NVIDIA GeForce with CUDA GTX280 vs ATi Radeon HD4870 X2 help

MegaMisFiT · 10 Jan 2009 at 23:19

Ok can someone help me here...

2x 1GB NVIDIA GeForce with CUDA GTX280 - SLi Configuration - PhysX enabled
vs
2x 2GB ATi Radeon HD4870 X2 Graphics Card - (CrossFire for Ultimate Gaming)

Soulja · 10 Jan 2009 at 23:19

Wrong forum?

Just get yourself an amiga 1600 tbh

TheCenturion · 10 Jan 2009 at 23:46

if you have phyx enable, only 1 280 will be your gpu, the other will be your ppu

2 280s f t w

mmj_uk · 10 Jan 2009 at 23:55

anant_shah94 said:
if you have phyx enable, only 1 280 will be your gpu, the other will be your ppu

2 280s f t w

Not true, if you run in SLI mode I'm pretty sure they both share the load.

MegaMisFiT · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:02

which would you choose then, here is my pc specs which i am going to be getting...

Intel® Core™ i7 940 Quad Core Processor (2.93GHz,8MB Cache,4.8GT/s)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium with Service Pack 1, 64-bit - English
CoolerMaster Cosmos 1000 Professional Silent Chassis with 1000W PSU
ASUS P6T Deluxe Mainboard - Intel Core™ i7 - ATX - Dual Mode SLI & CrossfireX
6GB 1333MHz Triple Channel DDR3 SDRAM - ( 3x2GB )
1TB (1x 1000GB) Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer

Which card would go the best with that setup?

Rroff · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:52

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-295-quad-sli-gaming-test

explicit4u · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:53

MegaMisFiT said:
which would you choose then, here is my pc specs which i am going to be getting...

Intel® Core™ i7 940 Quad Core Processor (2.93GHz,8MB Cache,4.8GT/s)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium with Service Pack 1, 64-bit - English
CoolerMaster Cosmos 1000 Professional Silent Chassis with 1000W PSU
ASUS P6T Deluxe Mainboard - Intel Core™ i7 - ATX - Dual Mode SLI & CrossfireX
6GB 1333MHz Triple Channel DDR3 SDRAM - ( 3x2GB )
1TB (1x 1000GB) Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer

Which card would go the best with that setup?

No offence but i think the 940 is a waste of money, your better of getting a 920 and overclocking it to 940 speeds as that's what intel have done.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4870-x2-review-crossfire/17

Rroff · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:56

Yeah save some money on the CPU and use it to get yourself 2x 295GTX if your really gonna go multi GPU mad.

TBH I'm struggling to make a single 260 MAXCORE sweat at anything under 2560x type resolutions even with ultra settings.

LoadsaMoney · 11 Jan 2009 at 01:03

As said above, if you have PhysX enabled, then you wouldn't be running in SLi, so 4x 4870's would thrash a single 280.

Rroff · 11 Jan 2009 at 01:05

I can enabled SLI and physx on my 8800GT system at the same time (atleast I could on 175.16 drivers with the geforce physx beta) I've not tested it since on that system but I assume it still works fine with 200 series SLI.

LoadsaMoney · 11 Jan 2009 at 01:09

Wouldn't be SLi as well though would it, as one card would only be doing the PhysX, as im sure SLi PhysX is going to be SLi2, and thats only going to be 2x cards in SLi, with a 3rd doing the PhysX, but thats not done yet. :confused:

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9660&Itemid=1

Rroff · 11 Jan 2009 at 01:10

No - both cards were in SLI mode for rendering and also sharing the physx workload - I've not tested it since as I raided that PC for the RAM to boost my main rig to 4gig - but I assume it still works with 18x drivers and 200 series GPUs.

LoadsaMoney · 11 Jan 2009 at 01:12

Oh i didn't know that, cheers.

Im sure 4x 4870's would be faster than 2x 280's as well though.

EDIT: That SLi2 they doing then, is just so you can use a 3rd card to do PhysX on its own then.

Rroff · 11 Jan 2009 at 01:14

According to nvidia its been a feature since 177.xx - tho I've deffinatly had it working on the 175.16 betas. I can't confirm its working on 18x.xx only that I've had it working previously.

LoadsaMoney · 11 Jan 2009 at 01:17

Yeah your right, found an article about it here :-

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvidia_geforce_physx_performance/page2.asp

Well you do learn something new everyday.

Rroff · 11 Jan 2009 at 01:18

LoadsaMoney said:
EDIT: That SLi2 they doing then, is just so you can use a 3rd card to do PhysX on its own then.

I've deffinatly had 8800GT in SLI rendering mode also doing physx.

One thing I just found out from reading up on this just then - physx scales across all CPU and GPU processing on the PC as available so if you increased from say a dual core to a quad core it would also increase physx performance even when geforce physx is enabled.

MegaMisFiT · 11 Jan 2009 at 12:52

Which card would you choose though, because its not 4x 4870 its only x2 and x2 280. So which one would you both choose

MegaMisFiT · 11 Jan 2009 at 12:54

MegaMisFiT said:
Which card would you choose though, because its not 4x 4870 its only x2 and x2 280. So which one would you both choose

With that pc setup

Code:

Intel® Core™ i7 940 Quad Core Processor (2.93GHz,8MB Cache,4.8GT/s)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium with Service Pack 1, 64-bit - English
CoolerMaster Cosmos 1000 Professional Silent Chassis with 1000W PSU
ASUS P6T Deluxe Mainboard - Intel Core™ i7 - ATX - Dual Mode SLI & CrossfireX
6GB 1333MHz Triple Channel DDR3 SDRAM - ( 3x2GB )
1TB (1x 1000GB) Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer

Rroff · 11 Jan 2009 at 14:13

Your earlier post says 2x 4870X2 - if your talking about 1x 4870X2 V 2x 280GTX then its a no brainer - get 2x 280GTX for SLI or a 295GTX.

LoadsaMoney · 11 Jan 2009 at 14:21

MegaMisFiT said:
Which card would you choose though, because its not 4x 4870 its only x2 and x2 280. So which one would you both choose

As above, your opening post says 2x 4870 X2's, which would be 4x 4870's, but if its only 2x single 4870's that you mean, then id say the 2x 280's.