GIGABYTE HD7950 Windforce x3 Review

GIGABYTE impressed last year with the Windforce cooler. Today we see if it still has what it takes to keep AMD’s latest HD 7950 GPU cool…

Product on Review: GIGABYTE HD7950 Windforce 3
Manufacturer: GIGABYTE
Street Price: £371.99 inc. VAT

The AMD HD7950 has impressed us thus far with its fantastic performance so when GIGABYTE offered up their Windforce cooled HD7950 we were understandably excited. The Windforce cooler we first saw last year on their GTX560 was held in high acclaim thanks to it’s ability to keep heat at bay thereby allowing higher overclocks while not sounding like a jumbo jet mid take-off. The GIGABYTE HD7950 Windforce cooler however increases the twin fan setup on the heatsink to three. This may seem like overkill as the reference HD7950 is hardly a roasting hot graphics card so it remains to be seen if the custom cooled card from GIGABYTE can raise the benchmark and make use of that extreme cooling design with some extra ordinary overclocks.

The custom cooler is but one difference from the reference AMD design though as GIGABYTE have created their own power circuit board. The card however does retain the stock 3GB of GDDR5 which is twinned with the Tahiti Pro core, a slightly trimmed down version of the flagship Tahiti XT found on the HD7970. As we have seen in previous reviews, the HD7950 is quite a capable overclocker and can easily outpace both a GTX580 and the HD7970 with these clockspeeds dialled in so with the additional cooling and redesigned power module, we expect some scorching, or should I say, ‘cool’ results from the GIGABYTE HD7950 x3.

Windforce
GIGABYTE introduces WINDFORCE™, the latest cooling technology that differentiates the brand’s graphics cards from the rest. GIGABYTE understands that a fan is crucial to the graphics card, so only the fan with the most efficiency is selected for WINDFORCE™.

To qualify for WINDFORCE™, a cooling solution must be equipped with anti-turbulence inclined fans, ultra quiet PWM fan and pure copper heat pipe. Inclined fins help to reduce excessive heat and turbulence. Depending on its orientation, there are 4 types of inclined-fan designs: outward-inclined, 3D-inclined, parallel-inclined, and mirroring-inclined. Each type generates excellent exterior airflow for efficient heat dissipation from the interior GPU core.

Let’s take a look at the specification of today’s review sample…

Specification

The HD7900 series will feature the new Tahiti core which is the successor to the Caymen core of the HD6900 family. The Caymen core was based on a 40nm manufacturing process so it is fair to say that perhaps the biggest improvement to the Tahiti core is the reduction to 28nm process. This has enabled AMD to cram 4.31 billion (4,312,711,873) transistors into the new Tahiti core as opposed to the 2.64 billion on the HD6970 Caymen XT.

Comprising of what AMD calls ‘Graphics Core Next (GCN)’ archetecture which is optimised for heterogeneous computing, the new Tahiti core has upto 32 CU’s (compute units) with dual geometry engines along with 8 back-ends comprising of 32 colour ROPs per clock and 128 Z/Stencil ROPs per clock. Each CU has a Vector unit and Scaler Co-Processor and can execute instructions from multiple kernels.

The VLIW4 SIMD has evolved to the GCN quad SIMD which equates to similar computational power yet grants better performance, threading and simplification. The GCN also has a new Cache hierarchy with 16KB instruction Cache and32KB Scaler Cache shared between 4 CU’s. The L2 Cache is accessible by each CU with it’s own separate process to ensure coherency. These changes increase the GFLOPs by 140%.

Tesselation on the Tahiti core is also enhanced by increased Vertex re-use off-core which theoretically at least, means the 7900 series has 4 times the throughput of the 69XX series. The are improved ansioscopic filtering algorithms too which come at no performance cost allegedly. These new algorithm improvement will allow the use of Forward Rendering with 1000’s of potential light sources and will also mean MSAA can be rendered easily.

Tahiti XT Schematic

Looking at the schematics above, we can identify the bulk of the GPU is taken up with the 32 CU’s. Above these are the geometry engines. To the left and right are the 8 Render back-ends, 4 each side. There’s 768KB of L2 cache along with 6x64bit dual channel memory controllers making a 384-bit GDDR5 memory interface capable of delivering up to 264GB/sec. All of technology coupled together is transferred through a fully compatible PCI Express 3.0 x16 bus interface. Have no fear though because the cards are backwards compatible with PCIe 2.0. Note that 256 Stream Processors are disabled for the Tahiti Pro Core. Whether this is at the hardware or simply a software level remains to be seen. If it is software then a BIOS flash may see the Pro’s becomming XT’s again?

