Lion and the Great Graphics Debate - Performance

[SStreet]

Hi Folks,

I'm polling all of you for a question on performance of the graphics engine in Lion using a nVidia GPU vs. an AMD/ATI GPU.

Specifically, I'm asking for you Cinebench OpenGL numbers. However, CPU speed appears to directly influence the speed of the OpenGL test.

Would some of you mind posting your numbers:


for example, mine:

Customac, nVidia GTX470, i7-960 @ 4GHz :: 33.11 1920x1080


found via searching:

iMac 2011 27", AMD 6970M , i7-2600 @ 3.4GHz :: 42.14 2560x1440


I'm looking to gather up these numbers and (hopefully) create a wiki entry that lays out the price vs. performance of building a Customac with specific GPUs.

Custom and Apple Mac results welcome!

 

[dddirtman]

asus sabertooth x58 [email protected] ; nvidia gtx460oc @32fps@1920x1080

 

[sfroom]

I guess it depends on what you plan to use the computer for, but I generally find Cinebench to be a poor indicator of graphics performance.

I've seen many HD5770's post scores in the mid-high 40's, and rarely have I seen a 5870 result above the mid 30's.

The Novabench graphics score seems to be a better indicator of graphics performance, although I'd love to see the community adopt a 3D game benchmark.

 

[SStreet]

I guess it depends on what you plan to use the computer for, but I generally find Cinebench to be a poor indicator of graphics performance.

True, in my case, WoW and SC2. If I had time, I'd write a DDL engine benchmark that I could carry on a usb drive and torment those nice folks at my local Apple store to test every machine on the floor.

I've seen many HD5770's post scores in the mid-high 40's, and rarely have I seen a 5870 result above the mid 30's.

The Novabench graphics score seems to be a better indicator of graphics performance, although I'd love to see the community adopt a 3D game benchmark.

And that is interesting; is it an artifact of the drivers or of the software testing.

For instance, it would appear (even from WoW youtube videos) that a 27" iMac beats the pants off my desktop system -- is the 6970m that good? shouldn't a GTX470 be as good or better then a mobile gpu? Hence, my discovery operation here.

Lastly, I'm debating a switch to ATI/AMD GPU - a 6870, but is it worth the move? and I've seen several question bouncing around this same fact - figured I help by getting a resource page together to answer those questions.

 

[sfroom]

The 6970m in the current iMac is actually a desktop 6850 chip.

Your GTX 470 should score better, although not significantly, unless you are running an overclocked 2600k.

The solution to most Nvidia performance problems has been power management. I've been running an 5870 in my system since the spring, so I'm not sure if it's still relevant, but take a look at this thread I read when selecting my graphics card. viewtopic.php?f=15&t=15320&start=20

If I had time, I'd write a DDL engine benchmark that I could carry on a usb drive and torment those nice folks at my local Apple store to test every machine on the floor.

We could always just settle on a SC2 replay and report rough average framerates or something.