Comprehensive CrossFire Review

[heatlesssun]

FiringSquad just posted this: http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_x1900_crossfire_performance/

Very intresting. The X1900 is great hardware, but the 7800 512 GTX isn't a slouch either. Who would have thought that this kind of performace was possible just 8 months ago.

Obviously ATI's big advantage now is with shaders and AA/AF. If the G71/7900 is just a 90nm refresh product with 8 more pipes, I wonder how it will compare with no redesign. But 9 more pipes running at 700MHz could really be a monster.

The nice thing is though at the high end, you pretty much have enough power to play all modern games at 1600x1200 with max detail and at least 4af/16af from both vendors. It looks like CrossFire X1900 can go even better in most situations.

Looks like this year is going to be one of the more competitive ones between the red and green teams in a while.

 

[gostriker]

The positive nature of that review almost made spending that type of money feel worth it. Than I remembered how cheap I am and thought maybe one card will be enough.

 

[Mayhs]

The positive nature of that review almost made spending that type of money feel worth it. Than I remembered how cheap I am and thought maybe one card will be enough.

lool

 

[fallguy]

Two things I wish they had added, I wish they would explain that the "XTX Crossfire", has only one card running at XTX speeds. The other is running at XT speeds. Its really a XT 1.5 if you will. Most people dont know that they two run at difference speeds, and it makes it look like both cards are running at XTX speeds. They explain this in a X1900 review, but in the Crossfire review I think it should be mentioned again.

Secondly, why no AA tests in Lost Coast with HDR? Both NV and ATi can do HDR+AA in Lost Coast. They didnt use HDR+AA in SS2, and Farcry obviously, as that wouldnt be comparable, but why not in Lost Coast? Why 8xAF in Lost Coast with HDR? It was 16x without it.

One editorial mixup for now is they list the same graphic in IL-2, 1024x768 four times. It looks like NV will dominate that game though by the one they did show.

The thing that shocked me the most, was the BF2 scores. BF2 is the reason I bought my first GTX, because my X850 couldnt run it fast enough for me. But now the X1900XTX is about even with SLI'd GTX's. BF2 got me to get a single GTX, CoD2 and F.E.A.R. got me to get another and SLI them. Now the XTX is about even with SLI'd GTX's as well in F.E.A.R., and about 7 frames behind them in CoD2. Thats just crazy.

 

[XXXMixedNuts]

Secondly, why no AA tests in Lost Coast with HDR? Both NV and ATi can do HDR+AA in Lost Coast. They didnt use HDR+AA in SS2, and Farcry obviously, as that wouldnt be comparable, but why not in Lost Coast? Why 8xAF in Lost Coast with HDR? It was 16x without it.

i agree, its annoying
especially when Source + hdr is done so well. It would be nice to see how the x1900 and x1800 do in lost coast or DoD, w/AA

whats with some reviewers and hdr + aa? All the rave and hype with Ati hdr + aa and hardly anyone shows any benchies for it. A quick scan at some of the reviews and i see one , hardocp doing hdr + aa and one benching DoD hdr + aa

there is thought bit-tech benching DoD w/hdr + aa
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/01/24/x1900xtx_crossfire/9.html

hardocp did bench SS2 with hdr + aa and explained why they didnt in the past with x1800 xt
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=OTUzLDY=

So it would be nice how these games preform with x1900, x1800 and Crossfire, hdr + aa

Far Cry
Loast Coast
Day of Defeat
Serious Sam 2
and others that have hdr

 

[Frostwake]

Holy shit, FEAR at 1600x1200 14x AA = 44 fps

 

[heatlesssun]

Holy shit, FEAR at 1600x1200 14x AA = 44 fps

Impressive, but probably not that playable, would be nice to see.

I'm really looking forward to the next gen parts, because hi-res widescreen gaming (anything at 1920x1200) is now becoming possible, the next gen parts should be it a cake walk for most games.

In that light, what's the most demanding game comming out over the next few months? Right now, at least at 1600x1200 and 4aa/4af, these high end parts in dual mode seemed to have it covered, and especially with the X1900, even more. What's going to bring it down to earth you think?

 

[Trimlock]

nothing more demanding then FEAR in the next few months, that game was very heavily shader bottle necked, take that away and it purrs like a kitten

maybe prey will be demanding, but i seriously doubt we'll see another demanding game till late 2006/early 2007, FEAR will most likely continue to be game to benchmark in, think of it as the new far cry

 

[ManicOne]

nothing more demanding then FEAR in the next few months, that game was very heavily shader bottle necked, take that away and it purrs like a kitten

maybe prey will be demanding, but i seriously doubt we'll see another demanding game till late 2006/early 2007, FEAR will most likely continue to be game to benchmark in, think of it as the new far cry

Oblivion, Quake Wars, Anything using UE3..........

 

[Rollo]

Two things I wish they had added, I wish they would explain that the "XTX Crossfire", has only one card running at XTX speeds. The other is running at XT speeds. Its really a XT 1.5 if you will. Most people dont know that they two run at difference speeds, and it makes it look like both cards are running at XTX speeds. They explain this in a X1900 review, but in the Crossfire review I think it should be mentioned again.

I think "Crossfire 1.5" is pretty misleading Fallguy. X1900XTs basically do run at XTX speed, there's only a 4% difference on the core and a 6.8% difference on the memory. So maybe you should be saying this is like "Crossfire 1.95" instead of making it sound like there may be some faster XTX version in the works?

Secondly, why no AA tests in Lost Coast with HDR? Both NV and ATi can do HDR+AA in Lost Coast. They didnt use HDR+AA in SS2, and Farcry obviously, as that wouldnt be comparable, but why not in Lost Coast? Why 8xAF in Lost Coast with HDR? It was 16x without it.

Lost Coast is pretty much a tech demo of a limited form of HDR that has not been implemented in a full game, maybe they didn't think it merited HDR+AA testing?

One editorial mixup for now is they list the same graphic in IL-2, 1024x768 four times. It looks like NV will dominate that game though by the one they did show.

nVidia cards run that company's games better.

The thing that shocked me the most, was the BF2 scores. BF2 is the reason I bought my first GTX, because my X850 couldnt run it fast enough for me. But now the X1900XTX is about even with SLI'd GTX's. BF2 got me to get a single GTX, CoD2 and F.E.A.R. got me to get another and SLI them. Now the XTX is about even with SLI'd GTX's as well in F.E.A.R., and about 7 frames behind them in CoD2. Thats just crazy.

BF2 and Fear love the shader power of the X1900XT(X), that is for sure.

 

[Trimlock]

Oblivion, Quake Wars, Anything using UE3..........

oblivion? maybe, nothing on it makes me scream its going to be a system killer, especially one to bog down the current kings of Video Cards


quake wars? nah, low poly models, high rez textures, i'm sure its going to be more demanding then BF2, but i doubt it will kill systems like FEAR is currently, not to mention it has to be very optimized to be a huge multiplayer game, so i'm sure they want it to be able to run pretty well on low settings with low end cards

unreal is due late in 2006/early 2007, thats the reason why i said late2006/early 2007, i highly doubt well see another case such as the source engine coming out on games other then the original game ment to use it, such as V:BL being released before HL2 was

"Crossfire 1.95" instead of making it sound like there may be some faster XTX version in the works?

there could be, any company can now factory OC ATI cards at their own will with very limited limits put on what they can release the OC's at, sapphire might release an XTX PE that runs at 675, or maybe 700, with 1650 on the memory, that would be pretty neat to have in a dual set up