Borderlands 2 GPU & CPU Performance Test

I'm running 3X 7970's and I can't figure how you come out on top with the electric bill 'bitcoining' either. as Chef was eluding to, it's close to a 1.21 jigowatt deal during BF3

Look at the i3 video up there, it works... but the physx work is all done by the CPU in this case...

Supposedly it gets offset to the CPU to do the work. Some of the hardcore AMD fans are swearing that it makes no difference but I honestly don't believe the CPU can keep up with some of the heavier gameplay sections with tons of physics going on at once. I could be wrong though.

What more can they do exactly? All the cloth, particles, and liquid physics looks great. It's just something you don't really notice unless you pay attention. See the borderlands 2 physx video comparison on youtube.

Bitcoin mining doesn't require memory bandwidth. Dropping memory speed to 300mhz, and maintaining 1150mhz overclocks at 1.08V average (1.175V peak) results in a GPU power usage of ~170W per card. Also, the value of each bitcoin has increased from $5-6 to $12 since January. The electricity cost for me varies from 6.5 ¢/kWh Lowest Price (Off-peak), 10.0 ¢/kWh Mid Price (Mid-peak) to 11.7 ¢/kWh Highest Price (On-peak).

Gaming 2-3 hours a day, mining 20-21 hours a day for almost a year.

Each 7970 @1150mhz generates ~ $80 bitcoins a month. 3 such GPUs then earn $240 a month, every month for 10 months so far.

That's ~$2,400 in bitcoins earned - $520 in electricity costs (510W for the 3 cards + 150W system @ highest electricity rate of 12 ¢/kWh for the worst case scenario x 21 hours a day x 310 days = ).

So ya, it's more than $1,600 in profits so far.

Dividebyzero,

retail launch 9 January, 2012 ---> it's been almost 10 months. Jan 9 to Sept 23 is not 8.5 months, but 9.5 months. Keep in mind, every month the 3x 7970s continue to make $240 in bitcoins, so another $240 in October, $240 in November too. They have already paid for themselves off fully.

Ya, my math has failed, it's 8.5 month. However, my conclusion doesn't change. You guys can check this yourself. Even now 3x 7970s would make $195 a month after electricity costs:

http://bitcoinx.com/profit/index.php

Hash Rate for 3 is: 2040
Electricity Rate: $0.12
Power consumption: 660W
Timeframe: 1 month
Cost of mining hardware: 0

Net profit per month: $198 @ peak rate

The mining difficulty has increased since January so more coins were generated during the first half of the year. My electricity rate < 12 cents though, so I put in the worst case scenario.

At least the people running Borderlands 2 with an AMD CPU didn't spend as much as the Intel guys, right? That's a good thing right? Right?!

Just wanted to report that an "old" Core i7-920, OC'd to 3.8 Ghz and with a GTX 670, with max settings in BL2 at 1920x1200, does a super-smooth 60 fps. I don't dispute that it's been around for a little while, but don't count out a great chip!

Very enjoyable read. For anyone in the market for a new GPU, the GTX 670 is fantastic so far and a free copy of Borderlands 2 is just icing on the cake.

This is correct. I'm using an i7-2600k @ 4.8GHz with 2xHD7970s @ 1920x1200 and with PhysX set to High (=2 in .INI file, same as setting via game menu... no need to pretend it's a "hack," gaming journalists, just select the option like a normal person) the game runs great until you get into a heavy firefight with grenades, shotguns and rockets. FPS will tank to 14-15 during these scenarios until the particles fade away. Setting PhysX to medium helps a lot, and setting to low obviously results in 60FPS 100% of the time on this rig.

Whatever test they used for this benchmark was obviously not actual gameplay, or they didn't actually enable high level PhysX effects.

Also of note, even with PhysX set to high, my CPU loading never exceeds 40%, and GPU loading never exceeds 60%. Reeeeal efficient.

Fun game, though.

In the review, Steve mentioned that AsRock motherboards needed a BIOS update to avoid crashing on startup. Can anyone point me in the direction of this fix? I'll even accept a mean-spirited LMGTFY response.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/index.us.asp

Yeah It's a strangely coded game. For the most part it's efficient and runs well. But during the heaviest portions with tons of things going on at once, my fps will dip to 55fps. I checked GPU and CPU usage and neither are anywhere near 100% usage. This is on my 2600k 4.4ghz and GTX 680 1.211ghz. I'm guessing it has something to do with the PhysX engine. Otherwise though it's one helluva addicting game.

Would like to see minimum frame rates with physx enabled. Can the Radeons really hang with Nvidia here? Average frame rates do not tell the full story. But if they can, it would really motivate Radeon owners to pickup the game.

Why isnt there a single word on the fact that bl2 is just like bl1 a single core application? explains it all....

Think they edited the willow engine file....no nvidia card used.......my guess is that off loads physx onto the cpu....the AMD card is not doing the physx calculations just displaying the additional effects.

In fact that probably explains why there less of a performance impact on the AMD card than the Nvidia card.......the AMD card is just displaying the additional physx effects that are calculated on the cpu while the Nvidia cards are doing both the physx calculations and displaying the results.

It's probably a good idea for those with capable cpu's and Nvidia cards to do the same thing, they will probably gain more frames per sec.

PS.......should be getting this game delivered in the next few days.....looking forward to testing it out...
......2700k @5.5Ghz should scale nicely......together with 2X GTX460 2gb versions in SLI @960MHz.....oooo.000h.

Yeah true...so perhaps not such a good idea for Nvidia owners after all.