AMD Radeon R9 290X & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Review

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by Rob Williams on March 3, 2014 in Graphics & Displays

More often than not, every battle in the GPU Wars is hotly contested. From performance to appraisals of value, AMD and NVIDIA always engage in apparent mortal combat with each generation of GPU. This current gen of GPU, though, sees a clear-cut winner in most catagories. So did Team Red win, or did Team Green? Read on to find out!

Page 7 – Best Playable: Single Display

For about as long as GPU-accelerated games have existed, an ideal performance target has been 60 frames-per-second. Owing thanks to this is the standard 60Hz monitor, which delivers its best result when the framerate matches its refresh rate. To make sure the monitor’s refresh rate and game’s framerate keep aligned, to avoid visible tearing, VSync should be enabled.

While I believe our Best Playable results will appeal to any gamer, they could especially prove useful to those intrigued by livingroom gaming or console replacements. The goal here is simple: With each game, the graphics settings are tweaked to deliver the best possible detail while keeping us as close to 60 FPS on average as possible.

Because our Metro Last Light and Total War: SHOGUN 2 tests are timedemos, and because this kind of testing is time-consuming, I am sticking to six out of the eight games I test with for inclusion here.

Our regular benchmark tests showed that the R9 290X and 780 Ti perform on an equal level, with NVIDIA getting the slight edge in most tests. That being the case, most of the Best Playable settings are going to be identical between both cards; this is especially true on this page, since we’re dealing with only a single display. Because we’re dealing with just two cards; one from AMD, and the other from NVIDIA, the results here are in alphabetical order like in the rest of our results.

  Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
2560×1440 Minimum Average
AMD Radeon R9 290X 51 61
Graphics Settings
& Screenshot
Environment: Very High Shadow: High
Texture: High Reflection: High
Anti-aliasing: FXAA God Rays: High
Ambient Occlusion: SSAO Volumetric Fog: On
Motion Blur On  
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R9 290X
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 52 61
Graphics Settings
& Screenshot
Environment: Very High Shadow: High
Texture: High Reflection: High
Anti-aliasing: FXAA God Rays: High
Ambient Occlusion: SSAO Volumetric Fog: On
Motion Blur On  
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti

With AC IV’s foolish design of a 60 FPS cap, it should come as no surprise that we’re able to retain the same settings used in our normal benchmarking and keep achieve playable framerates. Given the results here, neither card gets an edge, though it must be said that NVIDIA’s screenshot has a cat in it. So there’s that.

  Battlefield 4
2560×1440 Minimum Average
AMD Radeon R9 290X 43 60
Graphics Settings
& Screenshot
Texture Quality: Ultra Texture Filtering: Ultra
Lighting: Ultra Effects: Ultra
Post Processing: Ultra Mesh: Ultra
Terrain: Ultra Terrain Decoration: Ultra
Anti-aliasing Deferred: 2x MSAA Anti-aliasing Post: Medium
Ambient Occlusion: SSAO    
Battlefield 4 - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R9 290X
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 43 62
Graphics Settings
& Screenshot
Texture Quality: Ultra Texture Filtering: Ultra
Lighting: Ultra Effects: Ultra
Post Processing: Ultra Mesh: Ultra
Terrain: Ultra Terrain Decoration: Ultra
Anti-aliasing Deferred: 2x MSAA Anti-aliasing Post: Medium
Ambient Occlusion: SSAO    
Battlefield 4 - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti

Both the R9 290X and 780 Ti might be extremely powerful, but 2560×1440 might still prevent you from topping out ingame settings – such is the case here, with Battlefield 4. Fortunately, the tweaks needed to hit 60 FPS are minimal: Reduce anti-aliasing slightly, and move from HBAO to SSAO.

  Crysis 3
2560×1440 Minimum Average
AMD Radeon R9 290X 41 61
Graphics Settings
& Screenshot
Anti-aliasing: FXAA Texture: High
Effects: High Object: High
Particles: High Post Processing: High
Shading: High Shadows: High
Water: High Anisotropic Filtering: x16
Motion Blur: Medium Lens Flares: Yes
Crysis 3 - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R9 290X
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 42 66
Graphics Settings
& Screenshot
Anti-aliasing: FXAA Texture: High
Effects: High Object: High
Particles: High Post Processing: High
Shading: High Shadows: High
Water: High Anisotropic Filtering: x16
Motion Blur: Medium Lens Flares: Yes
Crysis 3 - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti

As with Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, the “Best Playable” results for Crysis 3 match those from the regular benchmarking. These are not the maximum settings the game can utilize, but for the Ultra profile to be playable at this resolution, multi-GPU is required.

  GRID 2
2560×1440 Minimum Average
AMD Radeon R9 290X 67 76
Graphics Settings
& Screenshot
Multisampling: 4x MSAA Night Lighting: High
Shadows: Ultra Advanced Fog: On
Particles: Ultra Crowd: Ultra
Cloth: High Ambient Occlusion: Ultra
Soft Ambient Occlusion: On Ground Cover: High
Vehicle Details: High Trees: Ultra
Objects: Ultra Vehicle Reflections: Ultra
Water: High Post Process: High
Skidmarks: On Advanced Lighting: On
Global Illumination: On Anisotropic Filtering: Ultra
GRID 2 - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R9 290X
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 73 83
Graphics Settings
& Screenshot
Multisampling: 4x MSAA Night Lighting: High
Shadows: Ultra Advanced Fog: On
Particles: Ultra Crowd: Ultra
Cloth: High Ambient Occlusion: Ultra
Soft Ambient Occlusion: On Ground Cover: High
Vehicle Details: High Trees: Ultra
Objects: Ultra Vehicle Reflections: Ultra
Water: High Post Process: High
Skidmarks: On Advanced Lighting: On
Global Illumination: On Anisotropic Filtering: Ultra
GRID 2 - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti

Once again, the settings used in the normal benchmarking gets carried over here, and overall, the results are impressive for both cards.

  Sleeping Dogs
2560×1440 Minimum Average
AMD Radeon R9 290X 59 70
Graphics Settings
& Screenshot
Anti-aliasing: High High-res Textures: On
Shadow Resolution: High Shadow Filtering: High
Ambient Occlusion: High Motion Blur: High
World Density: Extreme  
Sleeping Dogs - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R9 290X
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 54 71
Graphics Settings
& Screenshot
Anti-aliasing: High High-res Textures: On
Shadow Resolution: High Shadow Filtering: High
Ambient Occlusion: High Motion Blur: High
World Density: Extreme  
Sleeping Dogs - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti

I hate to sound like a broken record, but with Sleeping Dogs, the same settings as used in the normal benchmarking can be retained. It could be noted that AMD’s card proved 5 FPS better at the minimum side of things, but overall both cards offer nearly identical performance.

  Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
2560×1440 Minimum Average
AMD Radeon R9 290X 54 65
Graphics Settings
& Screenshot
Texture Detail: Ultra Shadow: Ultra
Parallax: On Tessellation: On
Texture Filtering: 16x Ambient Occlusion: Field AO & HBAO+
Anti-aliasing: FXAA  
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R9 290X
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 58 71
Graphics Settings
& Screenshot
Texture Detail: Ultra Shadow: Ultra
Parallax: On Tessellation: On
Texture Filtering: 16x Ambient Occlusion: Field AO & HBAO+
Anti-aliasing: FXAA  
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti

I can’t wait to get into the next page, because it’s a little boring to say the same thing over and over. So with that, let’s move onto what’s considered “best” for 5760×1080.

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Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.

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