MultiGPU Update: Does 3-way Make Sense?
by Derek Wilson on February 25, 2009 2:45 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Left 4 Dead Analysis
This game runs really well on all our hardware, so 3-way isn't necessary, but the Source engine also scales well with multiple GPUs despite it's already high performance.
1680x1050 1920x1200 2560x1600
In this case, AMD hardware out performs the rest of the lineup. Both the 512MB and 1GB versions of the 4870 outperform the highest end NVIDIA hardware. This also shows that Left 4 Dead doesn't trash graphics memory and does a good job making things look pretty without requiring cards to have more RAM onboard.
1680x1050 1920x1200 2560x1600
The Radeon HD 4850 always scales pretty well, while other cards hit a bit of a system limitation at lower resolutions. Moving up to 2560x1600, the AMD cards all show that they can scale better than NVIDIA hardware in this game.
1680x1050 1920x1200 2560x1600
At 1680x1050, only the GTX 280 and 285 really scale up from 2 GPUs to 3. 2560x1600 shows another side of the coin where all the ATI hardware scales pretty well while NVIDIA hardware can't push past a 10% improvement from 2 to 3 GPUs. Two do pretty well on their own, but AMD comes through better on this one.
1680x1050 1920x1200 2560x1600
Despite the high performance and good scaling, our value data still shows the 3-way solutions on the lower end of the spectrum. AMD's cards do tend to lead in value among the 3-way options and even best the single GTX 280 and 285 at 2560x1600.
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7Enigma - Thursday, February 26, 2009 - link
Derek,Please keep the new way. I was one of the proponents of the zero rating after the last article and it shows nicely what can and can't handle a given resolution. Sure you can turn down the eye candy, but that's not the point of the article...especially when you are talking about 3-way.
We could just turn all the settings down to medium and a single 4850 would be the value king! (/sarcasm)
Antman56 - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
I think demonstrating crossfire using 4850s with 1 GB of ram each would have created a "sweet" price/performance result.These 4850s show us what happens when there isn't enough memory to compliment a video card's processing potential.
Spivonious - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
I find it interesting that the 4870 512MB leads the value charts at "normal" resolutions (still way higher than I run).I think as a follow-up to this series you should look at playability statistics and see if getting anything more than the 4870 512MB is worth it at 1920x1200 and below.
fixxxer0 - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
only if both girls are hotStraightPipe - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
only one of the girls needs to be hot, the other will be so busy licking your balls it wont make a difference.Jansen - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
And if it is not a "Devil's 3-way"...That's with two guys.