4870 CF vs. 280 SLI

[Tempered81]

check it out:

http://www.tomshardware.com/ch...D=on&prod%5B2113%5D=on

 

[Elfear]

Impressive the cheaper solution keeps up as well as it does.

 

[MarcVenice]

Looks like a cpu bottleneck for both though? I mean, often they are just RLY RLY close, almost equal. Thats almost impossible statisticaly wise, because it would suggest SLI scales less then Crossfire, and it scales less then CF in a consistent way. We all know a single GTX280 is faster then a HD4870, so 2 of them should outperform two HD4870's.

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Looks like a cpu bottleneck for both though? I mean, often they are just RLY RLY close, almost equal. Thats almost impossible statisticaly wise, because it would suggest SLI scales less then Crossfire, and it scales less then CF in a consistent way. We all know a single GTX280 is faster then a HD4870, so 2 of them should outperform two HD4870's.

That's not necessarily true because scaling relies so much on the driver...if it didn't we'd be getting perfect scaling in every game...which we don't. In certain games CF scales better, while in other SLI does.

 

[dennilfloss]

I was under the impression that the latest incarnation of 4870 Crossfire does indeed scale better than SLI. Is there a SLI solution that is the presumed competitor of Crossfired 4870X2 (for those with money to burn)?

BTW, which of 4870 CF vs. 280 SLI is the cheaper solution mentioned in the OP?

And why so many crappy resolutions with little or no AA in the tests? If one is gonna spend that much money, I'd presume it's because they want the graphic goodies and no jaggies.

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: Elfear
Impressive the cheaper solution keeps up as well as it does.

Of course it does, the single 4870 keeps up well with the single GTX280 all over the place too.

 

[Tempered81]

some of the scores seem a little messed up, but oh well. I guess when you're attempting 7,000 benchmarks, they aren't all going to be spot on. And i think they use a stock Vista DX10 system.

You are here : Graphics Cards > Gaming Graphics Charts Q3/2008

Featuring 101 different combinations of single, dual, three-way, and four-way graphics card configurations, our VGA Charts for 2008 include the largest collection of benchmarks we?ve ever published ? almost 7,000 scores, in fact. We have five generations of cards covered here, from AMD?s X800-, X1000-, HD 2000-, HD 3000-, and HD 4000-series to Nvidia?s GeForce 6-, 7-, 8-, 9-, and GTX 200-series boards. Our tested resolutions cover 1280x1024, 1680x1050, and 1920x1200?with and without AA/AF. So, whether you?re looking for the best value in graphics for your favorite game or investigating the benefit of multi-card rendering through CrossFire and SLI, this year?s VGA charts are the most comprehensive yet.

Nvidia single graphics cards; AMD single and CrossFire graphics cards
CPU Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 @ 2.93 GHz (11x 266 MHz),
Socket 775, 1.28 V, 65 nm, 4096 KB L2 cache
FSB 1066 MHz (4x 266 MHz)
Motherboard Asus P5E3 Deluxe, PCIe 2.0 2x16, ICH9R
Chipset Intel X38
Memory 2x 1 GB, Ballistix (Crucial Technology) 1.5 V,
DDR3 1066 7-7-7-20 (2x 533 MHz)
Audio Intel High Definition Audio
LAN Intel 1000 Pro
Drives Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500 GB, SATA sata , 16 MB cache,
Hitachi 120 GB, SATA, 8 MB cache
DVD Gigabyte GO-D1600C
Power Supply CoolerMaster RS-850-EMBA 850 W

Nvidia SLI graphics cards
Motherboard Asus P5N-T Deluxe, PCIe 2.0 2x16
Chipset Nvidia nforce 780i SLI
Memory 2x1 GB, A-Data Technology 1.8 V, DDR2 800 5-5-5-18 (2x 400 MHz)
Audio ADI 1988B SoundMax
LAN Marvell 88E1116 Gigabit

Drivers & Configuration Graphics
AMD Catalyst 8.6
Nvidia Forceware 175.16, GTX 260 and GTX 280 Forceware 177.39
Operating system Windows Vista windows vista Enterprise SP1
DirectX 10 and 10.1
Chipset driver X38 Intel 8.3.1.1009
780i Nvidia nforce 9.64

http://www.tomshardware.com/ch...008/benchmarks,30.html

 

[MarcVenice]

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Looks like a cpu bottleneck for both though? I mean, often they are just RLY RLY close, almost equal. Thats almost impossible statisticaly wise, because it would suggest SLI scales less then Crossfire, and it scales less then CF in a consistent way. We all know a single GTX280 is faster then a HD4870, so 2 of them should outperform two HD4870's.

That's not necessarily true because scaling relies so much on the driver...if it didn't we'd be getting perfect scaling in every game...which we don't. In certain games CF scales better, while in other SLI does.

I know that, but then why are the scores often identical, between the gtx280 sli and the HD4870 CF? Doesn't make sense, because, like I said, that implies the game scales exactly the same with CF as with SLI. And the differences between each game would have to be explained by lack of scaling, but that lack of scaling results in almost identical scores for both setups. I'm not sure how to say this, but that would mean that in one game GTX280 SLI scales 65%, then 85%, then 30% etc, and for some weird reason, it would match the HD4870 Crossfire setup almost completely. Thats to much of a coincidence for me ...