DiRT: Showdown

As always, starting off our benchmark collection is our racing benchmark, DiRT: Showdown. DiRT: Showdown is based on the latest iteration of Codemasters’ EGO engine, which has continually evolved over the years to add more advanced rendering features. It was one of the first games to implement tessellation, and also one of the first games to implement a DirectCompute based forward-rendering compatible lighting system. At the same time as Codemasters is by far the most prevalent PC racing developers, it’s also a good proxy for some of the other racing games on the market like F1 and GRID.

DiRT: Showdown - 5760x1200 - Ultra Quality + 4x MSAA + Adv. Lighting

DiRT: Showdown - 2560x1440 - Ultra Quality + 4x MSAA + Adv. Lighting

DiRT: Showdown - 1920x1080 - Ultra Quality + 4x MSAA + Adv. Lighting

DiRT: Showdown - 1920x1080 - Ultra Quality + 4xMSAA

DiRT: Showdown’s lighting system continues to befuddle us at times. Though GK10x Kepler parts generally have mediocre compute performance in pure compute tasks, NVIDIA’s DirectCompute performance has otherwise proven to be appropriately fast, except in the case of DiRT. The fact of the matter is that DiRT is easy enough to run even with its advanced lighting system that there’s no reason not to use it on a card like the GTX 780 at any single-monitor resolution, but doing so does put the GTX 780 in a bad light relative to AMD’s best cards. Nor does this put GK110 in a particularly good light, as its compute enhancements don’t bring it much of an advantage here beyond what the larger number of shaders affords.

Like Titan before it, the GTX 780 falls slightly behind AMD’s Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, the only such benchmark where this occurs. The end result being that the GTX 780 trails the 7970GE by about 7%, and the GTX Titan by 6%. Otherwise we’ve seen Titan (and will see GTX 780) do much better in virtually every other benchmark. 

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  • Rodrigo - Thursday, May 23, 2013 - link

    Excellent choice for less money than Titan! :-)
  • Ja5087 - Thursday, May 23, 2013 - link

    "NVIDIA will be pricing the GTX 680 at $650, $350 below the GTX Titan and GTX 690, and around $200-$250 more than the GTX 680."

    I think you mean the 780?
  • Ja5087 - Thursday, May 23, 2013 - link

    Accidently replied instead of commented
  • Ryan Smith - Thursday, May 23, 2013 - link

    Thanks. Fixed.
  • nunomoreira10 - Thursday, May 23, 2013 - link

    compared to titan it sure is a better value, but compared to the hight end 2 years ago its twice as much ( titan vs 580 ; 780 vs 570 ; 680 vs 560)
    NVIDIA is slowly geting people acoustmed to hight prices again,
    im gona wait for AMD to see what she can bring to the table
  • Hrel - Friday, May 24, 2013 - link

    She? AMD is a she now?
  • SevenWhite7 - Monday, July 8, 2013 - link

    Yeah, 'cause AMD's more bang-for-the-buck.
    Basically, NVidia's 'he' 'cause it's always the most powerful, but also costs the most.
    AMD's 'she' 'cause it's always more efficient and reasonable.
    I'm a guy, and guys are usually more about power and girls are more about the overall package.
    Just my experience, anyway, and this is just me being dumb trying to explain it with analogies =P
  • sperkowsky - Wednesday, February 26, 2014 - link

    bang for your buck has changed a bit just sold my 7950 added 80 bucks and bought a evga acx 780 b stock
  • cknobman - Thursday, May 23, 2013 - link

    At $650 I am just not seeing it. In fact I dont even see this card putting any pressure on AMD to do something.

    I'd rather save $200+ and get a 7970GE. If Nvidia really wants to be aggressive they need to sell this for ~$550.
  • chizow - Thursday, May 23, 2013 - link

    Nvidia has the GTX 770 next week to match up against the 7970GE in that price bracket, the 780 is clearly meant to continue on the massive premiums for GK110 flagship ASIC started by Titan. While it may not justify the difference in price relative to 7970GHz it's performance, like Titan, is clearly in a different class.

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