4870X2 + 4890 CFX or ... ?

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maliclipse

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Here's an interesting article:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gtx285sli-hd4890cf.html

It has a 3 way CFX benchmark with 4870s.

Right now I have a 4870X2 and a 3007WFP-HC. I pretty much want to game at the native resolution of 2650x1600 (why not if the monitor is that big no?). My dillemma is to get the FPS up in the games I play (COD, CS:S, etc) what would be the best bang for the buck upgrade?

I can get another X2 on ebay for about 240$ shipped.

I can get a XFX 4890 for about 135$ shipped.

Since I already have a X2 what would be a good upgrade? a 4890 or another x2?

The other option I'm considering is selling my X2 on ebay for 250$ and getting two 4890s fora bout 270$. I know the bump would be marginal but whatever, at 270$ its cheaper than a 5850 and performs a hell of a lot better at 2650x1600.

If the 5970 was 500$ or 450 I'd do that but thats wishful thinking. Maybe when the fermi cards come out the price will go down.

Other thoughts?

MH
 
Well if you were going to go 3-way crossfire, I don't see what the point would be of getting a 4890. At best it would just run it like a 4870, at worse you might have some incompatibility or driver issues.

Might as well pickup another X2 given how cheap they are going for right now; I have a 2nd on the way myself. Considering that they perform on par with a 5870, the fact that you can get them for so cheap is actually pretty amazing. Quad crossfire with two of them would give you the same number of Stream processors as a 5970 and probably a similar amount of raw power as well, limited really only by how well each particular game scales past 2 GPUs; but CrossfireX (Crossfire with more than 2 GPU's) is a tech that has been with us since the 38xx cards and the drivers have had plenty of time to mature.

What powersupply?
 
CrossfireX has shown to scale increasingly poorly past 2 cards; the third card offers far less return, the fourth card almost no return. I'd stay away from quadfire for that reason. Just more power draw and almost zero increase in performance. I ran Tri-SLI (which scaled even more poorly) with 8800GTXs for a little while and learned my lesson there.
 
According to that article I linked in 3 way crossfire wasn't too bad.

The reason I mentioned the 4890 was because I can get one much cheaper than a 4870.

Its awefully tempting to get another X2 and do quad for the hell of it. I have a 1k powersupply so it won't be an issue. Wish they would revisit a quadfire setup with 4870s and the new 9.11 driverset. All the reviews I've read were using 8.7 or earlier.

It really bums me out the 5870 isn't on par with the 4870x2 for the money. If they were both around 250$ it would be a no brainer.

MH
 
silent-circuit said:
CrossfireX has shown to scale increasingly poorly past 2 cards; the third card offers far less return, the fourth card almost no return. I'd stay away from quadfire for that reason. Just more power draw and almost zero increase in performance. I ran Tri-SLI (which scaled even more poorly) with 8800GTXs for a little while and learned my lesson there.
Click to expand...

Where are you getting that from? The vast majority of benchmarks that deal with CrossfireX are either:

1. From early 2008 when the first CrossfireX drivers were introduced for the 38xx series. These are using ancient drivers obviously.
2. From Mid-2008 when the 4870x2's were released. Also ancient drivers.
3. From within the last few months but only using 5970s in crossfire.

It really is no secret that crossfire beyond 2 GPU's depends a lot on the driver, thankfully the driver has come a long way.

Here is a review that is at least from 2009 and uses an i7 platform, though only at 3.2Ghz which probably still limited the cards, you can see that Crossfire scaling improved dramatically from mid-2008 to early 2009, which is still a relatively long time ago.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3520&p=7

The benchmarks the OP posted are also newer and show good scaling.

Finally when we come back to the present day, if you look at just about any review of 5970's in crossfire (also a 4-GPU setup) scaling is pretty much good across the board. What would make you assume that scaling wouldn't also apply to older cards?
 
Great article... interesting that the catalyst drivers were 8.1 and the scaling was good. Seems like almost the 3 way 4870 is the best bang for the buck.
 
maliclipse said:
Great article... interesting that the catalyst drivers were 8.1 and the scaling was good. Seems like almost the 3 way 4870 is the best bang for the buck.
Click to expand...

just remember that those are all canned benchmarks.
 
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