More Single Card Dual GPU Madness: NVIDIA's Flagship 9800 GX2
by Derek Wilson on March 18, 2008 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Performance
Version: 1.2.0416 Shivering Isles
Settings: Ultra High Quality settings defaults with vsync disabled
Our Oblivion test takes place in the south of the Shivering Isles, running through woods over rolling hills toward a lake. This is a straight line run that lasts around 20 seconds and uses FRAPS to record framerate. This benchmark is very repeatable, but the first run is the most consistent between cards, so we only run the benchmark once through and take that number.
Under Oblivion, AMD still shows some promise. The three way 3870 solution leads the way without AA enabled. At the same time, the 9800 GX2 clearly has the single card solution performance locked up. At not that much more money required for the 9800 GX2 over the three way 3870 solution, it’s good to see AMD being competitive in at least one benchmark.
With AA enabled, the gap closes a bit. The three way AMD solution still has an advantage at the high end where it counts though. The very high end solutions are playable at 2560x1600 with everything turned up and AA/AF enabled as well.
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archerprimemd - Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - link
i apologize for the noob question, just didn't know where to look for the info:dual gpu single card or single gpu dual cards (meaning, in SLI)
which is better?
also, isn't having the 2 gpus in one card sort of like doing an SLI?
Tephlon - Friday, April 4, 2008 - link
"dual gpu single card or single gpu dual cards (meaning, in SLI)which is better?"
To be honest, these seems to very based on timing and pricing.
For instance, back in the 7 series, I bought two 7800GT's and SLI'd them. About a week later, the 7950GX2 became available. It offered similar (if not better in some cases) performance than the two 7800gt's, so I returned the gt's and got the GX2.
But at the same time... The 7800 Ultra's were available... and two of those in SLI were better than the GX2... but for nearly twice the money.
Again, this might vary generation to generation, so YMMV.
"also, isn't having the 2 gpus in one card sort of like doing an SLI?"
the short answer is yes. I actually posted about this in more detail just a few pages ago, so for more on the subject see http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3266...">http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3266...
Tephlon - Friday, April 4, 2008 - link
oops, sorry.I meant to say see my post at http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3266...">http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3266...
Its about half way down the comments page. or you can just search 'Tephlon'
SlingXShot - Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - link
You know 3dfx tried this SLI madness, and put 16 chips on one board...and you know they failed...these products are not attractive to standard joe and the only people who care are the ones who install new computer for a living. Is it not good practice puting 4 video cards together. People want new design, etc.Ravensong - Friday, March 21, 2008 - link
Ok, here's what I don't get and I hope someone can clarify this for me. In the article "ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2: 2 GPUs 1 Card, A Return to the High End" the CoD4 benchmarks running at 1920x1200 HQ settings, 0x AA/16x AF give a result of 107.3 fps yet this article's benchmark shows a result of 53.8 for 1920x1200. When I saw this I yelled out like like Lil Jon "WHAAT??" How did the frames drop this much? Perhaps the new 8.3 drivers are raping performance? This seems to be the case with every benchmark other than Crysis which received a minor increase from the 8.3 drivers. I'm not a fanboy for ATI/AMD by any means but I hardly see these scores as fair when just a few video articles ago this thing was doing well and then all the sudden it has piss poor performance when the GX2 launches. Reading this site on a daily basis I figured that the weird drop in performance would have been noted?? Not sure if anyone else noticed this but I surely did right away. I know I've had nothing but headaches atm with 8.3 and trying to get the 4 3850's I bought running in crossfire X. Thankfully thats just my secondary rig, if it had been my main I may have smashed it into pieces by now :DTheDudeLasse - Friday, March 21, 2008 - link
It's gotta be Catalyst 8.3The scores im getting with 8.2 are 70% better.
Ravensong - Friday, March 21, 2008 - link
Definitely, no other explanation as to why the scores are so horrid compared to only a month and a half ago when the original benches debuted. I wish all the sites using 8.3 would correct this injustice!! lol... Hardocp went as far as saying "The Radeon HD 3870 X2 gets utterly and properly owned, this is true “pwnage” on the highest level." ... just wow. :DRavensong - Saturday, March 22, 2008 - link
Any comments on this dilemma Sir Wilson?? (referring to the author) :DTheDudeLasse - Friday, March 21, 2008 - link
I think you may have had some driver issues with the 3870X2.Im running a q6600@3.4 and 3870x2.
I´ve been running the same benchmarks as you describe and the results are completely different.
For instance Call of Duty benchmark results vary almost over 70%
I ran the same benchmark "We start FRAPS as soon as the screen clears in the helicopter and we stop it right as the captain grabs his head gear."
Example
1920x1200 4xAA and 16AF Your result 42.3 fps average
My result 76.056fps average
That's an over 75% improvment to your score.
What's the jig? screwed up catalyst drivers or what?
7Enigma - Thursday, March 20, 2008 - link
Derek,I see you have not answered the requests regarding why 8800GT and 8800GTS SLI was not included in these benchmarks. I can understand if you were not allowed to due to some Nvidia NDA, and why you might not be able to talk about it.
If you could please reply with a :) if this is the case, we would be greatly appreciative. Otherwise it looks like there is a gaping whole in this reveiw.
Thank you.