Benchmarks: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops
To measure performance in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 we used Fraps. We set the test scenario to the Hummer scene in "ACT I - Team Player" where your unit comes under fire traveling though the city. Maximum in-game visuals were used with 4xAA and a 60-second gameplay recording.
When testing with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 at 2560x1600 the GeForce GTX 590 averaged 94fps providing 62% more performance than the GTX 580. However despite this it was actually 7% slower than the Radeon HD 6990. This is surprising given that the GeForce GTX 590 was found to be 77% faster than the Radeon HD 6970 and 47% faster than the HD 5970.
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Fraps was used to benchmark CoD: Black Ops in single-player mode. We measured frame rates during a minute of gameplay from the first level (Operation 40). The test begins from the checkpoint where the player mans a machine gun on a plane trying to take off. As luck would have it, this scene goes for a little over 60 seconds and the path is automated, so we could accurately run it repeatedly.
While the GeForce GTX 590 did fall behind the Radeon HD 6990 when testing with Modern Warfare 2 it did make a quick come back when testing with Call of Duty: Black Ops. Here the GeForce GTX 590 was 4% faster at 2560x1600 averaging 122fps. This made it 72% faster than the Radeon HD 6970 and just 30% faster than the HD 5970. Meanwhile it was 42% faster than the GeForce GTX 580.