4870 X2 vs 4890

[elpedro]

One problem with what people claim on forums is that you mostly only hear about the minority when it comes to problem issues. People don't come on a forum on avg to praise how trouble free there computing is.

There is not one single piece of hardware or software around the world that someone somewhere is not having problems with of some sort.


The BBC had 400 letters of complaint sent in after an airing of a new show. Guess how many of the 15 million happy viewers sent in letters of praise.

Valid point but it remains fact that a single GPU solution is going to be less prone to problems when it comes to gaming. You cannot deny some games are incompatible with multi-GPU setups. You also have to look at the gains you get from SLi/Xfire, you're never going to get double to performance so why pay double the price. If you are running vsync anyway, does it matter boosting your FPS in CoD4 from 200 to 300?

Only real life benefit I can see for SLi/Xfire is for people using 2560x1600 resolution or people who have a vendetta against Crysis. At 1920x1200 and below, gaming is perfectly plausible on a single 285/280/4890/275 with a good CPU.

Oh I forgot its also for people who prefer the synthetic side of gaming hardware rather than the gaming side

 

[Final8y]

Valid point but it remains fact that a single GPU solution is going to be less prone to problems when it comes to gaming. You cannot deny some games are incompatible with multi-GPU setups. You also have to look at the gains you get from SLi/Xfire, you're never going to get double to performance so why pay double the price. If you are running vsync anyway, does it matter boosting your FPS in CoD4 from 200 to 300?

Only real life benefit I can see for SLi/Xfire is for people using 2560x1600 resolution or people who have a vendetta against Crysis. At 1920x1200 and below, gaming is perfectly plausible on a single 285/280/4890/275 with a good CPU.

Oh I forgot its also for people who prefer the synthetic side of gaming hardware rather than the gaming side

Yes less problems in one sense, but more if the problem is that the FPS is not to someone's liking on avg with a single card.

I can only speak for my self but i have now about 60 games & only 3 have had problems. I don't count release day no multi gpu support as a problem as games can have problems all of there own anyway that needs patching from the publisher.

We don't go around saying that im only going to bother with games that never needs patching.

Also the doubling of performance from adding one extra GPU is irrelevant, its about having enough fps that gets the job done & if you need double the performance then you keep adding enough GPUS to get what you need.

 

[elpedro]

Also the doubling of performance from adding one extra GPU is irrelevant

It's not really though. If you have a 1GB stick of RAM and add another 1GB stick, you expect 2GB total RAM.

Because the technology isn't perfect, when you add another GPU, you don't double performance yet you pay double the price. I think that is a very relevant point if you were trying to sell or explain SLi/Xfire to someone.

its about having enough fps that gets the job done & if you need double the performance then you keep adding enough GPUS to get what you need.

My point is in the vast majority of cases, a single GPU solution is perfectly acceptable for playing and enjoying just about every single game out there. As stated I could agree with someone using a 30" monitor going for dual GPU.

You say you have about 60 games, how many of them NEED SLi/Xfire for enough FPS for you to personally enjoy them? How many of them would run fine on a single 4890 for £150?

Also, what do you think the percentage is of people who have an multi GPU setup purely for gaming because they need the performance and how many have it for benchmarking/growing their epeen/other than gaming?

 

[Final8y]

It's not really though. If you have a 1GB stick of RAM and add another 1GB stick, you expect 2GB total RAM.

Because the technology isn't perfect, when you add another GPU, you don't double performance yet you pay double the price. I think that is a very relevant point if you were trying to sell or explain SLi/Xfire to someone.



My point is in the vast majority of cases, a single GPU solution is perfectly acceptable for playing and enjoying just about every single game out there. As stated I could agree with someone using a 30" monitor going for dual GPU.

You say you have about 60 games, how many of them NEED SLi/Xfire for enough FPS for you to personally enjoy them? How many of them would run fine on a single 4890 for £150?

Also, what do you think the percentage is of people who have an multi GPU setup purely for gaming because they need the performance and how many have it for benchmarking/growing their epeen/other than gaming?

The Ram analogy is completely wrong, Apples to oranges as one is storage & the other is not.

