MultiGPU Update: Two-GPU Options in Depth
by Derek Wilson on February 23, 2009 7:30 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Left 4 Dead Analysis
Based on Valve's Source engine, Left 4 Dead can run fairly smoothly with any card we tested at any resolution with the maximum settings. The game is definitely not bad looking either, so getting playable framerates on the Radeon HD 4850 at 2560x1600 is no small feat. We do test with a custom demo that makes use of a heavy swarm of zombies in an outdoor area, and though the performance impact is as heavy as we could make it in our benchmark, it may still be possible to hit situations where the lowest end cards stutter with lots of enemies around at very high resolution.
1680x1050 1920x1200 2560x1600
At 1680x1050 and 1920x1200, CrossFire and single ATI cards tend to do better than their NVIDIA counterparts. The GTX 295 does hang out near the top, though. Oddly, the 9800 GTX+ SLI does better than GT200 2 card solutions. If it were just the single card GTX 295 that performed better than the two card options, we would speculate that there was some bus bandwidth or latency issue that caused problems, but it seems that there's something else limiting the performance of the NVIDIA GT200 SLI options. Of course, with the high framerates we see, we aren't exactly complaining. We recommend turning on triple buffering for this game to both eliminate tearing and minimize the input latency possible when just enabling vsync.
1680x1050 1920x1200 2560x1600
Performance at 2560x1600 shirts the playing field putting SLI and CrossFire on more equal footing. While NVIDIA's GTX 260 options lead the competing 4870 class options, the 4850 does very well against its competition. There are no real disappointments with this game and any multiGPU solution though.
When it comes to scaling, at lower resolutions we see CPU/system limited performance affecting the improvement possible with multiple GPUs. The 9800 GTX and 4850 are the only cards that see any real improvement at 1680x1050, and it's not even that much better at 1920x1200. Moving up to 2560x1600 we finally see most of the players above 50% scaling. The exceptions are the fastest single GPU configurations in this test: the GTX 280 and GTX 285.
1680x1050 1920x1200 2560x1600
Between the two "low" resolutions we test, there's no change in the value lineup even though there are shifts in the performance lineup. At these resolutions, multiGPU options tend not to be a good investment because of the CPU/system limit issue. The exception are the 4850 CrossFire and 9800 GTX+ SLI because of the fact that the single card options are GPU limited and we see better scaling for the money with two GPUs. At higher resolution, value compresses more and the 4870 1GB drops in value while NVIDIA hardware pushes up a bit.
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DerekWilson - Monday, February 23, 2009 - link
It really is a great looking game for an MMO. It's not the most played MMO around, but it is definitely the easiest to test. There is an area near the beginning where the player is alone in the environment and it's always the same time of day and all that stuff ... It takes out some of the factors that make getting consistent data out of other MMOs incredibly difficult.I've never had any real "issues" with it or with the results either. It's been very consistent as well. It does add value, and it's clear that games can be coded in a way that looks really good and perform like this one, so we feel it's important to getting a better feeling for what's out there and what's possible.
IKeelU - Monday, February 23, 2009 - link
Not really a big deal, but could you cut out the offhand game review comments when introducing benchmarks? I.e.: "Crysis Warhead, while not the best game around..." It feels out of place in a hardware analysis.SiliconDoc - Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - link
And Derek disses Far Cry 2 and Oblivioin where nvidia slaughters ati - then derek praises Bioshock where ati has an edge.Derek CAN'T HELP HIMSELF.
SiliconDoc - Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - link
Oh yes, and below don't forget the age of conan that favors the ati card - Derek can't stop drooling all over the place.Then come to COD, where nvidia once again slaughters - red blood everywhere - Derek says "do we really need another war game~" or the like.
Derek is red fan central and cannot stop himself.
The0ne - Monday, February 23, 2009 - link
This game is poorly programmed in the first place, does it deserve to even be included in the benchmark tests? Yes, it has the programming necessary to for the test but they're poorly programmed.IKeelU - Monday, February 23, 2009 - link
The fact that CryEngine 2 is taxing on today's hardware (and that Crytek will no doubt use derivatives of it in future games), makes it very useful in benchmarks. I hope reviewers keep using it. But by all means, feel free to disassemble Crytek's binaries and point out their code's weaknesses.Yeah, I thought not.
poohbear - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
what do u mean they shouldnt include crysis warhead??? its the seminal game to see how graphics performance is to get an idea of how a particular video card will perfrom in the future. Cryengine2 is the most advanced graphics engine on the market. If a video card can provide 30 fps on a cryengine @ your resolution, then its good to last u for atleast 2 years.Razorbladehaze - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
Yeah.... NO.I totally disagree with it being the most advanced. It is a decent game engine especially for benchmarking, but....
In all reality the STALKER Clear Sky revamped xray engine is far and away more advanced and superior in almost every way. It is about the same or better in regards to taxing the system (low frame rates does not necessarily translate to the game is taxing the system.). Being that these are also used in similar FPS titles they would make a interesting comparrison.
I would really like to see Anand include or swap a clear sky bench (there is a premade one available), for the Crysis or Crysis warhead. Either way no big deal many other sites post results with a CS bench that view all the time.
DerekWilson - Monday, February 23, 2009 - link
i'll take care of it.Stillglade - Monday, February 23, 2009 - link
I would love to see more info about the 4850 X2 1GB version. For over $50 cheaper, is the 1GB memory enough to compete? Is it worth paying 24% more for the 2GB version that you reviewed here?