Comparing the HD7950 against it’s bigger brother, the HD7970, the 7950 has 256 less Stream Processors with 16 less Texture units. Obviously this equates to less Pixel and Texture fillrate and coupled with the slightly lower clocked memory of 5000MHz (effective) as opposed to the 5500 of the HD7970, performance is due to take a hit. The power requirements of the HD7950 are however slightly lower in that it has a claimed TDP of 200w compared to the 20% higher TDP of the HD7970.

Comparing the HD7950 to the green team it is interesting to note that the HD7950 has more the double the texture fillrate of the GTX570 and a 40Billion/sec advantage over the GTX580. The NVIDIA cards do however have the upper hand in pixel fillrate but by a much smaller margin. AMD card have traditionally been clocked higher than their NVIDIA counterparts and we see no change in that here with the lowest clocked HD7950 (800MHz) still surpassing the 772MHz of the GTX580. The memory clockspeed is also higher and now with a matching 320-bit memory interface, the AMD cards are finally on a level playing field. this equates to a much higher memory bandwidth than NVIDIA.

GIGABYTE

The GIGABYTE varient of the HD7950 weighs in at an impressive 900MHz on the core which is a 100MHz overclock from the reference closkspeed. The 3GB of GDDR5 however remains at 5000MHz which, if the HD7950 remains true to form should allow for some noticable overclocking headroom. The PCB has been redesigned so I would expect some differences in the VRM make-up of the GPU along with some serious cooling capability thanks to the Windforce x3 custom cooling design.

Let’s take a look at the cards features…

Features

GIGABYTE Features

Ultra Durable VGA

GPU Temperature 5%~10% down

Ultra Durable VGA board provides dramatic cooling effect on lowering both GPU and memory temperature by doubling the copper inner layer of PCB. GIGABYTE Ultra Durable VGA can lower GPU temperature by 5% to 10%.

Overclocking Capability 10%~30% Up

Ultra Durable VGA board reduces voltage ripples in normal and transient state, thus effectively lowers noises and ensures higher overclocking capability. GIGABYTE Ultra Durable VGA graphic accelerators improve overclocking capability by 10% to 30%.

Power Switching Loss 10%~30% Down

Ultra Durable VGA board allows more bandwidth for electron passage and reduces circuit impedance. The less circuit impedance, the more stable flow of current and can effectively improve power efficiency. GIGABYTE Ultra Durable VGA can lower power switching loss by 10% to 30%.

“Triangle Cool” Technology
GIGABYTE introduces the latest exclusive “Triangle Cool” Technology to reach a better cooling performance. The latest patent pending technology combines fin with clip module in a special triangle shape. With the original anti-turbulence structure plus the new triangle cooling design, it enhances the efficiency of heat dissipation dramatically by minimizing the flow of turbulence between fans. Therefore, the “Triangle Cool” Technology provides a more efficient air flow for the cooling system.

Standard HD7950 features

AMD CrossFire™ Technology
The AMD Radeon™ HD 7950 GPU supports AMD CrossFire™ Technology and provides excellent multi GPU scaling. With the introduction of the AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 Series Graphics, AMD began delivering improved AMD CrossFire™ Technology scaling when using two GPUs. AMD is proud to continue to offer that amazing performance with its newest AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 series graphics products.

AMD Eyefinity Technology
AMD Eyefinity Technology provides advanced multiple monitor technology enabling an incredibly immersive graphic and computing experience with innovative display capabilities, supporting massive desktop workspaces and super-high resolution gaming environments. AMD Eyefinity technology with DisplayPort connectivity enables a single GPU to support up to six independent display outputs simultaneously, depending on the OEM implementation.
AMD Eyefinity technology works with games that support non-standard aspect ratios, which is required for panning across multiple displays. To enable more than two displays, one of two cases must be satisfied:

1) Additional panels with native DisplayPort™ connectors are used;
2) Certified DisplayPort™ adapters to convert your monitor’s native input to your cards

DisplayPort™ or Mini-DisplayPort™ connector(s) are used.
With the introduction and wide availability of DisplayPort™ to single-link DVI dongles, option 2 above is a low cost way to convert a set of already-owned monitors into an AMD Eyefinity technology ready display configuration.

