GT SLI vs 3870 CF Review

[EastCoasthandle]

This is one of the best review's I found so far. Besides the fact that it's the only SLI/CF review I found using current video cards. It also uses the most popular, high end motherboards for SLI and CF. This levels the playing field without an bias IMO. If you read through it also provides a bried explanation of how each works to produce an image on the screen.
Source (http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr)
Original (http://www.expreview.com/review/2007-11-24/1195902778d7055.html)

This page (http://www.expreview.com/review/2007-11-24/1195902778d7055_22.html) discusses the overall results. It appears that there is some issues with ATI and the use of SM 2.0 based games (as it also shows in 3d06, which is why that benchmark is so important :rolleyes: )

After this review it really comes down to a few things:
-if you have a CF MB it appears to be impractical to get 2 GTs and a SLI MB. Likewise for thos with a SLI MB
-price,
-availability
-number of games that are SLI/CF compatible. As long as it works with the games you like to play this is normally not a problem.

In essence, the results overall are in some cases similar. Both GT and 3870 works impressively well with certain games and I can only assume that it will get better with improved certified drivers.

[zOaib]

thx a lot man .................... that is an awesome review b/w the 2 .................. and good to see i didnt make a bad choice the ati xfire pouts up real good with the sli solution and both setups are a win win situation money wise and performance wise also ............great post been looking for something like this =)

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

only thing i notice teh aa/af kills teh ati cards.

[EastCoasthandle]

_FBi;545735']only thing i notice teh aa/af kills teh ati cards.

That's not true QW, COH and COJ proves otherwise, it's SM 2.0 based games which I assume can be fixed :slap:
From my understand (and someone link me otherwise) HL2:EP2 uses SM2.0 (guessing here (http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=490&Itemid=27&limit=1&limitstart=5))

[TooFast]

looks like x-fire does a better job than SLdie!!! lol

[Tamin]

cool post

[DrunkenMafia]

It seems that crossfire ATI cards are better value than sli GT cards... I know the GT's are slightly faster but not by much....

[EastCoasthandle]

The only distinguishable difference I notice is power consumption (http://www.expreview.com/review/2007-11-24/1195902778d7055_19.html) between the CF and SLI. This would have never been known if a GT was benched on a X38 MB or a 3870 benchmarked on a 680i MB IMO. This is why it's so important to bench each video card with it's native MB.

[jpierce55]

Its great ATI is back up, the competition is good for us consumers. Now lets hope the price gouging ends soon.

[niko084]

Well on top of that with the new boards at least a few supporting the Phenom so far, Crossfire is full 16x + 16x...

Looks like even though that AA/AF hurts the ATI as usual its still beating the Nvidia outright at a cheaper price. Honestly I keep finding that you don't need as much AA/AF to get equal quality as Nvidia with an ATI card also.

[Ketxxx]

Lets not get carried away on the ATi card performing "badly". I think its important to point out in ACTUAL GAMES the 3870 is nipping at the 8800GTs heels, and more to the point, still has very acceptable performance. Can you see the difference between 120FPS and 98FPS? No? Me either. The only game the cards do badly in is lost planet, but that just comes back to what I've been saying for a while now, current DX10 hardware is just terrible, it may tout a DX10 logo, but it doesnt mean its any good in DX10 titles.

[WarEagleAU]

Agreed Ketxxx but the numbers dont say ATI is doing badly. They are neck and neck with the 8800 GT and even sweeping a whole category while sharing the others. Im flabbergasted by how WELL the ATI performs here. Definitely a step in the right direction.

[EastCoasthandle]

My understanding about the lost planet game is that ATI had no development time (http://www.bootdaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=515&Itemid=71) with this title. If there is news contrary to this I would like a link to read it. If ATI is prohibited from any level of optimization it would explain the poor performance. What I find funny is the fact that there is little to no distinguishable difference between LP DX9 and LP DX10.


Lost Planet has full Shader Model 4.0 support which means you have to have a DX10-class card , Windows Vista, and the DX10 demo to run the game in that mode. What we believe we’re seeing here is the early growing pains of an API to develop and mature. As we can see in the screenshots on the next page, there is little visible difference between running the game in DX9 versus DX10. This could be caused by a few factors:

1. The developer’s knowledge of the API and how to properly implement it is limited
2. The Publisher didn’t want to sink more money into developing all the extra “eye candy”
3. As with all APIs, things take awhile to mature

We tend to lean towards the 3rd option as being the most highly probable. We saw similar issues when Shader Model 3.0 came out and ATI’s X800-series was behind the technology curve with that. NVIDIA jumped all over it with all sorts of huge claims; however we’re just now seeing games come out that can substantially task Shader Model 3.0.

So much of what we see in the release of this demo is purely hype on NVIDIA’s part in an effort to bolster support and sales of its G80-class GPUs. While there’s nothing wrong with that (we love Capitalism), we felt we needed to show these screenshots to present things in a more proper light without the marketing spin.

