Test Setup
We have retired our trusty MSI GTX 970 GAMING Twin Frozr V as our baseline test bench card in favour of this graphics card. We think it’s a much more up to date reference for the typical enthusiasts, even with the Nvidia RTX just a couple of weeks away.
| Test Platform | |
|---|---|
| Processor | i7-8700K |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit |
| Storage | Crucial BX300 480Gb SSD |
| Memory | Ballistix Elite 3466 MHz DDR4 32Gb Memory Kit |
| CPU Cooler | Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler |
| PSU | Corsair HX1000i |
| Chassis | MicroCool Banchetto 101 |
All synthetic tests are carried out three times with the best result taken. All game tests, multiplayer or otherwise, are carried out three times with the best average taken. If the game is an online multiplayer, a ping constantly under 30ms is required before a test is valid.
Synthetic Tests
- 3DMark Professional
- AIDA64 Engineering
- Unigine Valley
- Unigine Heaven
- RealBench 2.56
- HWBOT x265
- Batman Arkham Origins
Real World Tests
- Battlefield 1
- Doom (OpenGL)
- Far Cry 5 (In Game Test)
- Overwatch
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands (In Game Test)
- The Division (In Game Test)
- Overwatch
We tested where possible in UHD and 1080p for both synthetic and game tests. We used the Geforce 398.36 release for all tests and OS and other updates were disabled for the duration of the benchmarking. We didn’t test Vulkan in Doom due to benchmarking application clashes, we can benchmark this given time, but we have limited time on this review. We have kept Batman Arkham Origins as part of the Synthetic tests as it’s an older in-game benchmark, we are also removing it from our tests for future GPU reviews.