Unlike a similar multi monitor gaming solution offered by NVIDIA, AMD Eyefinity technology does not require two graphics cards to work. Therefore, AMD offers a multi monitor gaming solution with potential for a lower setup cost. A single AMD Radeon™ 7950 GPUs can employ AMD Eyefinity technology and AMD CrossFire™ technology to provide an outstanding multi monitor gaming experience. The following chart shows the AMD Radeon™ HD 7950 graphics in a dual AMD CrossFire™ configuration versus the NVIDIA SLI GTX 580 in three monitor gaming scenario’s.

Improved Tessellation
The latest iteration of architecture in the AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 GPU features a brand new Generation of Tesselator (Gen 9) in its Geometry Engine. This features optimizations such as; Increased vertex re-use, Off-chip buffering improvements and larger parameter caches. This helps Improve performance at all tessellation factors at up to 4x the throughput of AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 series graphics (Gen 8 ).

AMD HD3D Technology
AMD HD3D Technology is supported by an advanced and open ecosystem that, in conjunction with specific AMD hardware and software technologies, enables 3D display capabilities for many PC applications and experiences.

Your PC has evolved, offering unprecedented amount of games, photos and movies for you to play, watch, design, create, share and download in 3D. With the arrival of the latest in 3D technology you can now enjoy an enhanced visual experience on Stereo 3D-capable desktops and notebooks powered by AMD HD3D Technology.

HDMI 1.4a
More bandwith than standard HDMI allows full implementation of 60Hz Stereo 3D. Standard HDMI ports do not have adequate bandwidth for more than 3D 1080p at 24fps.

Ultra-high resolution (4k Panels)
– Current implementations currently use 4*DVI or 2*DP 1.1, which is expensive and unwieldy.
– AMD will move to a single-connector output for 4k via DP 1.2 HBR2 and HDMI 1.4a 3GHz mode.

AMD Quad Buffer SDK
– Native 3D support for Developers.
– functions with Dx9, 10 and 11
– Native support scheduled for Windows 8
Nearly 600 games support AMD’s implementation of 3D either natively or through middleware partners. Also support for many 3D displays already on the market including Samsung and LG’s proprietry implementation.

Video Codec Engine (VCE)
– H.264 HD Encoder
– Power efficient
– faster than realtime 1080p @ 60 FPS
– Variable Compression Quality
– Multiple Input Options:- (1) Frame Buffer, (2) GPU Display. (2) is useful for wireless displays.

AMD ZeroCore Power

When a discrete GPU is in a static screen state it works to minimize idle power by enabling a host of active power saving functions including (but not limited to); clock gating, power gating, memory compression, and a host of other features. However, GPUs with AMD’s exclusive ZeroCore Power technology can take energy savings to entirely new heights by completely powering down the core GPU while the rest of the system remains active.

Nearly all PCs can be configured to turn off their displays after a long period of inactivity. This is known as the long idle state; where the screen is blanked but the rest of the system remains in an active and working power state (ACPI G0/S0). As soon as the system goes into long idle state and applications are not actively changing the screen contents, the GPU enters the ZeroCore power state. In the ZeroCore power state, the GPU core (including the 3D engine / compute units, multimedia and audio engines, displays, memory interfaces, etc.) is completely powered down.

However, one cannot simply remove the GPU and its associated device context completely; particularly when it is the only GPU in the system as is the case in many enthusiast platforms. The operating system and SBIOS must still be aware that a GPU is still present in the system. For this reason, the ZeroCore Power state maintains a very small bus control block to ensure that GPU context is still visible to the operating system and SBIOS. The ZeroCore power state also manages the power sequencing of the GPU to ensure that the power up/down mechanism is self-contained and independent of the rest of the system.

The enablement of the ZeroCore Power feature is controlled by the driver. The driver monitors the display contents and allows the GPU to enter the ZeroCore Power in the condition that the GPU enters long idle and subsequent work requests are no longer being submitted to the engine. If any applications update the screen contents, ZeroCore Power technology can periodically wake the GPU to update the framebuffer contents and put the GPU back into the ZeroCore Power state. Furthermore, applications such as Windows 7 desktop gadgets are architected to minimize activity and save power in the long idle state. These applications are active during screen-on mode to display dynamic content such as weather, RSS feeds, stock symbols, system status, etc. but also have the intelligence to suspend any updates and activity when the system enters long idle. These applications will not wake the GPU from the ZeroCore Power state in long idle.

