dropping off in performance more rapidly with resolution than GCN has carried over to the GTX 680.

In any case, compared to the GTX 580 this is another good showing for the GTX 680. The 680’s lead on the 580 is a rather consistent 36-38%.

DiRT 3 - Minimum Frame Rate - 2560x1600

DiRT 3 - Minimum Frame Rate - 1920x1200

DiRT 3 - Minimum Frame Rate - 1680x1050

The minimum framerates reflect what we’ve seen with the averages; the GTX 680 has a slight lead on the 7970 at 2560, while it beats the GTX 580 by over 30%.

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  • Makaveli - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link

    what are you ranting about wreckage NV would have done the same thing if they released their card first!

    Gouging its customers don't make me laugh. If the price is too high for you don't buy it.
    AMD didn't put a gun to anyone head.
  • CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - link

    Nvidia released it's last 4 flagship cards at $499, yes that's correct, and this one is that.
    Not sure what imaginary world you live in, but it's one that does not include the common facts at hand.
    In other words, AMD already knew far beforehand the $499 flagship Nvidia card price was coming, and so did everyone else who paid attention.
  • consolePoS - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link

    I said haha busted you dickhead goddamn
  • consolePoS - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link

    woops thought my well thought out comment had been removed, oh well whilst I'm already commenting heres another: "Wreckage is a complete benson and an all around arse-bandit"
  • slayernine - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link

    Actually it looks to me like the 680 is hugely disappointing, losing to the 7970 and even the 7950 in some tests.

    Try reading the article....
  • Hauk - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link

    Wreckage first again! LMAO..
  • pandemonium - Friday, March 23, 2012 - link

    I'm confused...are we reading the same article? The 7970 and 680 swap top positions for the most powerful single GPU in several different ways.

    Where is this, "This cards beats AMD on EVERY level! Price, performance, features, power..... every level"?
  • CeriseCogburn - Saturday, March 24, 2012 - link

    We always, since game engines favor one style core over another, have a reasonable average of the games chosen to be tested as indicator of "performance".
    Every common and popular website testing has that "performance" chalked up the GTX680 winning.
    you can't argue price
    you can't argue features
    you can't argue power
    --
    20% slower overall
    $80 more expensive
    no on the fly OC, no dyna vsync, no physx- no unique destrcution, no TXAA
    loses on watts per frame
    --
    Yes we are looking at the same review but your bias has your brain dreaming up other things ?
  • IceDread - Friday, March 23, 2012 - link

    No it does not.

    SLI scaling is really bad as is surround.

    http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/15196-geforce...

    Check the graphs.
  • CeriseCogburn - Saturday, March 24, 2012 - link

    I guess SWE clockers are amateurs or have some shoulder chip..

    http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-680-sli-...

    http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7970-cross...

    Nvidia 101 FPS
    AMD 89 FPS

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