MultiGPU Update: Does 3-way Make Sense?
by Derek Wilson on February 25, 2009 2:45 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
FarCry 2 Analysis
This benchmark pushes the hardware really hard, so it's a good candidate for 3-way SLI. At high resolutions, it's also tough on lower memory graphics options.
1680x1050 1920x1200 2560x1600
The GeForce GTX 280 and 285 do very well, but the 4870 1GB does a good job keeping up with the NVIDIA hardware at lower resolutions and even leads the GTX 260 by a good margin at 2560x1600. While the 512MB 9800 GTX+ and 4850 both drop way off in performance at 1920x1200, the 512MB 4870 holds on to good performance at this resolution. All the 512MB parts tank in 3-way at 2560x1600 though.
1680x1050 1920x1200 2560x1600
Scaling is really high for high end NVIDIA parts, which contributes to their lead in this benchmark. The GTX 260 falls off a little on scaling at the high end, and none of the 512MB parts scale that well even at lower resolutions.
1680x1050 1920x1200 2560x1600
Looking deeper at scaling, it's clear that moving from 2 to 3 GPUs really doesn't add much for the Radeon HD 4850 and 512MB 4870. The 9800 GTX+ does well at 1680x1050, but tanks at higher resolutions. The 4870 1GB improves in scaling as resolution increases, and NVIDIA hardware scales fairly consistently in this test from two to three GPUs.
1680x1050 1920x1200 2560x1600
The GTX 260 shows the best value of the 3-way solutions until we hit 2560x1600 where the 4870 1GB takes the lead in 3-way value. The 512MB 3-way options some of the 2 GPU solutions, and slower single GPUs can't post playable framerates at the highest resolution so fall off our value chart.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
46 Comments
View All Comments
7Enigma - Thursday, February 26, 2009 - link
Derek,Please keep the new way. I was one of the proponents of the zero rating after the last article and it shows nicely what can and can't handle a given resolution. Sure you can turn down the eye candy, but that's not the point of the article...especially when you are talking about 3-way.
We could just turn all the settings down to medium and a single 4850 would be the value king! (/sarcasm)
Antman56 - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
I think demonstrating crossfire using 4850s with 1 GB of ram each would have created a "sweet" price/performance result.These 4850s show us what happens when there isn't enough memory to compliment a video card's processing potential.
Spivonious - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
I find it interesting that the 4870 512MB leads the value charts at "normal" resolutions (still way higher than I run).I think as a follow-up to this series you should look at playability statistics and see if getting anything more than the 4870 512MB is worth it at 1920x1200 and below.
fixxxer0 - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
only if both girls are hotStraightPipe - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
only one of the girls needs to be hot, the other will be so busy licking your balls it wont make a difference.Jansen - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
And if it is not a "Devil's 3-way"...That's with two guys.