What's the Fastest Current Graphics Card?

How we tested

As always, we did our best to deliver a clean set of benchmarks, with each test repeated three times and an average of those results is what we’re reporting here. In the rare case where performance was inconsistent, we continued repeating the test until we got three results that were consistent.

The tests performed are a mixture of custom in-game timedemos and manually played sections with FRAPS to record the average and minimum frame rates. We strive to not only record real-world performance you will actually see, but also present the results in a manner that is easy to digest.

Intel Core i7 Test System

• Intel Core i7 965 processor (3.2GHz: 133MHz x 24);
  
• Asus P6T V2 motherboard (Intel X58 Express with three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots);
  
• 3x 2GB Corsair TR3X6G1333C9 memory modules (operating in dual channel at DDR3 1,349.4MHz 9-9-9-24-1T);
  
• OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD running 1.3 firmware;
  
• Corsair HX1000W PSU;
  
• Windows Vista Home Premium x86-64 (with Service Pack 2);
  
• Antec Twelve Hundred Chassis;

ATI graphics cards

• AMD ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB – operating at 750/3,600MHz using Catalyst 9.9 WHQL

Nvidia graphics cards

• Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB - operating at 576/1242/1998 using Forceware 190.38 WHQL
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB – operating at 648/1,476/2,484MHz using Forceware 185.68 WHQL

Games Tested

• Fallout 3, version 1.7 with DirectX 9.0
  
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, version 1.5.07 with DirectX 10/10.1
  
• Dawn of War 2 version 1.02 with DirectX 10
  
• Crysis, version 1.21 (64-bit) with DirectX 10
  
• Call of Duty: World at War, version 1.3.1080 with DirectX 9.0