Hi. I was browsing video card reviews when I noticed a discrepancy with Techspot's graphics card benchmarks. The performance in the Dragon Age II benchmarks from the initial Radeon HD 7870 & 7850 review is the same as shown in the recent Geforce GTX 660 review. Techspot's review claims to use the 12.8 driver for AMD cards in the GTX 660 review. The benchmark numbers for the 7970, 7950, 7870, and 7850 are all the same between the reviews.
Now compare the numbers for Techpowerup's Dragon Age II benchmarks in the intial 7850 & 7870 review and a recent Gigabyte GTX 660 review. Techpowerup claims to be using the 12.7 beta drivers for their review. Now obviously Techspot and Techpowerup's numbers can't be directly compared -- the benchmarks probably use different areas of the game, different durations, etc. What is interesting is that there is a difference in Techpowerup's benchmark results between reviews. The 7850, 7870, 7950, and 7970 all have improved results in the GTX 660 review article. The 7870 goes from 36.7 average FPS to 44.0 average FPS, for example. This clearly indicates that the Radeon cards got a performance boost in Dragon Age II between the release drivers and the 12.7 betas.
This leads me to wonder: Why did Techspot's article not pick up on the difference? All the numbers for the DAII benchmarks are identical between the reviews. Techpowerup's benchmarks indicate that there was a performance improvement, and if Techspot was really presenting benchmarks with the 12.8 driver, the difference should have showed up there too. This indicates that Techspot did not update the Dragon Age II benchmarks for AMD cards with more recent drivers. As Techspot claims to use Catalyst 12.8 in the article, that would be dishonest journalism. I would like to ask Techspot's editors if they have really rerun the Dragon Age II benchmark with more recent drivers since the release of AMD's cards. If I do not see a response from Techspot I will continue investigating more Techspot game benchmarks to see if there are any similar situations.
Now compare the numbers for Techpowerup's Dragon Age II benchmarks in the intial 7850 & 7870 review and a recent Gigabyte GTX 660 review. Techpowerup claims to be using the 12.7 beta drivers for their review. Now obviously Techspot and Techpowerup's numbers can't be directly compared -- the benchmarks probably use different areas of the game, different durations, etc. What is interesting is that there is a difference in Techpowerup's benchmark results between reviews. The 7850, 7870, 7950, and 7970 all have improved results in the GTX 660 review article. The 7870 goes from 36.7 average FPS to 44.0 average FPS, for example. This clearly indicates that the Radeon cards got a performance boost in Dragon Age II between the release drivers and the 12.7 betas.
This leads me to wonder: Why did Techspot's article not pick up on the difference? All the numbers for the DAII benchmarks are identical between the reviews. Techpowerup's benchmarks indicate that there was a performance improvement, and if Techspot was really presenting benchmarks with the 12.8 driver, the difference should have showed up there too. This indicates that Techspot did not update the Dragon Age II benchmarks for AMD cards with more recent drivers. As Techspot claims to use Catalyst 12.8 in the article, that would be dishonest journalism. I would like to ask Techspot's editors if they have really rerun the Dragon Age II benchmark with more recent drivers since the release of AMD's cards. If I do not see a response from Techspot I will continue investigating more Techspot game benchmarks to see if there are any similar situations.
