Hardware Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2

that is correct in the sense you mentioned it. but the point im trying to get across is that multi-GPU is power-inefficient, hot and doesn't perform as well as single GPU.

GT200 55nm will be out later, even if it's a bit slower than 4870x2, its better idle power consumption and performance will make that a better purchase. how many people went and bought GTX280 as soon as it wasreleased for the fact that it's the best? most people waited and went for the sensible high-end of 4870 for its price/performance, or gtx280's price drop. now 4870x2 is released, and IMHO it's better to wait for nVidia's response before buying the best of the best.

look at 3870x2, and see how 4870 trumps it easily. multi-GPU is not there. yet.

 

so we going to see some 3 way and 4 way e-peen article?

 

yes, we reinstalled our systems after this in readiness for a complete retest of everything and also some eP as well.

 

What exactly is your point?
Hyper-enthusiasts like me will probably buy that next great card in a year, whereas people who actually have to work for a living wont be able to afford a new one and are better off starting at the top of the heap now and still having a great card in 1.5-2 years.

Either way the 4870x2 is an excellent choice.

S*D

 

Yay, now we can bury this finally. 4870 X2 > 280 GTX. End of story. Any arguments against are just folks trying to grasp at something that isn't there.

 

if i had the money (and hadn't fairly recently bought a 9800 GX2) i would be very tempted to buy this. even if it isn't that great value for money.

 

Can Biz-tech.net please review the 4870 x2 's in cross fire mode and test two 4780's in cross fire mode as well?! Is there any chance you could review the msi over clock version of the 4870x2 too? This information would be very help full for many ati users!

 

even more benchmarking! woo!

 

This card smokes everything right now, but the fact that it's dual-slot ruins it for me.. It makes a 4850 with eventual two or three-way crossfire very tempting. Why aren't flagship cards single-slot anymore? AFAIK, the last one was the 7800GTX!

Since when was Oblivion no longer a part of the benchmarking list?

 

What really bites is that stores like NewEgg and NCIX want to clear out all GX2's and are now selling them for around $275 (~$350-400 off instant rebates), which really does make the GX2 a superb bang for the buck, even if its a slightly older card, it's still a monster.

 

Strange that the GTX280 increased the min and average FPS in DX10 Crysis at 1920x1200, when you enabled 2xAA...
I'm guessing thats a typo?

minimun shows 21 without AA to 24 with 2xAA
average says 31.5 with 0AA to 34.7 with 2xAA

 

can't edit, but just noticed the chart shows the 260 and GX2 with the same behaviour

 

retracted statement

 

retracted statement

 

2 GPU's in SLI or Crossfire DO suck brother.
I ditched my 9800GX2 cuz it sucked for me. All the drivers up to 177.41 had issues. My whole testing time was reinstalling drivers trying to find ones that would work over more than 4 games at a time. It blew hot air in my case etc...Dual monitor support not happening. So many negatives. But the numbers you have don't seem right. Or at last they are not what I am getting. You should really show the GTX 200 series with the newest drivers. 177.83+. At this point it is hard to trust any review I have seen as I just saw one the other day that showed the GTX 280 beating 4870X2 by a good margin on minimums in Crysis and (surprisingly) Call of Duty 4.
I know drivers may differ but I seriously get 50-68 FPS in Crysis 1680x1050, DX9, High everything, 2xAA. That's in Paradise lost!
True everyone will champion the purchase they JUST made. No one wants to feel ripped off, but the frame rate tests littering the net are completely inaccurate or lying and partisan. Just saying all the tests I have seen of 177.83+ vs. Catalyst 8.8 the differences are a lot closer. 3 Sites could not get the 4870X2 to scale at all in Crysis and there were issue with Call of Duty 4. Looks like they miraculously fixed all scaling issues using the exact same drivers. Can't explain that. Anyone?
For reference my system is:
Asus P5n-e 650i
e6750@ 3.61GHz
GTX 280 @665MHz Core. 2400MHz Mem.
3GB PC-6400 @1066MHz DDR2
Probably typical of a upper-mid range box.

 

Looks like my first statement is talking to no one now.

 

FCk it.. I'm going Red next time.
Insane drivers and all.

 

Isn't there a "very high" preformance setting in Crysis? If so, why is Crysis tested on "high"?

 

Because 'Very High" is very "Unplayable" coupled with low Vista frame rates. Maxing frames at 40 is not a great game experience.

 

my point is:

multi-GPU will only be real performance king when they share memory pool and don't communicate using a bridge, they communicate use the same principle as Skilltrail motherboard: 1 controller hub (the northbridge).

the fact is that no manufacturer is willing to do that as it means spending extra on driver, controller hub and card but only produce 2 ultra-high end products at most. current ATI method is a tempeory method for some quick money, like the guys who've bought 9800Gx2 and 3870x2, single GPU will be much better.