AMD ZeroCore Power technology delivers tremendous energy savings. Many PCs remain in the long idle state for a variety of use cases that are highly relevant to everyday consumers, enthusiasts and professionals. In ZeroCore Power mode, users can still enjoy non-graphics activities such as file serving/streaming, motherboard audio and music, and remote access while the GPU core is essentially powered off.

ZeroCore Power technology also scales with AMD CrossFire™ technology. With an AMD CrossFire platform, all non-primary GPUs are in the ZeroCore Power state when not in use. For AMD CrossFire workloads, the driver will engage the non-primary GPUs to deliver full performance on-demand. The primary GPU can also enter the ZeroCore Power state during long idle as well. This delivers scalable benefits for the enthusiast. First, it effectively removes the power increase for users of AMD CrossFire under idle and light (single GPU) workloads. Second, it removes the noise penalty multiGPU users have always had to endure since the GPU fans are off in ZeroCore Power mode.

Packaging & Accessories

Front Packaging

The package is presented in a rather large box. The attractive design features a blue neon ‘eye’ with a glowing product title beneath along with a brief showcase of the cards main feature, the Windforce cooling which claims to be 35% cooler than a reference design.

Package Rear

Flipping the box over, we see a GIGABYTE have gone into much greater detail depicting the Windforce cooling with cut-outs of the heatsink. Along with the cooling design which takes pride of place, the package also describes this card as being PCI Express 3.0 compatible and that it is built on AMD’s new 28nm architecture.

After removing the colourful outer sleeve we are presented with a plain white cardboard box with no markings whatsoever. The box is however very sturdy and should protect the contents very well. Inside this box you will find the GPU held in place via stiff foam brackets with the GPU protected by an antistatic bag.

Accessories

The accessory list for the GIGABYTE HD7950 is very sparse, with just the bare essentials included. A twin MOLEX to 6 pin PCIe adaptor is joined by a Crossfire Bridge, driver CD and a leaflet explaining how to install the graphics card.

Anti-Static Protection

Aside from the anti-static bag that affords the graphics card adequate electric discharge protection, GIGABYTE have also protected the gold fingers from unwanted static by including some protective tabs. The same plastic tabs are also used to great effect on the I/O area where dust can also become a problem.

Overall, the packaging is well presented but lacking in ‘extras’. GIGABYTE it seems have elected to keep the accessories to an absoulte minium to remain competitive price wise. You won’t find a free game here, much less anything other than the absolute minimum to get you started.

Let’s take a look at the graphics card…

First Look

Card Top

From the top down you would be hard pushed to distinguish this card from it’s bigger brother, the HD7950 because both cards use the same cooling design. The three black/translucent fans dominate the cooler which are framed by a moulded black glossy plastic shroud.

Card Bottom

Flipping the card over we see that GIGABYTE have once again implemented there blue PCB. While this well be perfect for those who have a blue colour scheme running through their PC setup, those with red/black may find the blue PCB on this graphics card clashes. GIGABYTE cannot be criticized for being individual but I cannot help but feel that some users will be detered (while others no doubt attracted) by the blue PCB design.

Card Side

The side of the card has a full length aluminium strip with the GIGABYTE insignia. This bracket helps to prevent the power circuit board from bowing under the weight of the custom cooler.

PCIe Power

As with the reference design, the GIGABYTE HD7950 requires twin PCIe 6pin power cables which are capable of delivering 75W each. GIGABYTE recommend a 500W PSU as a minimum which should not be an issue for anybody owning a mid/high end gaming PC.

Crossfire Capability

Multiple graphics card setups are afforded thanks to the twin Crossfire tabs allowing for CrosfireX configurations.

I/O Area

The I/O area is reference in that is unique in that it has the standard DVI, HDMI 1.4a and twin 1.2 mini-display ports of which they are 4K resolution ready. The card is also capable of running 4 screens in an Eyefinity 2.0 setup.

