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3870 X2 is huge

Yeah the gains on crossfire are a lot better than that of SLi and this is why people are making a big deal of this card.

Also from the forums that have posted the card benchies etc so far I can remember reading that the card will read as 1024MB of ram which I am very hopeful will be the case.

The ram on the board will be together so the 512mb+512mb will = 1024mb :) We do want the 1gb Im sure. Now it wouldnt surprise me if they dont manage the 1gb this time round but I am quite hopeful that this will be the case. Also can anyone remember what the x1950pro DUAL read its memory as? as it 1gb? I know that was sapphires own doing but im pretty sure even the HD2600xt dual read as 1gb also! Now that seems to point towards a Dual GPU setup on a single board meaning the Ram doesnt have to be shared out and can read as one single element :)
 
really hope thats the case , but this all seems fishy , if the card is being released on wednesday why are there no harder facts ? i know there is a NDA but with just 2 days left till aparent release you would think ati would be shouting it from the roof tops ?
 
rippling said:
really hope thats the case , but this all seems fishy , if the card is being released on wednesday why are there no harder facts ? i know there is a NDA but with just 2 days left till aparent release you would think ati would be shouting it from the roof tops ?
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We kinda know a lot of the facts mate cos it is just 2x3870's we know what to expect from them its just the question on how it all works and fingers crossed it works seemlessly
 
I think AMD would be screaming and shouting about it's new virtualised memory tech (or shared memory) if they'd been able to do it. I doubt we will see that technology on this board.

Just because it see's 1gb in total doesn't mean it is being used as 1gb total. I still think it is 2x 512mb and max of 512mb as such. (I wish it wasn't but it isn't looking likely 1gb total).

Matthew
 
Rroff said:
http://service.futuremark.com/orb/m...=8500GT+Single/SLI&k=14&s=1&l=1&c=-1320537764

now tell me SLI doesn't work...

Crossfire and SLI neither work any better or worse than each other - theres some situations where one is better than the other and different levels of driver efficency/development but at the end of the day they both use the same methods with slight variations...

I know that because I have a reasonable experience of graphics hardware and know the limitations... I'm not good at explaining what I see in my head in words...
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So SLI works for 3dmark, great, I must remember to sit here looping a benchmark instead of playing games.
 
SLi and CF both work fine.

Just CF is more efficient in its use of multiple GPU's.

So where a single 8800GT is a good 10-15% faster than a single 3870, when they are placed in dual GPU mode that gap dissapears as the 2nd 8800GT SLi card isn't being used as effectivly as the 2nd 3870.

Hence if you look at the Crysis benchmark thread the top two systems are SLi 8800GTX's and only 2-3 fps behind it CF 3870's.

Single card one on one the 8800GTX would cream the 3870, but multi-gpu the 3870 and CF claws back the advantage nVidia cards have.
 
FFS NONE of this is proof that crossfire scales better... all it shows is that you get good scaling with crossfire with medium range cards...

When you have 2 cards in crossfire, each individual card giving the same results as a single 8800 Ultra and in crossfire they out perform 2x 8800 Ultra in SLI on the same spec PC with the same settings THEN you can say it scales better... until then you don't know what is holding SLI back...
 
I love how this thread turned frok a "look how big this card is" to a nvidia vs ati spam contest.

memory is recognised at 1024mb (there are videos and articles prooving it - look for it yourself lazy).

the memory isnt split to be dedicated to one of the 2 gpu's they are linked to the same memory unit meaning that if 1 gpu demands more than the other it can have it - removing any "lazy" memory.

nobody cares if the 3870 is not the same spec as an ultra, all they are saying is that the method crossfire uses gives better results (proven) than any sli config. they are saying this not because they think it gives better results than sli, but because the results are more close. This is because of the crossfire resource and efficiency. SLI CAN be good but until nvidia find out how to improve efficiency thats not going to happen for a while.
 
Rroff said:
FFS NONE of this is proof that crossfire scales better... all it shows is that you get good scaling with crossfire with medium range cards...

When you have 2 cards in crossfire, each individual card giving the same results as a single 8800 Ultra and in crossfire they out perform 2x 8800 Ultra in SLI on the same spec PC with the same settings THEN you can say it scales better... until then you don't know what is holding SLI back...
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So having a card better than it in single card solution, say a 3870 and 8800GT, then adding a 2nd of each card into them and it overcoming the deficit between the 2 cards isn't proof it scales better? o.O
 
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I say again for those too dense to understand the first time...

UNTIL you compare like for like NOTHING is proven...

I'm not trying to say SLI is better than crossfire or that crossfire is better than SLI...

One thing crossfire has going for it tho is its more idiot proof.
 
Rroff said:
I say again for those too dense to understand the first time...

UNTIL you compare like for like NOTHING is proven...

I'm not trying to say SLI is better than crossfire or that crossfire is better than SLI...

One thing crossfire has going for it tho is its more idiot proof.
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So then it could never be proved because 2 cards from 2 different manufacturers will never be identical, according to your analogy?

It can be proven by across the board %age improvements by adding a second card, in low, mid and high end scenario's
 
Crossfire IS more efficient then SLi!
The technology itself IS more efficient than that of SLi!
There have been many tests to confirm this and the gains you get from having a second card in Crossfire outweight the gains you get from having a second SLi card.
You could probably even compare midrange if you really wanted to but my god its not a hard point to grasp.
Many reviews have stated this and we have seen percentage charts to show this!

Crossfire works better than SLi....thats it!
 
sargatanas said:
So having a card better than it in single card solution, then adding a 2nd of each card into them and it overcoming the deficit isn't proof it scales better? o.O
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Eeeeh?

put it this way... (this is how most of the results are in real benchmarks)

3870 single: 38fps
8800 GTX Single: 45fps

3870 CF: 72fps (+89.5%)
8800 GTX SLI: 76.5fps (+70%)

Would you say this was proof that crossfire scales better?
 
If the percentage is showing the increase with a second card then yes...

The gap between the 3870 singe and 8800GTX single is 7fps there, but with CF Vs SLi the gap is 4.5fps so there has being a bigger increase with a second crossfire card which to anyone means its scaling better and if both the ATi and Nvidia card was the exact same power and you put 2 together in SLi and Crossfire ans seen the ATi's get better fps in crossfire then it means it scales better.
 
Rroff said:
Eeeeh?

put it this way... (this is how most of the results are in real benchmarks)

3870 CF: 72fps (+89.5%)
8800 GTX SLI: 76.5fps (+70%)

Would you say this was proof that crossfire scales better?
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Yes.......wouldnt you?

89.5% is greater by 19.5% than 70% :p
 
Rroff said:
Eeeeh?

put it this way... (this is how most of the results are in real benchmarks)

3870 single: 38fps
8800 GTX Single: 45fps

3870 CF: 72fps (+89.5%)
8800 GTX SLI: 76.5fps (+70%)

Would you say this was proof that crossfire scales better?
Click to expand...


Try it with a 2600XT vs an 8600GTS, and then a 2400XT vs an 8400GS, and then check percentage improvements across the board. This would prove which does/doesn't scale better.
 
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