Radeon HD4870 CrossFire vs. GeForce GTX 280: quantity vs. quality
In the opinion of AMD, the future of video cards belongs to multi-processor solutions. The company also believes that its competitor, NVIDIA, will also switch to multi-processor solutions thus leaving single-processor video cards to the low-end pricing sector. Indeed, the idea is more than sound. Just look - the latest single-processor video cards NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260 have proved to be rather expensive, primarily due to the complicated GPU GT200 which contains almost 1.5 bln transistors! On the other hand, the latest video cards AMD Radeon HD 4870 and Radeon HD 4850 are much cheaper, like the GPU AMD RV770 on which they are based and at the same time they are just a littler bit slower than the competitor's video cards. It is logical to expect that a combination of two latest Radeon video cards will be faster than a single most recent GeForce video card. We will find out how things are in reality through comparison of a combination of two Radeon HD 4870 video cards against a single GeForce GTX 280. One of the Radeon HD 4870 video cards was granted for tests by Gigabyte, so we'll start with it.
Package bundle.
The package bundle of our Gigabyte HD 4870 includes:
- DVI -> D-Sub adapter;
- DVI -> HDMI adapter;
- S-Video > RCA adapter;
- S-Video > Component out adapter;
- CrossFire bridge;
- drivers CD.
Evidently, the package bundle of the retail specimen will include much more items than in this case.
Side view.
Front view.
Rear view.
The new product by Gigabyte is made following the reference design and makes no difference from the formerly examined Radeon HD 4870 but for a proprietary label. So we'd better not spend time for repeated examination of its interior and verification of efficiency of the cooling system. We'll leave the topic of overclocking to out forthcoming review which will be released in the nearest time. We are now getting round to the most interesting part - the goal of today's review.
The Tests
We'll be running the tests with the following configuration:
Test configuration |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Quad X6850 3.0 GHz |
| Motherboard | ASUS P5E3 (Intel X38) |
| RAM | Corsair Dominator DDR3 2x 1 GB 1333 MHz 6-6-6-18 1T |
| Operating system | Windows XP+SP2+DirectX 9.0c / Windows Vista for DX10 tests |
| Power supply unit | Thermaltake Toughpower 750 W |
For Radeon video cards, we used Catalyst 8.6, and for GeForce - the ForceWare 177.41. Additionally to the Gigabyte HD 4870, we took the formerly reviewed HIS HD 4870. Both the video cards were running at frequencies recommended by AMD - namely, 750 MHz for the GPU and 3600 "true" MHz for the video memory. Traditionally, we start our research with 3DMark tests.
Test results for 3DMark.
Indeed, the combination of two Radeon HD 4870 cards proved to be faster than GeForce GTX 280. But synthetic tests like 3DMark do not always display a realistic alignment of forces. We'll be running the gaming tests with 4X FSAA and 16X AF enabled. We'll be interlacing the test results for both Windows XP and Windows Vista, because the quality of drivers for these two operating systems may be different.
Test results for Call of Duty 4, WinXP.
At Call of Duty under Windows XP, the combination of two Radeon HD 4870 cards demonstrated a good showing, its results proved to be much better than those for the single GeForce GTX 280.
Test results for Call of Duty 4, WinVista.
In Windows Vista, the alignment of forces has almost not changed, and the combination of two Radeon HD 4870 cards is demonstrating the best results.
Test results for NFS Pro Street Racing in WinXP.
That differs from the results in Need for Speed Pro Street Racing, in which the combination of two Radeon HD 4870 cards demonstrates almost the same results as the single Radeon HD 4870. In this game, the best results are demonstrated by GeForce GTX 280.
Test results for NFS Pro Street Racing in WinVista.
In Windows Vista, the situation has not changed, and there is no benefit from the second Radeon HD 4870. It looks like programmers at AMD simply ignored this game.
Test results for Crysis under Win XP.
At Crysis under Windows XP, the combination of two Radeon HD 4870 cards demonstrated not the best results, with little advantage from the second video card. The GeForce GTX 280 grabbed the winner's crown.
Test results for Crysis under Win Vista.
In Windows Vista, the situation is radically changing: the combination of two Radeon HD 4870 cards proved much faster than the single Radeon HD 4870. But at 1920x1200 in Crysis under Windows Vista, Radeon cards lose image, and this flaw will most likely be fixed soon.
Test results for Call of Juarez under Win XP.
At Call of Juarez in Windows XP, the combination of two Radeon HD 4870 demonstrated simply fantastic results. However, the CrossFire mode has long been loyal to this game in Windows XP and runs perfectly in it.
Test results for Call of Juarez under Win Vista.
In Windows Vista, the combination of two Radeon HD 4870 cards demonstrates as good speed as in Windows XP. However, despite that, the comfort of the game has turned worse because there were stutters of image with the CrossFire combination enabled. A similar issue is also found in Radeon video cards of the previous generation.
Test results for Race Driver: GRID under WinXP.
At Race Driver: GRID under Windows XP, the combination of two Radeon HD 4870 is not to the advantage, thus demonstrating worse results than the single Radeon HD 4870. At 1920x1200, the image vanished when the combination of two Radeon HD 4870 was used. Note that the single Radeon HD 4870 card demonstrates results close to GeForce GTX 280, so at this game under Windows XP it's better not to use the CrossFire mode.
Test results for Race Driver: GRID under WinVista.
In this game, but under Windows Vista, the situation is radically changing, and the combination of two Radeon HD 4870 cards takes the crown of victory over the single GeForce GTX 280. Note that the most efficiency is demonstrated by the combination of two Radeon HD 4870 cards in high resolutions, whereas in 1280x1024 it demonstrates almost the same results as the single Radeon HD 4870.
Final Words
The current implementation of CrossFire is certainly much better than it was half a year ago, many issues have been eliminated and the efficiency has been improved. But that is not enough to compete on par against the latest single-processor video cards by NVIDIA, like GeForce GTX 280. Of course, if we examine specific games like Call of Juarez for Windows XP or Crysis, or Race Driver: GRID under Windows Vista, a couple of Radeon HD 4870 cards merged into the CrossFire combination indeed beats GeForce GTX 280. However, at some games the CrossFire works poorly, e.g. at Need for Speed Pro Street Racing, and the worse quality of drivers for Windows XP as compared to the drivers for Windows Vista will not appeal to many, simply because many prefer the old version of Windows. We've only got to wait for new driver versions; perhaps, by the announcement of Radeon HD 4870 X2 built on two AMD RV770 graphic processors the situation will change to the better.
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