Let’s take a closer look at the Windforce cooler and the guts of the HD7950 hidden beneath…

Closer Look

Heatsink

Despite the weight of the Windforce cooler, it is attached by just four spring loaded screws. The heatsink is made up of 3 heatpipes which traverse the aluminium fin array. The aluminium fins are vertically arranged and pyramid shaped in sections to reduce air turbulence and therefore noise. All three PWM fans draw air from outwards and push the cool air over the heatsink assembly. This anti turbulence structure with fin and clip modules dramatically increases heat transfer. GIGABYTE refer to this method of cooling as ‘Triangle Cool’ which is the same method used to keep their HD7970 cool rather than using inclined fans on previous generation graphics cards from both AMD and NVIDIA.

Heatpipes

The three 8mm thick heatpipes run longitudinally throughout the aluminium fins which they are soldered to for excellent heat dissipation. Hidden beneath this setup is a further memory heatsink which further assists in keeping the cards components cool.

Core Contact

The heatpipes are flattened at the core section and have an additional copper baseplate attached to attract a perfect mount to the GPU core. While not exactly a direct copper pipe contact, the baseplate should ensure an even contact to the core. Our example had just that with perhaps one of the best contacts we have seen thus far.

Naked

While this is not a reference design, GIGABYTE have stuck to the tried and tested method of having the memory framing the GPU core. Immediately noticeable is the additional chokes and MOSFETs which make up the VRM section.

CHiL Controller

As with all HD7900 series we have seen thus far, the digital CHiL controller takes care of the voltage regulation module so we can be safe in the knowledge this card will be compatible with our favourite overclocking utilities.

Voltage Regulation Module

The GIGABYTE HD7950 has 12 more Solid State capacitors and three more chokes than the reference design which should go some way to explain that this card is capable of addressing higher power than it’s forbear. With GIGABYTE’s Ultra Durable tag, you can be assured this graphics card will also stand the test of time thanks to the high grade of components used throughout.

GDDR5 Memory

The memory used on the GIGABYTE HD7950 are the same HYNIX modules we have seen on all previous HD7950 reviews, the very overclocking friendly H5GQ2H24MFA T2C modules.

Tahiti Pro Core

With a larger VRM and a redesigned PCB, I have high hopes this particular variant of the HD7950 Tahiti Pro will perform very well indeed, despite the lack of stream processors compared to its bigger brother.

Let’s take a look at today’s test setup…

Test Setup

With the latest Intel chipset release we decided to update our ageing X58 setup to the new X79 chipset. Not only that but we will be using the flagship Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor clocked to 4.5GHz to ensure we have no CPU bottlenecks. With 16GB of ram on board there should be minimal paging so the benchmarks we run today will hopefully give a true reflection of the graphics card’s performance.

Some of the components for our test bench were kindly donated by CORSAIR who provided the majority of components without whom we would not have been able to bring you this review so a big thanks to them.

Graphics cards on test:

GIGABYTE HD7950 Windforce x3

Zotac GTX580 AMP2! 3GB GDDR5
XFX R7970 Black Edition 3GB GDDR5
XFX R7770 Black Edition ‘S’ 1GB GDDR5
AMD HD7750 1GB GDDR5
AMD HD7770 1GB GDDR5
HIS HD7970 3GB GDDR5
XFX DD Radeon R7950 3072MB GDDR5
PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7970 3072MB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX570 AMP! 1280MB GDDR5
NVIDIA GTX570 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-448 Twin Frozr III 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-384 Twin Frozr III 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD6990 4GB GDDR5

For this review we will be using the very latest CAT 11.12 drivers.

Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme4-M
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition @ 4.5GHz
RAM – 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance (Red) DDR3 @ 1866MHz 9-10-9-27
Power Supply – ANTEC High Current Pro 1200W
Hard Drive – Hitachi SATA II 250GB
Samsung F3 1TB
Cooler – Corsair H100

Benchmarks
We have also updated our range of benchmarks to include the following games which will give the graphics cards a challenge and sort the wheat from the chaff. Each benchmark will be run at both stock and maximum overclock settings and utilise 1920×1080 and 2560×1600 resolutions along with AA at various levels (application dependent):

Battlefield 3
Crysis 2
Crysis Warhead
Metro 2033
Batman: Arkham City
Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
DiRT 3
Futuremark 3DMark 2011
Unigine: Heaven 2.5

Let’s see how today’s cards performed…

Overclocking, Temperature & Power Consumption Analysis

Because this is a pre-overclocked card we enter the overclocking arena with trepidation because some overclocked cards are cherry picked, while other cards leave little headroom for tweaking.

