CrossFire HD 2900 XT GDDR4 beats SLI 8800 GTX

Tom|Nbk · 4 Jul 2007 at 14:24

PCMag has got its hand on a system from Falcon Northwest with dual AMD Radeon HD 2900 XT GDDR4 cards and according to the test results, this is one kick ass system and it easily beats two SLI systems with 8800 GTX cards in them, one of them being another Falcon Northwest system with a faster CPU.

It's worth bearing in mind that this is only in Windows Vista, but the benchmark results speak for themselves. AMD has a lead here by over 3,000 points in the default test in 3DMark 06 and we're looking at over 100 fps in Company of Heroes at 1,280x1,024.

Impressive numbers indeed, although there is some controversy about this review and DailyTech has moaned about it and claims that AMD has supplied Falcon Northwest with some dodgy hardware that's not publicly available.

The other rumour is that AMD has shipped some new tweaked drivers to Falcon Northwest, but if this is the case, then we might have a chance to see these go public some time soon.

It's also entierly possible that AMD happens to have better Vista drivers than Nvidia and this is simply why the CrossFire system is faster. This makes even more sense when you read a users comment at TechPowerUp! that has linked to some older benchmark results where the two 8800 GTX SLI systems goes head to head with Windows XP benchmark results.

Looking at those numbers and comparing it to the CrossFire Vista numbers, the CrossFire system would only win in Company of Heroes, but the lead here is still some 85 fps.

You can find the PCMag review here , the benchmark results here , the TechPowerUp! reader comments here and finally the DailyTech moan here

helmutcheese · 4 Jul 2007 at 14:25

Hmm, you like to plug ATI

, in 2 threads.

This was on here other day and again not sure if fact or not and at end of the day a 512bit card with 1GiG of GDDR4 not beating a lesser card would be bad.

Tom|Nbk · 4 Jul 2007 at 14:31

helmutcheese said:
Hmm, you like to plug ATI , in 2 threads.

This was on here other day and again not sure if fact or not and at end of the day a 512bit card with 1GiG of GDDR4 not beating a lesser card would be bad.

Just nice to see a few threads showing it in a positive light rather than the constant negative press they have recieved in the past 2 month's

gt_junkie · 4 Jul 2007 at 14:35

Crossfire's pretty much always had the performance lead over SLi. Also, it's strange to see such a low 06 score for a dual GTX/C2Q set up.

The guys on the 3DMark06 thread with set ups like those get 16,500-17,500 marks.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17741390

Nice performance tho - if i needed dual GPU i'd go with the 2900's TBH.

gt

willhub · 4 Jul 2007 at 14:35

So what it means, if anyone wants to spend heaps of money on SLi or Corssfire, 2x HD2900XT 1GB is the way to go, but if someone wants single card, then 1 8800GTX stil beats a HD2900XT 1GB?

helmutcheese · 4 Jul 2007 at 14:37

Well thats what happens, same with football teams/players, your only as good as your last game, fans shout at you if you f00k up.

Nvidia got major stick for FX5000's and they had a hard job moving to a new tech while ATI stayed on older tech and pumped up clocks, Nvidia could have did same in the shortterm but decided it was better to jump sooner rather than later and made a big boob (there was a very good write up on this).

Then Nvidia getting stick for lack of support with good Vista and 8000 series drivers, after having better drivers since Detonator days and far better OpenGL support, seems peeps have short memories, ATI did not have good drivers not so long ago and many hated the control panel, and opted not to install it.

Basically its swings and roundabouts.

Tom|Nbk · 4 Jul 2007 at 14:39

willhub said:
So what it means, if anyone wants to spend heaps of money on SLi or Corssfire, 2x HD2900XT 1GB is the way to go, but if someone wants single card, then 1 8800GTX stil beats a HD2900XT 1GB?

That's correct, crossfire just happens to scale waaaaaaay better than sli so it's left the dual GTX setup in the dirt.

Jokester · 4 Jul 2007 at 14:41

The 3mark06 results aren't right for 3.7GHz quad +SLI, that's even less than you would expect with a single GTX. That casts doubt on the rest of their results for that setup to be honest.

Jokester

jaykay · 4 Jul 2007 at 14:41

So could 2x2600xt beat a 8800gts 320mb ???? Or are the 2600 that bad?

helmutcheese · 4 Jul 2007 at 14:47

Personally I dont give a monkey's about dual cards, new top games should be able to be run by 1 top card IMO, dual top cards will never be mainstream.

willhub · 4 Jul 2007 at 14:48

jaykay said:
So could 2x2600xt beat a 8800gts 320mb ???? Or are the 2600 that bad?

I highly doubt it

MystaEB · 4 Jul 2007 at 14:50

12k is a single GTX score, so something is clearly wrong here. Either that or the entire thing has been fabricated, I've seen scores of 17k+ easily achieved on overclocked GTX SLI systems.

james.miller · 4 Jul 2007 at 14:51

Jokester said:
The 3mark06 results aren't right for 3.7GHz quad +SLI, that's even less than you would expect with a single GTX. That casts doubt on the rest of their results for that setup to be honest.

Jokester

it does. those numbers fall way short of the mark

willhub · 4 Jul 2007 at 14:54

MystaEB said:
12k is a single GTX score, so something is clearly wrong here. Either that or the entire thing has been fabricated, I've seen scores of 17k+ easily achieved on overclocked GTX SLI systems.

Yea with that CPU and an overclocked GTS you would be getting higher than that

helmutcheese · 4 Jul 2007 at 15:03

As 3DMark 2006 uses CPU+GPU it can be to do with one having faster CPU, to put 2 card up against each other in fairer way in different spec rigs use 2005 instead 2006, then score is mainly about the GPU.

I wont get highest 2006 scores with my Ultra at 705/1180(x2) as I have a AM2 X2 6000 @ 3.3GiG and others have C2D at upto 4GiG, they will beat me on lesser GPU's.

jaykay · 4 Jul 2007 at 15:08

The slied have a quad core going at 3.73ghz the xfire 2900xt have a quad core going at 3.61. The slied gtxs should be getting much higher.

Jokester · 4 Jul 2007 at 15:09

From what I can gather they've used old Vista scores for the SLI setup using drivers that didn't support SLI.

Jokester

Mekrel · 4 Jul 2007 at 15:22

Does the orb not show SLI'd systems? It doesn't give the ability to search for SLI 8800GTX's. :confused:

Rezident · 4 Jul 2007 at 17:26

What sort of PSU would you need for two 2900's GDDR4?

james.miller · 4 Jul 2007 at 17:30

i would say a decent 700w psu tbh. running two of them in a kitted out pc would be cutting it fine on a 620w corsair