bit-tech.net | Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2

doiwku 3rd September 2008, 23:07

Can Biz-tech.net please review the 4870 x2 's in cross fire mode and test two 4780's in cross fire mode as well?! Is there any chance you could review the msi over clock version of the 4870x2 too? This information would be very help full for many ati users!

Baz 3rd September 2008, 23:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim S
yes, we reinstalled our systems after this in readiness for a complete retest of everything and also some eP as well.

even more benchmarking! woo!

docodine 3rd September 2008, 23:44

This card smokes everything right now, but the fact that it's dual-slot ruins it for me.. It makes a 4850 with eventual two or three-way crossfire very tempting. Why aren't flagship cards single-slot anymore? AFAIK, the last one was the 7800GTX!

Since when was Oblivion no longer a part of the benchmarking list?

Jasio 4th September 2008, 02:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by gpw111
if i had the money (and hadn't fairly recently bought a 9800 GX2) i would be very tempted to buy this. even if it isn't that great value for money.

What really bites is that stores like NewEgg and NCIX want to clear out all GX2's and are now selling them for around $275 (~$350-400 off instant rebates), which really does make the GX2 a superb bang for the buck, even if its a slightly older card, it's still a monster.

Pyr0 4th September 2008, 03:22

Strange that the GTX280 increased the min and average FPS in DX10 Crysis at 1920x1200, when you enabled 2xAA...
I'm guessing thats a typo?

minimun shows 21 without AA to 24 with 2xAA
average says 31.5 with 0AA to 34.7 with 2xAA

Pyr0 4th September 2008, 03:25

can't edit, but just noticed the chart shows the 260 and GX2 with the same behaviour

Horizon 4th September 2008, 03:26

retracted statement

Horizon 4th September 2008, 03:33

retracted statement

bothaus 4th September 2008, 03:48

2 GPU's in SLI or Crossfire DO suck brother.
I ditched my 9800GX2 cuz it sucked for me. All the drivers up to 177.41 had issues. My whole testing time was reinstalling drivers trying to find ones that would work over more than 4 games at a time. It blew hot air in my case etc...Dual monitor support not happening. So many negatives. But the numbers you have don't seem right. Or at last they are not what I am getting. You should really show the GTX 200 series with the newest drivers. 177.83+. At this point it is hard to trust any review I have seen as I just saw one the other day that showed the GTX 280 beating 4870X2 by a good margin on minimums in Crysis and (surprisingly) Call of Duty 4.
I know drivers may differ but I seriously get 50-68 FPS in Crysis 1680x1050, DX9, High everything, 2xAA. That's in Paradise lost!
True everyone will champion the purchase they JUST made. No one wants to feel ripped off, but the frame rate tests littering the net are completely inaccurate or lying and partisan. Just saying all the tests I have seen of 177.83+ vs. Catalyst 8.8 the differences are a lot closer. 3 Sites could not get the 4870X2 to scale at all in Crysis and there were issue with Call of Duty 4. Looks like they miraculously fixed all scaling issues using the exact same drivers. Can't explain that. Anyone?
For reference my system is:
Asus P5n-e 650i
e6750@ 3.61GHz
GTX 280 @665MHz Core. 2400MHz Mem.
3GB PC-6400 @1066MHz DDR2
Probably typical of a upper-mid range box.

bothaus 4th September 2008, 03:52

Looks like my first statement is talking to no one now.

Spaceraver 4th September 2008, 05:12

FCk it.. I'm going Red next time.
Insane drivers and all.

Nature 4th September 2008, 06:01

Isn't there a "very high" preformance setting in Crysis? If so, why is Crysis tested on "high"?

bothaus 4th September 2008, 08:46

Because 'Very High" is very "Unplayable" coupled with low Vista frame rates. Maxing frames at 40 is not a great game experience.

wuyanxu 4th September 2008, 09:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Star*Dagger
What exactly is your point?
Hyper-enthusiasts like me will probably buy that next great card in a year, whereas people who actually have to work for a living wont be able to afford a new one and are better off starting at the top of the heap now and still having a great card in 1.5-2 years.

Either way the 4870x2 is an excellent choice.

S*D

my point is:

Quote:

Originally Posted by wuyanxu
................. but the point im trying to get across is that multi-GPU is power-inefficient, hot and doesn't perform as well as single GPU.

GT200 55nm will be out later, even if it's a bit slower than 4870x2, its better idle power consumption and performance will make that a better purchase. how many people went and bought GTX280 as soon as it wasreleased for the fact that it's the best? most people waited and went for the sensible high-end of 4870 for its price/performance, or gtx280's price drop. now 4870x2 is released, and IMHO it's better to wait for nVidia's response before buying the best of the best.

look at 3870x2, and see how 4870 trumps it easily. multi-GPU is not there. yet.

multi-GPU will only be real performance king when they share memory pool and don't communicate using a bridge, they communicate use the same principle as Skilltrail motherboard: 1 controller hub (the northbridge).

the fact is that no manufacturer is willing to do that as it means spending extra on driver, controller hub and card but only produce 2 ultra-high end products at most. current ATI method is a tempeory method for some quick money, like the guys who've bought 9800Gx2 and 3870x2, single GPU will be much better.