The GIGABYTE HD7950 Windforce x3 arrives in a pre-overclocked state and weighs in at a very good 900MHz on the core with no overclock on the 3GB of GDDR5. If past results are anything to go by, the card has plenty of headroom left in the overclocking department so we fired up our favourite overclocking tools with an aim to see just how far we could push the card…

After being assured of excellent cooling (See below), we went straight in for the kill and increased the voltage to the maximum allowed (1300Mv). With this voltage we hoped for some huge overclocks and as you can see above, we were not disappointed.

A 324MHz overclock on the core was quite a phenomenal achievement, beating our previous best HD7950 from Powercolor by 64MHz. Couple this with a stonking overclock on the memory, equating to 1503MHz (6012MHz effective) and GIGABYTE have created something rather special. It must be said that the card was capable of higher overclocks than this but they were not truly stable throughout our testing. They were however capable of some excellent Heaven 2.5 and 3DMark benchmark runs.

Power Consumption
To test for power consumption we do not use anything to technical, just a wall meter which measures the total system power draw minus the monitor.

As expected, with the larger VRM and increased voltages, power consumption of the GIGABYTE HD7950 inevitably takes a hit consuming a eye watering 404w (system) under load. It has to be said that this is still a little less than its main competitor, the GTX570 and quite a lot less than the GTX580.

Temperature

To test temperatures we measured idle temperatures after booting windows, letting all applications finish loading and ran a few benchmarks. Once the benchmarks were complete we left the card to reach a cooling plateau where we then took the idle temperatures. For the load tests, we ran Furmark for 20 minutes, taking the absolute maximum temperature attained.

Having an attractive cooler is all very good and well but if it fails to perform then it will be chastised. Thankfully the Windforce x3 cooler is not just a good performer – it is one of the best we have had the pleasure of using here at Vortez. When you consider the card is pre-overclocked but still manages to outperform many other cards which use a lot less power, you should be impressed. With increased voltages and mammoth overclocks however, we were not impressed, we were astounded at just how well the Windforce cooled. 67c at a 23c ambient is an amazing achievement and testament to just how efficient the cooling on the GIGABYTE HD7950 Windoforce really is.

Let’s move on to our suite of benchmarks…

Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 leaps ahead of its time with the power of Frostbite™ 2, the next instalment of DICE’s cutting-edge game engine. This state-of-the-art technology is the foundation on which Battlefield 3 is built, delivering enhanced visual quality, a grand sense of scale, massive destruction, dynamic audio and incredibly lifelike character animations. As bullets whiz by, walls crumble, and explosions throw you to the ground, the battlefield feels more alive and interactive than ever before. In Battlefield 3, players step into the role of the elite U.S. Marines where they will experience heart-pounding missions across diverse locations including Paris, Tehran and New York.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the parking lot scene on Operation Sword Breaker. High and Ultra presets were loaded at both resolutions.

Crysis 2

Crytek took an internet beating from its loyal fans due to the fact that they pandered to the console masses and dumbed down the graphics to DirectX 9. Fortunately, fans of the PC version of Crysis managed to force Cryteks hand and they have since developed a DX11 patch and have also enhanced the textures with added tesselation. It is for this reason that we have decided to include it in our suite of benchmarks.

To test the cards we used the Crysis 2 benchmark courtesy of Adrenaline with both the 1.9 patch, DX11 update and Hi-res texture pack. Settings were manually placed to Ultra, DX11 and tessellation enabled with the Central Park map being run 3 times per resolution benchmark test.

]

Crysis Warhead

Following the success of Crysis, the stand alone expansion “Warhead” was hotly anticipated to bring more game play, more weapons, improved visuals whilst maintaining better performance, the latter being what gamers wanted most. After all how many people upgraded their rigs just to play this game… In the game, you play as the upbeat Brit Sergeant “Psycho” Sykes, chasing down a Korean nuclear warhead. Throw in some ice shooting aliens and we’re bound to have a great game. It sure delivered.

Testing was done using Framebuffer’s Crysis Warhead benchmarking tool. The tests were configured to DirectX 10 at Enthusiast levels. Each test on the Ambush map was looped three times from which the average FPS was recorded.

Metro 2033

Based on the novel by the same name, Metro 2033 is a first person shooter with elements of survival horror. As Artyom, you trawl through the mutant infested metro systems of post-apocalyptic Moscow. The game delivers presents a grim ambience that reflects on the overall atmosphere of the underground setting. Metro 2033 uses the setting as a back drop to showcase some of the best visuals of any games out now, making it the ideal benchmark for those looking for the best graphics card.

