R9 280X vs. GTX 770 (2GB)
Yay! I actually finished doing the tests that I said I would do in this post. Whenever I sit down to make a post, I always don't want to type a whole lot, because then I have to get up and walk it off for a while and I give myself a headache. But whatever, I will now start typing this post. >_>
The Cards are on the Table
Puns! But in this case they really are on the table. In any case, I (as I often do) made some adjustments to my test. I didn't test the R9 290X because I wanted to get the 770 and 280X tested and written up first. But I successfully modded my R9 290X with a Kraken G12 and Asetek 570LC AIO cooler, and managed to overclock it to 1200 MHz which is a nice result. I might make a post on that later.
Anyway... I love graphics cards so let's take a look at the cards.
Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Vapor-X
The card on the left is a Sapphire R9 280X Vapor-X. This card launched for about $350-360 making it actually quite expensive for a 280X, but it is a great model. It's still cheaper than the $400 GTX 770, although the price of these did come down. Some basic Tech Specs! Yay!
For those that don't know, the R9 280X is a re-branded HD 7970 GHz Edition which is a Re-branded HD 7970, with higher core clock speeds and faster GDDR5 memory.
Graphics Processor (Silicon)
GPU: "Tahiti XTL"
GPU Family: "Southern Islands"
Silicon Process: TSMC 28nm
Die Size: ~350mm 2
Transistors: ~4.3 billion
Graphics Processor (Specification)
Graphics Architecture: Graphics Core Next 1st Generation (GCN1)
Graphics Cores: 32
Total Stream Processors: 2048
Total Texture Units: 128
Geometry/Tessellation Processors: 2
Raster Engines: 2
L2 Cache: 768 KB
Pixel Pipelines: 32
GPU Engine Clock: 1070 MHz
FP32 Shading Power (Theoretical): 4.3 TFLOPS (FMA)
Memory Subsystem
Memory Type: GDDR5
Memory Speed (Effective): 1550 MHz (6200 MHz)
Memory Capacity: 3 GB
Memory Bus Width: 384-bit
Memory Bandwidth: 297 GB/s
I enjoyed typing that. Anyway, for the GeForce
MSI GeForce GTX 770 Twin Frozr
The card in the middle of the top picture is MSI's Twin Frozr GTX 770. It's a nice cooler but it doesn't come with a back plate which doesn't even make me a Sad Panda because I don't really care. Anyway this card was originally launched for $400, but I think it got a price cut.
For those that don't know, the GTX 770 is a re-branded GTX 680 with faster GDDR5 and a slight increase in core clock speeds.
Graphics Processor (Silicon)
GPU: "GK104-425"
GPU Family: "Kepler (GK10x)"
Silicon Process: TSMC 28nm
Die Size: ~294mm 2
Transistors: ~3.5 billion
Graphics Processor (Specification)
Graphics Architecture: Kepler
Graphics Cores: 8
Total Stream Processors: 1536
Total Texture Units: 128
Geometry/Tessellation Processors: 8
Raster Engines: 4
L2 Cache: 512 KB
Pixel Pipelines: 32
GPU Engine Clock: 1215 MHz (Includes GPU Boost on this specific card).
FP32 Shading Power (Theoretical): 3.7 TFLOPS (FMA)
Memory Subsystem
Memory Type: GDDR5
Memory Speed (Effective): 1750 MHz (7000 MHz)
Memory Capacity: 2 GB
Memory Bus Width: 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth: 224 GB/s
Okay, now that I have got that out of the way, I will type about my test set up, re-iterated from my previous post, and anything else I think is important to disclose.
Test Setup and notes
AMD Ryzen 5 3400G @ stock (4.1 GHz in games) (4 core, 8 thread, 4MB L3)
16GB 3200 MHz 16-18-18 (2x8)
MSI B450M Mortar
WD Green 240 GB M.2 SATA
Sabrent Rocket 256 GB M.2 NVME
Silverstone Strider 1000W PSU
Windows 10 Pro (1903)
AMD Radeon Driver 19.11.1
NVIDIA Driver 441.12
Both cards run at PCI-e 3.0 8x
Both cards do not throttle. This is not a test of thermals.
R9 280X runs 1070 MHz / 6200 MHz
GTX 770 runs 1215 MHz / 7000 MHz
I am fully aware that the Ryzen 5 3400G isn't the Best Gaming Processor In The World, but all tests are GPU bound and results are gathered from at least 3 runs to rule out issues with inconsistency. Anything else is outside of my control (Driver/OS/Game issues for example).
If people that are angry, fanboys and/or hate me, take issue with my test setup; the games I tested; their settings; or anything else I would like to direct their attention to this video which accurately represents my attitude regarding that issue.
I am having a depressive episode but I am going to try and 'power through it'. So I might not be as quirky or say stupid things as much. Or I might do, because I am just like that.
I combined all of the results into one graph, to make it a bit more compact. I will list the settings for each game first.
Settings Used
Metro: Last Light Redux
1920x1080
Quality: Very High
SSAA: Off
Texture Filtering: AF 16X
Motion Blur: Normal
Tessellation: Very High
Advanced PhysX: Off
Batman: Arkham Knight
1920x1080
Texture Resolution: Low
Shadow Quality: High
Level of Detail: High
Motion Blur: On
Chromatic Aberration: On
Film Grain: On
Texture Filtering: 16X Anisotropic
GameWorks: ALL DISABLED
Tomb Raider
Exclusive Full Screen
1920x1080
Quality: Ultra Preset
Motion Blur: Yes
Screen Effects: Yes
Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation
1920x1080
DX12
Vsync/mGPU/Overlays: Off
MSAA: off
Point Light Quality: High
Glare Quality: High Terrain
Object Quality: High
Shading Samples: High
Terrain Shading Samples: High
Shadow Quality: High
Texture Quality: Low
Enviromental Effects: Yes
Cosmetic Clouds: Yes
Far Cry: New Dawn
Ultra Preset
75 FoV
1920x1080
Metro: Exodus
DX12
1920x1080
Quality: Low
Texture Filtering: 16X
Motion Blur: Low
Tessellation: Full
Advanced PhysX: Off
Hairworks: On
Ray Trace: Off (Obviously)
DLSS: Off (Ditto)
Shading Rate: 100%
Gears 5
Medium Preset
1920x1080
Ambient Occlusion Intensity: 11
Particle Spawn Rate: 7
FoV: 90