OK I'm ordering the bits for my new build on monday, was all set and decided on everything! Then I saw the GTX275 at only £10 more then the 4890 :S Which performs better in either sli or crossfire? 2 x 275s or 2 x 4890s? Google has let me down, I'm unsure now, especially as the 4890 is so rubbish for folding@home (don't currently fold but going to start) Advice please Thanks
go with the green team on this one...if you HAVE to choose...but.... Personally i would tell/urge you buy a HD 4870 and let that hold you until directx 11 cards come out.
Two 4890's in Crossfire come in a head-to-head tie with two GTX 285's in SLI. If you're only going for gaming performance, the 4890's will beat the 275's, though if you plan on doing much in the way of folding@home, or anything involving PhysX, go for the 'green' team, nVidia. If it weren't for folding, I would for sure be picking up 3x 4890's instead of 3x 275's for my 'in progress' i7 rig.
Jared's got it right, nvidia's are beasts for folding because standford has really focused on their architecture. the physx argument is pretty weak though - right now only 6 (pretty poor) games have physx and with gpgpu and compute shaders moving to an open standard with openCL and dx11, physx will either die away and anew physics gpgpu engine will be used, or physx will become open as well. the 4890s win in gaming and they are cheaper
yikes... wow... not trying to be rude...but you 2 might want to do a little research...one, they do not tie 285's...for the money they are the better bang for the buck, but other than the occasional resolution/ati-favored game, the 285 sli combo beats 4890's. same goes for the gtx 275. but the gtx 275 is a much more competitive card price wise. so... unless you play grid or h.a.w.k. all the time, the 275's are the way to go.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gtx285sli-hd4890cf_16.html do those numbers out, the 4890 CF @stock loses to the gtx 285 SLI @ stock by a mere 3% you will see in the below review that the 4890 @ 1ghz compared to a max overclock 285 is nearly equal. http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=797&pageid=11
trig, as SNiiPE said, you are incorrect, and your ignorance on the topic and arrogance in your post are very unlike you from what I've read in other threads... I've done more research than the average bear on graphics cards in the past two months for my current build... You'd be surprised how hard it is to find any tests using triple 4890's or 275's... I've had to look at a LOT of reviews using the 285 in SLI, 4870 Triple Crossfire, 4890 Crossfire, etc, and piece everything together myself. I can assure you based on EVERY test I've looked at and compared, the 4890 in Crossfire does indeed perform on par with 285's in SLI. As it stands right now, Crossfire on the 4890's scales better than SLI on the 275's. Once you overclock the 4890 (and it's quite easy to reach 1GHz on the core), the 4890 by itself performs almost on par with an overclocked GTX 285 in a large number of tests. Add Crossfire to the mix, and the combo of 4890's at 1GHz are better than a couple of GTX 285 F T W editions (eVGA model) under most circumstances. Throw in the fact that the 4890's cost $200 a piece, and the 285's cost $310 a piece, and you can't beat the 4890 for gaming performance. folding@home, however, the GTX 275 and 285 will both walk all over the 4890. Edit: Hrm, also apparently F T W (when put together without any spaces) is turned into 'Cheesecake'.
Hey Jared here is something you might like: http://xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/3way-sli-crossfire_15.html#sect0 tri-sli- vs tri-cf review here is the run-down charts for 1920x1200 and 2560x1600
To add some confusion, two 275's are better than a 295: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-sli,2298.html Add the difference between the sli 275s and a lone 295 to the 295's results in the first graph, providing the settings used for both graphs/reviews are identical.
Not a bad read SNiiPE. Looks like the 285 wins out at stock speeds... Wonder what the results would be with 3x 1GHz 4890s... You know, you are really pushing me to get the 4890s, lol. I suppose I could always build a dedicated folding rig down the road a bit. I still do NOT like the crap-brown colored bridges though. Thats about the only thing I am disliking. Anyway, back on topic, go for the 4890s.
and thats why you make a stealthing plate for the CF bridges like I did for only $5 worth of material cost
it's all around the same price so for a small performance gain over the 275's i realy don't think it's worth the extra heat, power consumption, and noise you get with the 4890's.
From what ive heared the 275 is better for gaming slightly at some games but SLI im not sure. Go for whatever your personal preferance between the two manufacturers imo.
Even if the 275GTXs are slower I'd still go with them from what I've read. Anyway, tri-CF 4870 Cheesecake! Also...
4890s seem to have dropped massively in price now though, available on scan for £130 atm: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-XFX-HD-4890-PCI-E-20(x16)-3900MHz-GDDR5-GPU-850MHz-800-Cores-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV-HDCP-Ready The 275 is considerably more expensive than that from what I've seen so I'd go for the 4890.
It'll only be a matter of time before nVidia drops the price of the GTX 275 so it's in line with the 4890, and the only reason they're so low is because of the dip in sales before the release of the new DX11 cards as many people hold off from their next graphics card purchase.
4890's @ £130 is a bargain. Do the 275's consume more next to 4890's when both are at load? i read the 4890 consumes more and made a fair deal more noise.
GTx275s if you prefer the more all-roundness. HD4890 CF is perhaps a bit faster, but you don't get those extras like PhysXs or CUDA, the less loud cooler and the very low idle power usage. That to me isn't really a deal breaker if the HD4890s are cheaper.