The bundled benchmarking tool was used on Metro 2033, configuring the settings to High and making use of DirectX 11. The frontline scene was looped 3 times for each configuration. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim is not a direct successor to the very popular Oblivion. Instead it takes place 200 years after the events of Oblivion. The non-linear playing that made the Elder Scrolls such a popular series does however make a return along with the beautiful scenery the encompasses the world of Skyrim.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the drop down passage to Riverwood. V-sync was disabled to allow fluctuating (higher the 60) FPS for these runs. It is however recommended that v-sync is left enabled during normal gameplay due to the games dynamics.

Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City builds upon the intense, atmospheric foundation of Batman: Arkham Asylum, sending players soaring into Arkham City, the new maximum security “home” for all of Gotham City’s thugs, gangsters and insane criminal masterminds. Set inside the heavily fortified walls of a sprawling district in the heart of Gotham City, this highly anticipated sequel introduces a brand-new story that draws together a new all-star cast of classic characters and murderous villains from the Batman universe, as well as a vast range of new and enhanced gameplay features to deliver the ultimate experience as the Dark Knight.

The results below were obtained from the builtin benchmark utility from the game. All the settings were set to

DiRT 3

As players race to elevate their global standing, DiRT 3 is back delivering mud, sweat and gears world over: from the intense weather-beaten rally stages of Europe, Africa and the US, to executing performance driving showcases and career challenges where car control is pushed to spectacular limits.

The in-game benchmarking tool was used to test performance. All the display settings were set to the maximum available and DirectX 11 was applied. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

Futuremark: 3DMark 2011

3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world’s most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. The benchmark was run in both Performance and Extreme presets.

Unigine: Heaven 2.5

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine™ engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

Conclusion

The graphics card we have reviewed today should serve as an example to all manufacturers of how a GPU should be built. It runs very cool, goes about it’s business very quietly and as we have shown, performs at the leading edge in today’s high end sector of graphics cards. You could be forgiven for thinking this is the best graphics card we have tested to date and you wouldn’t be far off the mark were it not for some niggling drawbacks.

At £372 (at the time of writing), the card is not cheap and for a few more pennies you could have the flagship HD7970. Not that the HD7970 will bag you much more performance as the GIGABYTE HD7950 Windforce x3 performs close to the top of the pile, outperforming all reference designs when overclocked. Still, many would prefer the flagship model over it’s trimmed down brother. Another nuance of the GIGABYTE model is the lack of accessories. While other manufacturers clamber for your custom by including HDMI adaptors, multiple manuals and even a game, GIGABYTE seem to be bereft of such luxuries which is a shame. Not that there is anything wrong with the package but when other manufacturers are including such items, the GIGABYTE model is a little less appealing.

I’m not a big fan of the blue PCB either. This is one of those Marmite affairs where you will either love it or hate it. If you have a blue themed PC or indeed do not have a PC case window to show off your hardware then no doubt you will be in the former category of enthusiasts. A black PCB would however open the card’s appeal to a wider audience I feel. The cooler itself performs admirably. It would be a fair criticism of the cooler to say it was overkill having three fans and such a large heatsink, especially when the HD7950 is much cooler than the last generation but we would argue that the results speak for themselves. The cooler a card runs, the less rpm a fan needs which equates to a much more civilised gaming experience when you are not sat next to something that sounds like it is running at warp factor 9.

Aesthetics and packaging aside, GIGABYTE have pushed the envelope for other people to follow. They have held true to their company slogan of ‘leaders of innovation’ and with the Windforce x3 cooler, they have set a benchmark which will be a difficult task to follow.

We were astounded by it’s overclocking ability which made the card one of the fastest on test throughout our suite of benchmarks, out pacing both the GTX570 it is directly competing against by quite a margin and indeed the two flagship models, the GTX580 and HD7970. So it goes without saying that should you be on the lookout for a card that is one of the coolest, quietest and highest performing samples on the market today, the GIGABYTE HD7950 Windforce x3 should be very high up on your shopping list.

Pros:

+ Phenomenal overclocking ability
+ Best in class cooling
+ Great Performance
+ Very Quiet

Cons:

– Blue PCB may not suit everyone
– Basic Accessories