The X2 Showdown

[DrPepper]

So what do you think will come up on top in the next battle for video carp supremacy? In the Nvidia corner is the Sheer brute 9800 GX2 or the agile 3870 X2 for Ati.

[erocker]

Who cares untill we see proof?!

[fitseries3]

i'd say nvidia unless ati does some more driver optimization. i do believe that they should call it the 8900gx2 though seeing how it's 2 8800gt/gts cores on one card.

another thing.... why not just make a dual core GPU. that would be more logical and better for power consumption. i'd like to see more efficient products in the next year. im tired of having power hungry everything in my computers.

[mrw1986]

I think that the Voodoo5 5500 is going to make a comeback.

[ShadowFold]

The HD 3870X2 will dominate the 9800GX2

[EddxPT]

We are going to see a "driver" release battle in the next couple of months. Crossfire scales allot better than Sli in most games, i have my doubts that the ati card will be a winner in terms of performance, but i don't have any doubts that if priced correctly it will win the selling battle. Also the specs released so far are not enough to say anything, no has any idea how they will perform at launch date. It still amazes me that crossfire performance and sli still rely so much on driver performance and not on the hardware itself on the cards...

[DrPepper]

I think the 9800 gx2 is 2 seperate pcb's and im not sure but if its two 8800 GT's where did the HDMI and Optical port appear from

[erocker]

Nvidia has never had any success with dual gpu cards. I'll give Ati the nod on this one, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[DrPepper]

Will be interesting because the 2900 did do rather well on high resolutions compared to some 8 series graphics cards which could beat it at a lower resolution, maybe they will have improved performance for smaller resolutions

[monte84]

ATi's memory setup could finaly play to an advantage on a dual GPU setup. Its offering tons of bandwidth, a lot more than the single GPU could use. 3870 vs 2900XT. Should be interesting.

[Kursah]

I'm still bummed that they decided to go the Dual-GPU route and not the Dual-Core GPU Route. We'll find out soon enough which is the victor, but I do hope that they are neck-and-neck in performance to help drive the price of both down to a more acceptable level (hopefully).

[Xaser04]

In the end it will all come down to driver optimization and multi GPU scaling.

On paper at least the 9800GX2 (being I Can only assume two 8800GTS (G92) strapped together should be faster than the HD3870X2 as simply put a single 8800GTS is faster than a single HD3870 however so far we have been seeing CF scaling alot better than SLI.

Of course I doubt Nvidia will be sat on their hands knowing this so it should be very interesting indeed.

Edit: I will probably end up buying whichever is quicker (or offers best bang for buck) as I will know doubt be itching to play with one.

[-1nf1n1ty-]

doesnt matter as long as you get to play games right?

[a_ump]

it's not really goin to b somethin too new, i mean its supposed to b 2 8800GTS G92's. sounds like SLI in one package, only when u have real SLI each gpu has its own 16x pci-e slot(680i and 780i)where as with the 9800GX2 and 3870GX2(or w/e its being called) have to share ONE pci-e 16x slot. i thk the original SLI will outperform this 2pcb, 2gpu, 1pci-e slot card

[KainXS]

it's not really goin to b somethin too new, i mean its supposed to b 2 8800GTS G92's. sounds like SLI in one package, only when u have real SLI each gpu has its own 16x pci-e slot(680i and 780i)where as with the 9800GX2 and 3870GX2(or w/e its being called) have to share ONE pci-e 16x slot. i thk the original SLI will outperform this 2pcb, 2gpu, 1pci-e slot card

unless the X2 cards are in a pcie 2.0 slot, then it dosen't matter

[yogurt_21]

persoannly i think both will flop, as neither compnay has release a successful (in sales and support) dual card. sure this could be the first for either compnay, but with crossfire/sli support still being shady, I doubt it.

[candle_86]

the HD3870 ties the 8800GT, not the 8800GTS 512 which the the 9800GX2 is 2x8800GTS 512 cards, whcih we know in SLI dominates anything AMD has.