frontline 4th September 2008, 11:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by bothaus
2 GPU's in SLI or Crossfire DO suck brother.
I ditched my 9800GX2 cuz it sucked for me. All the drivers up to 177.41 had issues. My whole testing time was reinstalling drivers trying to find ones that would work over more than 4 games at a time. It blew hot air in my case etc...Dual monitor support not happening. So many negatives. But the numbers you have don't seem right. Or at last they are not what I am getting. You should really show the GTX 200 series with the newest drivers. 177.83+. At this point it is hard to trust any review I have seen as I just saw one the other day that showed the GTX 280 beating 4870X2 by a good margin on minimums in Crysis and (surprisingly) Call of Duty 4.
I know drivers may differ but I seriously get 50-68 FPS in Crysis 1680x1050, DX9, High everything, 2xAA. That's in Paradise lost!
True everyone will champion the purchase they JUST made. No one wants to feel ripped off, but the frame rate tests littering the net are completely inaccurate or lying and partisan. Just saying all the tests I have seen of 177.83+ vs. Catalyst 8.8 the differences are a lot closer. 3 Sites could not get the 4870X2 to scale at all in Crysis and there were issue with Call of Duty 4. Looks like they miraculously fixed all scaling issues using the exact same drivers. Can't explain that. Anyone?
For reference my system is:
Asus P5n-e 650i
e6750@ 3.61GHz
GTX 280 @665MHz Core. 2400MHz Mem.
3GB PC-6400 @1066MHz DDR2
Probably typical of a upper-mid range box.

To say that crossfire and sli suck is a bit of a sweeping statement. Crossfire does scale well on 2 GPU's in a lot of cases, not all, but the majority of recent releases. COD 4 has always scaled well on muti-gpu setups, it did on my 3870X2/3870 setup and now on my 2 x 4850's. Good scaling does rely a lot on support from software developers though.

Web reviews do vary considerably in their results, however thats why i've always waited for bit-tech's articles, which provide a lot more in-depth analysis of not just the software, but the hardware behind the bennchmarks. I don't think you could accuse them of fabricating results or bias as they have acknowledged the raw power of the GTX280 in the past.

The bottom line is you're never going to get the same performance as someone reviewing a particular piece of hardware as every setup will be different in some subtle way. I'm happy with my purchase choices, if you're happy with yours, that should be all that matters.

johnnyboy700 4th September 2008, 15:05

Does anyone know if the 8.8 Catalyst include the Hotfix driver, does it even need it?

Amon 4th September 2008, 23:41

I had expected a slightly wider margin of improvement over the 4870 for the money. (4870 is under $270, but 4870 X2 is over $600?) In either case, this card is already fast enough.

You have a formatting error on page three: asscreed1.jpg, inset, is pushing the first chart out of boundaries.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bothaus
For reference my system is:
Asus P5n-e 650i
e6750@ 3.61GHz

For reference, their system is:

Quote:

Originally Posted by bit-tech
Asus Maximus Formula
Core 2 Extreme QX6850

Amon 4th September 2008, 23:47

D-D-D-DOUBLE POST!

bothaus 5th September 2008, 09:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amon
I had expected a slightly wider margin of improvement over the 4870 for the money. (4870 is under $270, but 4870 X2 is over $600?) In either case, this card is already fast enough.

You have a formatting error on page three: asscreed1.jpg, inset, is pushing the first chart out of boundaries.

For reference, their system is:

Thats my point. Their system is faster than mine but the numbers are quite a bit lower. I have taken worst case scenario in account. Unless, of course all these quads bench big and suck when faced with frequency. Don't know, don't own a quad.

So does TweakTown suck? Reliable? They tell a different story. Crossfire and single slot numbers.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1541/1/sapphire_radeon_hd_4870_x2_in_crossfirex/index.html

bothaus 5th September 2008, 10:06

Or Here:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU0OSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Just trying to help people make informed buying decisions. If these are not respected sites for one reason or another let me know. I don't have a deep history of checking bench sites. Bit-Tech is killer by the way. Thanks all.

-EVRE- 5th September 2008, 18:19

1. Crossfire for the x2's?
2. SLI GTX 280's?

SLI for the GTX 280 at present in the US I can buy 2 of them for $760
Crossfire 4870 X2 would be $1,000

I'm betting you guys have the hardware sitting around ^^

kieran_read 5th September 2008, 21:54

getting it next week. But the Powercooler one, its cheaper ^^

iguanaman 6th September 2008, 06:01

I'm questioning your results for the 3870 x2. I have a much lower end system than the one tested and I get 70-80% higher frame rate results in CoD4 using a dual core at 3.15Ghz at the same resolutions. I have noticed in other tests that quad core CPU's have negative results in many games as compared to dual core CPU's. Wouldn't it make more sense to do your testing using fast dual core CPU's? I think the results would be more accurate and fairer when doing comparison testing of video cards.

frontline 7th September 2008, 12:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnnyboy700
Does anyone know if the 8.8 Catalyst include the Hotfix driver, does it even need it?

The hotfix driver came out in between 8.6 and 8.7, i think, so you shouldn't need it if you have 8.8 installed.

Star*Dagger 7th September 2008, 15:35

If you have the fortune to live in the EU you can try it (or any other product) out for 14 days. If you can bear to rip it out of your system after that time, you can send it back. I doubt any gamer worth his salt would ever remove the best card to arrive on the scene since the 8800gtx (the card i am replacing).
I am playing Crysis on high with no problems, TF2 at max settings and high AA, it is simply a must have!

S*D

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Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2

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