Palit GeForce GTX 280 1GB

3DMark doesn’t need to be explained to most anyone, because if you’ve been benchmarking or PC gaming for a while, you have no doubt heard of Futuremark and their tools. Vantage is the newest of the bunch, and its tests are as hardcore as they come. The benchmark properly stresses a GPU, and spits out an overall score for you to munch on.

The overall use of these scores is constantly debated, because real gameplay matters far more than canned benchmarks. However, they are still fun to use for the sake of competition. In no way should they be the sole factor of your GPU purchasing decision, however.

NVIDIA was out to set records with the GTX 280, and they’ve no doubt accomplished their goal. It’s become the first GPU to break the 10,000 mark in the Performance setting, with our runner-up sitting at just over 7,000. Bear in mind that no dual-GPU results are here, else we’d see a bit more competition from an FPS/$ standpoint.

As I mentioned earlier, bigger GPUs thrive on higher resolutions, and that’s well-evidenced in our Extreme test. It nearly doubled the 3DMark score of the HD 4850!