In addition, the jury is still out on ATI’s R600 performance with this particular title as it was released with much – if any – input from them. We’re confident that now the “cat is out of the bag” AMD will ramp its next driver release to have better optimizations for Lost Planet. But in the end, we feel this game will be used as nothing more than a benchmarking utility as the gameplay doesn’t lend itself to the PC market – in fact, it’s still setup natively to use an XBOX 360 controller; which you can get for the PC.

[Ketxxx]

I think with the ATi clocked, it could be a surprise 1-2-uppercut to nVidia, the process for ATi GPUs is now more refined than nVidias, which means the new ATi GPU should OC rather well even on stock voltages. I do think ATi need to work on AA performance in their driver though, its clearly a stumbling block, if they can improve it by around 7-10%, their serious competition again.

[Ketxxx]

My understanding about the lost planet game is that ATI had no development time (http://www.bootdaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=515&Itemid=71) with this title and to date has. If there is news contrary to this I would like a link to read it. If ATI is prohibited from any level of optimization it would explain the poor performance. What I find funny is the fact that there is little to no distinguishable difference between LP DX9 and LP DX10.

Regardless, DX10 hardware from both sides performs badly in DX10 titles, performance THAT bad isnt just driver optimisation.

[EastCoasthandle]

Regardless, DX10 hardware from both sides performs badly in DX10 titles, performance THAT bad isnt just driver optimisation.

I believe some are beginning to see DX10 as nothing more then hype. Some DX10 titles show little difference between dx9 vs dx10 with LP having the least. As a matter of fact each time I play that game I find no discernible difference at all (but that's just me other reviewers echo my thoughts). With Crysis having most of the so call DX10 eye candy playable in DX9 without the large hit in frame rate.

[Ketxxx]

I've heard the same from various sources, most of which agree DX9c actually offers far more felxible and powerful options than DX10. The only differences in Crysis between DX9c and DX10 are higher res textures (something which DX9c can easily handle) and as some have noticed "crispier" trees in DX9c mode vs DX10. However even this is nothing, in fact, I suspect it to simply be a filter applied to the trees in "DX10 mode" to make them softer, which again is something DX9c can easily do.

[KennyT772]

It's kind of suprising the ATI cards aren't hitting home runs with AA. They have more ram bandwidth, then again AA took a hard hit on the 2900 also. Hopefully with the mass adoption of these cards drivers will further improve performance. Too bad I no longer have a rig to put one in to.

[freaksavior]

with a little bit of a overclock, the 3870 will be a nice card :)

[EastCoasthandle]

with a little bit of a overclock, the 3870 will be a nice card :)

take a look at this post (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=166334&page=11)


Xtreme Member

pinto's Avatar

Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 102

Pseudo : Pinto
CPU : QX9650 @4.5Ghz 1.6v Nexxxos XP
Mainboard : Maximus Extreme
Memory : 2X1024 cellchock PC14400 880 76518 1.9v
Graphic cards : HD3870 crossfire 855/1350
Drivers : 7.11

3DMark Score 23254 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 9259 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 10355 Marks :twitch:
CPU Score 7154 Marks

[zOaib]

take a look at this post (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=166334&page=11)


Xtreme Member

pinto's Avatar

Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 102

Pseudo : Pinto
CPU : QX9650 @4.5Ghz 1.6v Nexxxos XP
Mainboard : Maximus Extreme
Memory : 2X1024 cellchock PC14400 880 76518 1.9v
Graphic cards : HD3870 crossfire 855/1350
Drivers : 7.11

3DMark Score 23254 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 9259 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 10355 Marks :twitch:
CPU Score 7154 Marks

nice they can reach 20k+ in 3dmark06

[DrunkenMafia]

I would definitely buy the 3870 over the GT...

It is cheaper, better on power and performs great... Like you guys mentioned earlier, you can't tell the diff between 98fps and 115fps.....

The ati card looks better and it has all those extra features like HDMI, UVD etc...

I know when the GT came out a couple of weeks ago, everyone went stupid, oh my god its so fast, and it is fast but I think overall the 3870 is a better buy.

[freaksavior]

my dad bought me a diamond 3870....i get it in about a month :)

[zOaib]

my dad bought me a diamond 3870....i get it in about a month :)

congrats , it will surely make an Amazing improvement over the 7300gs =)

[TooFast]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=160185013156&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=006

[niko084]

nice they can reach 20k+ in 3dmark06

Indeed, Indeed, I got 19857 on mine... Should do some tweaking and overclocking... Going to have to re-setup this system again soon though, see what I can pull.

[EastCoasthandle]

Indeed, Indeed, I got 19857 on mine... Should do some tweaking and overclocking... Going to have to re-setup this system again soon though, see what I can pull.

what did you have the 3870's clocked at?