The percentage of people who really need the performance is anyone's guess & me nore you know that and i would not assume that its about about Epeen because that is based on what you think is enough & not on what they think is enough.

A single 4890 would not get the job done on my 30".
The majority of games will not cut it on a single GPU of anything that is out there ATM without some sort of compromise.

I think that is a very relevant point if you were trying to sell or explain SLi/Xfire to someone.

Its not relevant as your not talking to salesman, your talking to users based on want & need and what they think is worth it to pay for it is upto them.

 

[arc@css]

It also depends on what level of performance somebody might expect from their gpu. Some people are happy with 1920x1200 res with 512mb vram, not minding if they can't max all or nearly all settings. Some folk, like myself, wouldn't be satisfied with that.

 

[Overslop]

Don't know what these supposed issues with the 4870x2 are. I owned one previously and had no such troubles. Also, microstutter is a non-issue with the 48xx series. You might be able to measure it in lab conditions, but it wouldn't effect your experience of the games.

One 4890 offers very good performance. 2 in Crossfire is even better. I like to run as close to maxed out at 1920x1080 as I can get. The more AA the better especially, as I have a 40" screen.

I guess the most sensible thing is to buy one and then add another if you are not completely satisfied with the performance. Personally I wouldn't settle for just one, but everyone is different.

 

[Sasahara]

It's not really though. If you have a 1GB stick of RAM and add another 1GB stick, you expect 2GB total RAM.

Because the technology isn't perfect, when you add another GPU, you don't double performance yet you pay double the price. I think that is a very relevant point if you were trying to sell or explain SLi/Xfire to someone.

Using that example, you have to double the complete system, as it's not the Graphics card alone running the system.

Maybe if you could double the speed of the CPU, RAM & motherboard to go with SLI/Xfire system you might get twice the performance. Unfortunately you can't do that.

 

[hughythomas]

Am I the only one who noticed huge micro-stuttering/inconsistent FPS + input lag (irrespective of Vysnc) on the 4870X2?? I am, for the moment going to stay well clear of multi-gpu setups.

Seems some people notice these things some folk don't. I know that 3 of my mates did when we compared two almost identical systems (albeit with different cards - 4870 vs 4870X2). All of us preferred the 4870 as the frames wouldn't bounce around all over the place and the game felt more responsive.

To those people who have Crossfire/SLi - Have you played a game on a decent single card recently? If not I would highly recommend it...just so you can see if YOU feel there is any difference between the two as I'm sure if you play fast-paced action games , the single cards are much snappier.

 

[reflux]

You also have to look at the gains you get from SLi/Xfire, you're never going to get double to performance so why pay double the price.

Actually, quite a few games do show double the performance, or even better; COD4 is a good example.

To those people who have Crossfire/SLi - Have you played a game on a decent single card recently? If not I would highly recommend it...just so you can see if YOU feel there is any difference between the two as I'm sure if you play fast-paced action games , the single cards are much snappier.

Yup, played Left4Dead, Far Cry 2, Crysis and the like on both my old 4870X2 and my old GTX280, and the only difference was the 280 got stamped on by Crysis and the X2 didn't.

I really think this whole 'multi-gpu is the work of the devil' thing is vastly exaggerated. If anything the argument should be - why go for such an expensive graphics setup when the only game that needs it is Crysis?

 

[wombraider]

What is the argument for single cards these days?

Multiple GPUs do not have any real problems, and nearly all new games gain a big boost from Crossfire/SLi.

NEARLY ALL NEW games , see the issue ?

Play something older than 1 year and your buggered , or play a not so popular game and your buggered

 

[1kiwi]

I really think this whole 'multi-gpu is the work of the devil' thing is vastly exaggerated. If anything the argument should be - why go for such an expensive graphics setup when the only game that needs it is Crysis?

Good point - i play allot of COD4 and used to play Far Cry 2 so i simply choose the best graphics setup for those games. I still havn't seen any issue with crossfire so can only assume that either i got lucky or that the said issues are driver related.

To the OP, the 4890 looks like the best bang/buck atm....

 

[MoRT489]

Does ArmA 2 support xfire?

