MultiGPU Update: Two-GPU Options in Depth
by Derek Wilson on February 23, 2009 7:30 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Age of Conan Analysis
While we continue to wait on the DirectX 10 version of Age of Conan, our DX9 tests go on. As we've seen in the past, this game tends to favor AMD hardware.
1680x1050 1920x1200 2560x1600
Single cards stack up with AMD on top and the Radeon HD 4850 in competition with the GTX 260 cards. With the exception of 2560x1600, the two card 4850 CrossFire setup competes with GTX 280 SLI. The single card Sapphire 4850 X2 2B (with 1GB of RAM per GPU) fairs better at 2560x1600 than its two card counterpart.
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Our performance per dollar metrics show AMD single cards up near the top, but the 4850 X2 2GB shows lots of value and very high performance all the way up to the highest resolutions. The combination of pure performance and value of the Sapphire card is very impressive in this benchmark.
1680x1050 1920x1200 2560x1600
At 1680x1050, any of our graphics cards will do just fine with the settings we used. At 1920x1200, gamers will want at least a GeForce GTX 280 or one of the Radeon HD 4870 variants. Running smoothly at 2560x1600 with the highest settings requires a multiGPU configuration, and even the 9800 GX2 just doesn't have enough power to make the grade. At the highest resolution, our price/performance metrics show every CrossFire solution to have higher value than every SLI solution.
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nubie - Sunday, March 1, 2009 - link
Have you ever used a tool or edited the game profile yourself?I had an 8800GTS 320MB that I used with AA extensively (Also with 3D stereoscopic), and I was told on a forum to use nHancer to modify the profile into a specific mode of Anti-Aliasing, I am pretty sure it worked. It was the beta 162.50 Quadro drivers I believe, you can just put your card's id into the inf and they install and work great.
It is possible the drivers work great and the control panel/GUI is piss-poor (a theory that may hold water).
I wish that nVidia would open up the drivers a little so that control freaks like myself could really tweak the settings to where I want them.
Razorbladehaze - Monday, February 23, 2009 - link
Yeah In my main rig right now i have a i7 920 with two 1gb 4850's i recently bought a third 4850 and installed it. There was some funky flickering, that i think was driver related in BF2 and HoI2 in 3-way mode, but most games seemed okay. Funny thing is... same thing happened when i tried a 3870x2 & 3870 in 3 way on my older x38 core2. I am really hoping these next articles will come with some additional commentary on image quality.To the person who stated that the 9800gtx+ was comparable to the 4850x2. What R U thinking???
I have never really had a problem with any crossfire setups before except with 3-way and i wonder if it is the odd gpu count and if 4 would eliminate some issues. Looking forward the the upcoming articles, this is mostly a teaser with information many already knew.
I agree that the new format for graphs looks good line graphs are crap visually, but i think the default should be the 1920x1080/1200 that most people are interested in based on your survey data : )
See I pay attention.
SiliconDoc - Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - link
THANK YOU !" Yeah In my main rig right now i have a i7 920 with two 1gb 4850's i recently bought a third 4850 and installed it. There was some funky flickering, that i think was driver related in BF2 and HoI2 in 3-way mode, but most games seemed okay. Funny thing is... same thing happened when i tried a 3870x2 & 3870 in 3 way on my older x38 core2. I am really hoping these next articles will come with some additional commentary on image quality. "
________
Another PERFECT REASON to not mention "image quality" - the red fan boy wins again - assist +7 by Derek !
Amazing.
Thank you.
MagicPants - Monday, February 23, 2009 - link
Have you tried forcing on transparency super-sampling? If you don't edges defined by transparency in the texture won't AA. By default Nvidia (ATI?) only AA edges defined by depth difference.SiliconDoc - Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - link
I've seen one review on that, with the blown up edged images, and the ati cards don't smooth and blurr as well - they have more jaggies - so they HAVE to leave that out here - cause you know Derek loves that red 4850 and all the red cards -Elfear - Monday, February 23, 2009 - link
Derrick (or anyone else for that matter) can you comment on why the 4870 512MB Crossfire solution generally performed better than the 4870X2?SiliconDoc - Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - link
Or WHY the GTX260 isn't praised to the stars for running 20 of 21 tests successfully - taking THE WIN !I guess it doesn;t matter when a gamer spends hundreds and hundreds on their dual gpu setup then it epic fails at games... gosh that wouldn't be irritating, would it ?
Amazing red bias...chizo pointed out the sapphire 4850 / other 4850 driver issues thankfully, while Derek has a special place in his heart for the bluebacked red card, and says so in the article - then translates that to ALL 4850's.
DREAM ON if you think that would happen with ANY GREEN card Derek has ever tested!
MagicPants - Monday, February 23, 2009 - link
I'd like to see an article that rates overall systems in price to performance. Try to get as high as fps for the least amount of money spent.As one reader mentioned frame rate below 15 fps doesn't count because it's unplayable, so just pick a number between 10 and 15 and subtract it from the fps. Maybe vary it by game. Frame rates over 60fps shouldn't count either because most monitors can't even show that.
This would be interesting because even small tweaks would make a difference e.g. adding a $60 sound card might get you 4 or 5 fps in a few games and might pay for itself.
marsbound2024 - Monday, February 23, 2009 - link
It doesn't look like the GTX 260 Core 216 provides much, if any, tangible benefit over the GTX 260 according to these tests. Sure it had some wins, but they weren't very big ones and it also had some loses--albeit not very big ones either. One would be tempted to just get a GTX 260 or 4850 and wait to upgrade until the next generation of cards come out this summer. The time is getting close, anyways.SiliconDoc - Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - link
Good call.Even the 4830 or the 9800GT twice either, or the 9800gtx gts250 or 9600gt or 9600gso twice each - or the ati the ati - uhh... uh... do the reds have their "midrange" filled up ? Uh.. the 4670 ?
LOL
Yeah, nvidia needs more midrange - right ?
LOL
THE RED LIARS ARE SOMETHING ELSE!