The Best Graphics Cards: Nvidia vs. AMD Current-Gen Comparison

Test System Specs & 3Dmark 11

Core i7 Test System Specs

• Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition (3.30GHz)
• x4 2GB G.Skill DDR3-1600(CAS 8-8-8-20)
• Asrock X79 Extreme11 (Intel X79)
• OCZ ZX Series (1250w)
• Crucial m4 512GB (SATA 6Gb/s)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 (2048MB)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 (2048MB)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti (2048MB)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 (2048MB)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti (2048MB)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 (1536MB)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti (1024MB)
• AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition (3072MB)
• HIS Radeon HD 7970 (3072MB)
• HIS Radeon HD 7950 Boost (3072MB)
• HIS Radeon HD 7950 (3072MB)
• HIS Radeon HD 7870 (2048MB)
• HIS Radeon HD 7850 (2048MB)
• HIS Radeon HD 7770 (1024MB)
• HIS Radeon HD 7750 (1024MB)
• HIS Radeon HD 6970 (2048MB)
• HIS Radeon HD 6950 (2048MB)
• HIS Radeon HD 6870 (1024MB)
• Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit
• Nvidia Forceware 310.61 Beta
• AMD Catalyst 12.11 (Beta 8)

According to the 3Dmark 11 entry test the GeForce GTX 650 Ti is 16% faster than the Radeon HD 6870 and 19% faster than the 7770.

The performance test claims that the GeForce GTX 660 Ti is 9% faster than the Radeon HD 7950 and 12% faster than the 7870.

The extreme test suggests that the GeForce GTX 680 is the fastest single GPU graphics card, narrowly edging out the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition while beating the standard 7970 by a 13% margin.