Think the 4870x2 will ever beat the 4870's in crossfire?

[PitchWhite]

There seemed to be a lot of discussion about the x2 utilising some new crossfire method that would be more efficient yet all the reviews show otherwise. Has this original rumour actually been raised again by AMD recently?

I get the feeling that crossfire in general will improve with driver revisions but I don't think it'll be specific to the x2.

Now my main reason for caring is originally I've been holding out for the x2..my current motherboard would only manage 8x 8x if I crossfire so it kinda made sense. I game at 1920 x 1200 and I like all the pretty stuff turned on.

Upon looking at benchmarks it seems the 4870 can manage most games at about 60fps with some dropping to 40fps..which isn't great I have to say..as when I upgrade I like to be impressed not be making do =)
Think the 1gb version of the 4870 card will help improve these at 1920x1200?

Argh..can't decide if I should wait or not!! Nearly the Summer holidays now so I'll have 6weeks off but my current pc can't play any recent games very well! =/

C2D6600 @3Ghz
4Gb DDR2 6400
7900GTO

 

[ten80p]

X2 previews based on hardware thats not final, with both bios and drivers to be revised etc, I expect final retail product to be better

 

[RizlaKing]

Yeah same engineering samples are not the best thing to make a decision about so i would wait.

 

[PitchWhite]

Any examples of big changes in performance from a preview model to the release model come to mind?

 

[DarkMatter]

hmmmm i would expect maybe 2-5% increase in performance from engineering sample to release. But nothing more. I think it will be approx equal to a crossfire setup but better for peopel with a P45 chipset, and of course people wanting max performance with quad Xfire.

 

[PitchWhite]

At that resolution think an increase to 1gb memory would make much difference on the single 4870s?

Checked some more benchmarks and seems like there is quite a few games where at 1920x1200 the games only go at 40fps or so =/ ..leaning more towards continuing my wait for the x2

 

[LoadsaMoney]

X2 previews based on hardware thats not final, with both bios and drivers to be revised etc, I expect final retail product to be better

Yeah so do i, the X2 has a new crossfire interconnect as well don't forget.

 

[ten80p]

Theres a cynical (and hoping its partially true) part of me that wonders if ATI have allowed this test card to go out with hindered performance, just enough to put the feelers out but in knowledge that proper card with proper drivers is gonna blow everything else away, seems very strange that test card gets handed out 5 weeks before release to tease us

Heres hoping...............

 

[Its_Me]

Theres a cynical (and hoping its partially true) part of me that wonders if ATI have allowed this test card to go out with hindered performance, just enough to put the feelers out but in knowledge that proper card with proper drivers is gonna blow everything else away, seems very strange that test card gets handed out 5 weeks before release to tease us

Heres hoping...............

well you might ahve a point, although i suspect that it was inadvertently ratehr then planned.
I think the 4800 range has a little more to come from drivers, and they could be waiting to see what the price point/performance level the 9800GTX+ pushes them into.

 

[LeJimster]

I think I'll probably buy an X2 anyway.. But one thing that would seal the deal for me would be to have a significant boost to FPS in Crysis. So I'm hoping a driver tweak will come along to do that in the not so distant future.

 

[ten80p]

Dont expect Crysis to get sorted until the new Crysis game comes out with revised tweaked engine that maybe has some tweaks/util to help Crysis

 

[Gerard]

In some benchmarks it has beat crossfired 4870's.

 

[GoRedwings19]

I was talking to a friend who has been a long term ati user. He said typically *** x2 variants are faster than the sperate solutions which is the complete opposite of the nvidia solutions as the single cards are faster than it x2 variants.

 

[bluemoonmcfc]

Do you think the x2 will have better compatibilities with games than a crossfired 4870 or 4850?

 

[bidermaier]

And yet another question... Do you think that the X2 performance on a P35 board will be better than two 3870 crossfired?

 

[TheRealDeal]

It will be a lot faster.

 

[CraigN]

it was only slower than two 4870s by a couple of fps in a few games i thought.

In others it was better.

 

[Misiowiec]

I think I'll probably buy an X2 anyway.. But one thing that would seal the deal for me would be to have a significant boost to FPS in Crysis. So I'm hoping a driver tweak will come along to do that in the not so distant future.

Have you tried Custom Crysis Config? Made quite a difference for me, and the TOD tweak (Time Of Day, adjusts sourroundings / colours depending on where the sun is) gives the visuals a boost.

 

[Scougar]

I was talking to a friend who has been a long term ati user. He said typically *** x2 variants are faster than the sperate solutions which is the complete opposite of the nvidia solutions as the single cards are faster than it x2 variants.

Typically? This is only the 2nd official X2 card (which isn't even out yet), so not sure where you friend is coming from (I don't think the sapphire 1950 double chip card counts, as not officially supported by ATI.)

It is quite interesting though as you have two 4870's with full 16x 16x pci-e 2 bandwidth vs 8x 8x with the 4870X2 but chips physically closer so timings could be tighter. It will probably all come down to the drivers in the end.. but I still suspect the 4870's in crossfireX (at same clocks) will be faster.

Matthew

 

[RizlaKing]

Now that Ati are well and truly back in the mix i think we will see more games developers hedging bets and supporting xfire a lot more then has been the case.