Testing Methodology

Although we collected frame time data in our testing, we haven't included it in this article because it's less relevant for single GPU reviews. Frame time data will still be included in our CrossFireX and SLI reviews.

For this article we tested at 1366x768, 1920x1080 and 2560x1600 resolutions. We have yet to incorporate 4K benchmarks because none of the current single GPU graphics offerings today provide true playable performance at this resolution.

System Specs

  • Intel Core i7-4790K (3.60GHz)
  • x2 4GB Crucial DDR3-2400 (CAS 11-13-13-28)
  • Asrock Z97 Extreme6 (Intel Z97)
  • OCZ ZX Series (1250W)
  • Samsung SSD 850 Pro 512GB (SATA 6Gb/s)
  • Gigabyte Radeon HD R9 290X (4096MB)
  • AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz (3072MB)
  • AMD Radeon HD 7970 (3072MB)
  • HIS Radeon HD 6970 (2048MB)
  • AMD Radeon HD 5870 (1024MB)
  • Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
  • AMD Catalyst Omega 14.12
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