 

[1kiwi]

NEARLY ALL NEW games , see the issue ?

Play something older than 1 year and your buggered , or play a not so popular game and your buggered

Can you provide an example of a game older than 1 year that would need another 4890/280 etc other than Crysis

 

[elpedro]

Actually, quite a few games do show double the performance, or even better; COD4 is a good example.

That was one of my points, what the hell is the need. I was seeing 300+ FPS in CoD4 on my system everything maxed out on 1080p. Why on earth would you even think about a multi GPU setup for that game, similarly a very poor example for portraying the benefits of SLi/Xfire when the game runs absolutely fine on cards costing sub £100.

The games that probably don't need the performance boost are the ones getting the substantial increases from SLi/Xfire.

 

[1kiwi]

That was one of my points, what the hell is the need. I was seeing 300+ FPS in CoD4 on my system everything maxed out on 1080p. Why on earth would you even think about a multi GPU setup for that game, similarly a very poor example for portraying the benefits of SLi/Xfire when the game runs absolutely fine on cards costing sub £100.

The games that probably don't need the performance boost are the ones getting the substantial increases from SLi/Xfire.

At 1680 * 1024 everything maxed with 2 X 4870s in the middle of a firefight you can't tell me you were getting constant 300 because i don't with my setup. I do however get contact 100+ fps which is noticeably better for online gaming than say > 50fps (in intense fights) with a single card. My point is, the fps in COD4 does seem to vary quite a bit and it's during really intense battles that you can see the real performance of your setup.

 

[elpedro]

At 1680 * 1024 everything maxed with 2 X 4870s in the middle of a firefight you can't tell me you were getting constant 300 because i don't with my setup. I do however get contact 100+ fps which is noticeably better for online gaming than say > 50fps (in intense fights) with a single card. My point is, the fps in COD4 does seem to vary quite a bit and it's during really intense battles that you can see the real performance of your setup.

Its not constant 300FPS, of course it dips, but never below 60. Online lag will be due to the CPU not the graphics card, as the card can render the images perfectly fine, its your CPU trying to keep up with the placement of people and actions taking place.

TF2 anyone before the multi core support

You think the lag people get playing WoW in town centres is 'cos their GTX 285 isn't powerful enough... don't make me laugh!

 

[1kiwi]

well i wouldn't know about WoW because i don't play it - all i'm trying to say is that by adding another card i raised the min/worst case FPS which is all i'm really worried about. 300fps while your looking at some gpu lite area within a map is irrelevant.

 

[hughythomas]

Actually, quite a few games do show double the performance, or even better; COD4 is a good example.



Yup, played Left4Dead, Far Cry 2, Crysis and the like on both my old 4870X2 and my old GTX280, and the only difference was the 280 got stamped on by Crysis and the X2 didn't.

I really think this whole 'multi-gpu is the work of the devil' thing is vastly exaggerated. If anything the argument should be - why go for such an expensive graphics setup when the only game that needs it is Crysis?

You seriously think the X2 is quicker in Crysis??

When I moved to even an air cooled GTX285 the difference in FPS was quite noticeable...for the better!

 

[hughythomas]

What res you game on?

I'm 1920x1200

 

[elpedro]

well i wouldn't know about WoW because i don't play it - all i'm trying to say is that by adding another card i raised the min/worst case FPS which is all i'm really worried about. 300fps while your looking at some gpu lite area within a map is irrelevant.

If the CPU is the bottleneck, adding another card won't make much if any improvement, it could even degrade the minimum FPS so I'm not sure how its really improved your online min FPS rate.

I don't play WoW either, never had. I'm aware a lot of people moan about a low FPS in populated areas. TF2 which I do play had the same problem in 32 man servers during heavy firefights. I saw no improvement in the min FPS going from an 8800GT to a 4870 last summer and later discovered it not the card's fault but the fact the game didn't support multi core, thus was limited by one processing thread. If the CPU can't process the data quick enough to send to the graphics card, it doesn't matter how many GPUs you have.

As far as I remember, people concerned about min FPS were more likely to go for the single GPU solution as the often had better and more stable min FPS.