3870x2 in crossfire or 8800GTS (G92) in Sli

[MooMasster716]

Indeed. A 7900GTX was top-of-the-line two years ago, but try playing Crysis at anything other than mostly-medium settings at any resolution. It's certainly possible, but only if you don't mind single-digit framerates. I know, because I owned one for about two years, and I played Crysis on it at 848x600 at mostly medium details because I couldn't get through the ice levels with any more than about 8FPS at any higher rez or setting. Even at all-medium details, my framerate was meh.

Dude I've played through Crysis twice @ 1288x800 with all settings at medium except for

shaders and shadows on low
water, motion blur and sound on high

High fps @ 30 and average even through the ice level was 20.

My friend bough a 7900gto on the forums and I think he was able to pull of the same setting as me but also had shaders and shadows on medium.

 

[Hipcrostino]

2x 3870x2 cards is 4gpus. One might assume more performance, but you would need one massive beast of a quad core to get even close to keeping up with that. a single 3870 is almost as good at 8800GT sli, so GTS sli would be a little better than that. They have similar performance, so it really comes down the what mobo chipset you want. that would make me go for the 3870x2 now, and an X38/X48 chipset with the potential to buy a second 3870x2 later on if Quad crossfire turns out to be a ripper.

There is also power consumption to think about. multiple gpus are going to pull a lot of power from your wall.

 

[Albuquerque]

Dude I've played through Crysis twice @ 1288x800 with all settings at medium except for

shaders and shadows on low
water, motion blur and sound on high

High fps @ 30 and average even through the ice level was 20.

My friend bough a 7900gto on the forums and I think he was able to pull of the same setting as me but also had shaders and shadows on medium.

Shaders at low looked like complete *** to me, so I refused to play it that way. I'm sure if I'd changed my mind on that, performance would've been better. But medium was the lowest I'd put up with; none of my settings were on "low" except for post-processing.

 

[White Rain]

From what I've read, the GTS (G92) is outbenching even the ultras in certain situations and for everything else pretty much keeping on par with them.

 

[Albuquerque]

The G92-based GTS is a beast to be sure, especially when you overclock it. NV did a good job reworking the best pieces of the G80 core while keeping costs down on the memory interface. Gotta give 'em props for that.

 

[Yuriman]

Seems to me, that in a nutshell, it's like this:

8800gts SLI is faster now, since Crossfire 3870x2 doesn't even work. It is moderately faster than a single 3870x2.

3870x2 Crossfire has the potential to be a LOT faster, as driver support improves, but you're comparing 4 GPUs to 2. Better to compare 3-way SLI, perhaps?


Just out of curiosity, is there any reason you have to spend, say, $2500 on a PC now, rather than $1500 now and $500 next year, and the year after? You'd be much better off that way.

 

[White Rain]

Yeah but 3 way sli doesn't work with the gts, which would be the only comparable solution pricewise to 2x ati cards as the gtx/ultras are far more expensive in that aspect. Would it be worth getting the ati setup with 2 of those cards and waiting for support or going with the sli g92 now for 200 cheaper?

 

[Albuquerque]

Howabout waiting another month and seeing what the 9800X2 gives us? I have a sneaking suspicion that NV will let two of their own GX2's SLI together, which means it could be a pretty good fight at the quad-GPU top-end.

 

[White Rain]

If I still have the money available by the time it's released, and how much are they going to cost per anyway?

 

[theELVISCERATOR]

right now a single 8800GT beats the X2 handily...seems a no brainer..

 

[Albuquerque]

right now a single 8800GT beats the X2 handily...seems a no brainer..

Care to back up that statement with any sort of factual reporting? I created an "official 3870X2 reviews thread" in this very same forum, and the reviews IN that thread quite handily beats your statement into the ground.

I might concede a single 8800GT "handily" beating a single 3870, but not an X2.

 

[satandole666]

My system as is I got 2 6800ultra's for sli when they first came out, and it has lasted me this long, trying to go for that again.

I'm coming into this discussion a little late but I'll add my 2 cents based on this comment.

Based on nVidia's treatment of the 7950GX2 card (similar to the 3870x2 in concept) I would go for two 8800GTS. I'd assume that due to the complexity and relatively low sales (TOTL product) of the 3870X2 ATI will abandon support for it sooner than nVidia will drop support of the G92 GTS cards.

Two G92 GTSes will cost you less money now, have better compatibility with existing games, and will continue to have more support down the road. You'll also likely receive comparable performance between the two setups. The only downside is limiting yourself to an nVidia chipset.

 

[Evilsizer]

I'm coming into this discussion a little late but I'll add my 2 cents based on this comment.

Based on nVidia's treatment of the 7950GX2 card (similar to the 3870x2 in concept) I would go for two 8800GTS. I'd assume that due to the complexity and relatively low sales (TOTL product) of the 3870X2 ATI will abandon support for it sooner than nVidia will drop support of the G92 GTS cards.

Two G92 GTSes will cost you less money now, have better compatibility with existing games, and will continue to have more support down the road. You'll also likely receive comparable performance between the two setups. The only downside is limiting yourself to an nVidia chipset.

thats so true...
Wouldn't it be so cool to walk into a LAN. with my Mobile cpu on a ITX motherboard with a 3860X2 or 9800GX2, to game on.

 

[BmanG17]

Care to back up that statement with any sort of factual reporting? I created an "official 3870X2 reviews thread" in this very same forum, and the reviews IN that thread quite handily beats your statement into the ground.

I might concede a single 8800GT "handily" beating a single 3870, but not an X2.

lol, I was thinking the same thing, ahah.

 

[White_Pawn]

Care to back up that statement with any sort of factual reporting? I created an "official 3870X2 reviews thread" in this very same forum, and the reviews IN that thread quite handily beats your statement into the ground.

I might concede a single 8800GT "handily" beating a single 3870, but not an X2.

8800GT 2~3% > 3870...

X2...? > 8800gt by alot.

now, i've read that x-fire is > SLI in terms of efficiency. The thing is, i don't know how efficient these 3870X2s are. I think x-fire was somewhere in the 80% range, and the sli was in the 70% range. If the 3870X2 is more efficient than x-fire with two single cards, then one 3870X2 should be > 2 x 8800GT in sli. I think normal x-fire 3870 already makes up for the 2~3% loss vs. the two gt just because x-fire is more efficient. I think the single 3870X2 should still lose to 2 x 8800GTS, but having 2 x 3870X2 should beat it, unless driver support is utter ****. Perhaps DAAMIT has learned from nvidia's 7950GX2 mistakes? Although i wouldn't be more than 70% sure about that one.

In the end: i'd say grab a 3870X2 now. If it still doesn't do what you need, grab another one.

 

[chrome-187]

a little late, but here's my 2 cents...the ati lineup also has better picture/graphix then the nvidia...it says that in alot of reviews and i've also seen it first hand...my dad has a 8800gt 512mb and i have the 3850 256...and with everything maxed out in our games my 3850 has better picture quality...its almost night and day difference..but i am not the only one to think so...there are NUMOROUS sites that say the same thing...maybe thats why ati is just a little lower on fps is because of better graphix

 

[PhysX]

not better graphics.... better IQ, slightly, but heh they are two completely different manufactures ,with different drivers, different IQ settings you really can compare, if you could run ati on nv settings it would look the same, who's to say quality/quality is exactly the same on both cards?