ASUS ENGTX260 TOP 896MB (NVIDIA GTX260)
Crysis is without doubt one of the most visually stunning and hardware-challenging games to date. By using CrysisBench – a tool developed independently of Crysis – we performed a total of 5 timedemo benchmarks using a GPU-intensive pre-recorded demo. To ensure the most accurate results, the highest and lowest benchmark scores were then removed and an average calculated from the remaining three.
With only 4FPS between the GTX280 and ASUS’ overclocked ENGTX260 TOP at both both resolution settings, the GTX260 takes the upper-hand once again when we switch to the CPF scale. Costing a full £4 less per frame at 1900×1200 and over £3 cheaper at 1280×1024, it’s clear what the better choice is when going for the green team on a budget.
F.E.A.R. is a game based on the Lithtech Jupiter EX engine. It has volumetric lighting, soft shadows, parallax mapping and particle effects. All results were recorded using F.R.A.P.S, with a total of 5 identical runs through the same area of the game. The highest and lowest results were then removed, with an average being calculated from the remaining 3 results.
Once again, the GTX260 doesn’t have quite what it takes to beat out the GTX280 despite the generous ASUS overclock. However, with only 15-20FPS between the two cards and frame rates just shy of 200FPS, the difference does become quite negligible. Interestingly, the GTX260 also comes within £0.30-0.40 of the HD4850 at both resolutions, showing that its £100 higher price tag is almost made up for with extra performance.