[candle_86]

Nvidia has never had any success with dual gpu cards. I'll give Ati the nod on this one, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Nvidia had more luck the 7950GX2 took the crown in 06 from ATI


the last offical ATI dual GPU was Rage Fury Maxx and do i even need to say?

[yogurt_21]

Nvidia had more luck the 7950GX2 took the crown in 06 from ATI


the last offical ATI dual GPU was Rage Fury Maxx and do i even need to say?

umm in order to take the crown, the card has to actually work lol. not just have awesome 3dmarks, if that was all you needed 2900xt crossfire would be recognized as the top setup. lol

and the last ati dual card was a dual chip 2600xt, before that was the dual x1950pro. neither of those cards had enough sales or support. and the 7950gx2 had some sales but limited to no support. so no neither company has relased a successful dual gpu card.

[TooFast]

AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2
The fastest card today, once again, carries an AMD label, after long term domination by NVIDIA

[mrw1986]

AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2
The fastest card today, once again, carries an AMD label, after long term domination by NVIDIA

G92 GTS beats it in a few things...and thats single GPU...

[TooFast]

G92 GTS beats it in a few things...and thats single GPU...

who cars how many gpus r on it! nvidia could not do what AMD has done!
IT IS A SINGLE CARD NO BIGGER THAN AN ULTRA! WORKS ON ANY PCI-E BOARD

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

who cars how many gpus r on it! nvidia could not do what AMD has done!
IT IS A SINGLE CARD NO BIGGER THAN AN ULTRA! WORKS ON ANY PCI-E BOARD

endorsed

[btarunr]

We really can't tell until the real GeForce 9800 GX2 comes out. If you want my blind guess, the 9800 GX2 will clinch the battle based on this:

1. Preliminary beches showed the HD3870 X2 to be ~20% faster to the GeForce 8800 Ultra.
2. There are many news articles on TPU alone along with many other tech-sites that spread the news about the GeForce 9800 GX2 to be ~35% faster than the 8800 Ultra.
3. So logically wouldn't the GeForce 9800 GX2 be ~10% faster than the HD3870 X2??

4. Performance aside the key factor would be price and all boils down to how NVIDIA prices the 9800 GX2 and that will decide the winner.

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

it woulda have to be less than 550$

[snuif09]

i think its the batlle of drivers that will decide wich the fastest X2 is

[TonyStark]

HD3870 crossfire is on par with 8800GT SLI, despite the fact that a single 8800GT is about 20% faster than the HD3870 once filters are applied. In other words, crossfire seems to scale slightly better than SLI.

The GX2 has downclocked G92 cores (550MHz I think), so based on previous information, the AMD/ATI X2 should come out on top. The only issue is compatibility -- ie some games don't scale with crossfire, in fact they perform worse than a single card.

[BullGod]

Well, I think that both are useless. If you want more cores you gotta do it right. Either make a dual core chip or stop this madness. I've hated the concept of multi GPU's since the Voodoo days. Imo the Ultra is still the king.

[TonyStark]

I think they should just make a single monster core with double of everything, rather than trying to duct tape two cores together and rely on complex drivers.

- 640 shaders
- 32 ROP
- 32 TMU

ooooooh yeaaaaahhhh

[yogurt_21]

I think they should just make a single monster core with double of everything, rather than trying to duct tape two cores together and rely on complex drivers.

- 640 shaders
- 32 ROP
- 32 TMU

ooooooh yeaaaaahhhh

ladies and gentlemen we have the worlds largest gpu die measuring in at 5.5cm and boasting a full kilowatt of TDP. lol

[TonyStark]

Awesome! :D

[btarunr]

ladies and gentlemen we have the worlds largest gpu die measuring in at 5.5cm and boasting a full kilowatt of TDP. lol

...and a special heat conveying pipe mechanism to a hot plate that lets you cook eggs, warm your coffee or simply keep your room warm!

Buy ATI and hit three birds with one arrow!



jokes apart, yes GPU makers realise things can't get any denser despite frequent fab-shrinks as the micro-circuity insulation technologies can't permit more to be packed in less space which is why it's going to be multi-GPU on one card

[snuif09]

i like the warm your room and cook eggs idea btarunr my room is frikin cold:p