GT200 VS RV770 on i7, how well do they scale?

GT200 VS RV770 on i7, how well do they scale?

Today my friends I'm testing GTX260 single and SLi, VS HD4850 1GB single and Crossfire.

Interesting tho it sounds I know the cards don't directly compete with each other, and I don't intend to do so in that sense.

Im on a theme lately, and that is Scaling, irrespective of which setup comes out on top, the winner is the setup which scales best from one card to two.

A quick recap of the test config;

i7 @ 4.2ghz 200x21 in bios @ 1.35v
3x2gb DDR3-1600 @ 8-8-8-20 1T 1.66v
Asus P6T Deluxe V2
Zalman ZM-850HP Power supply

2xGainward Golden Sample GTX260+ 55nm 1792mb in single card and SLi @ 680/1458/2214

2xGigabyte GV-R485OC-1GH HD4850 1GB @ 700/993 (X2) in single card and Crossfire

Games tested:

Crysis Warhead (1.0 32-bit):
All settings enthusiast DX10
Ambush time demo looped x3
1920x1200 with 4xAA No Vsync
Shown is Min/Max/Avg

DMC4 Benchmark
All settings super high DX9
1920x1200 with 16xQAA No Vsync
Shown are the 4 scenes averages
looped 3 times

Street Fighter 4 Benchmark
All settings maxed + Posterisation(?)
1920x1200 with 16xQAA and 16xAF No Vsync
Shown is the final score fps
looped 3 times

First up lets take a look at RV770 scaling in Devil May Cry 4 and Street Figter 4.



Results here are amazing for ATi, Picking up ~98% more FPS from that second card, good show.



Here the results, while still in the realm of awesome, are less inspiring, with the second card adding "only" 69% more performance. Worthy of note was some stutter I noticed in Warhead, nothing else tho.

Now onto the GTX260 results.



Nvidia coming up strong here too, but not as strong as ATi. While DMC4 shows near perfect scaling at ~99.75% overall, SF4 has less to gain picking up "only" 74% extra – right in line with my GTX285 testing too it seems.



WOW was my first reaction, and after running and rerunning tests over and over I'm convinced what were seeing is real. For whatever reason, in my i7 machine, Crysis needs more than the power of one GTX260 at least to run well. Seems like its "underpowered" by the GPU in that situation, letting it down. adding a second seems to allow it what it wants, and we start to see magical results, adding, on average, 129% more than single card performance!

Today's testing has left me with a few headscratchers, and some truly amazing results. I can hardly blame ATi cards for not scaling 100% in Crysis, and wow do they show off in DMC and SF, posting as-good-as perfect scaling.

And then we have the GTX260's, same story in DMC4 (loves GFX horsepower) but it seems Nvidia could work on drivers more to increase SF4 performance in SLi, not that its "lacking".

Well, tell me what you guys think, I know it's not a broad selection of resolutions/settings or even games tested, but it took me the better part of a day, and I'm trying to break into reviewing.

-Wolf.

Cheers dude, yeah the 260 outclasses the 4850 on every test, but I wanted my test to show scaling, and that It did, less overall FPS or not RV770 seemingly has the potential to scale 98% in favorable situations, what more can you ask for aside from continuously adding games to the list which scale that well.

I dunno man, Nvidia "friendly" or not, the 4850's show 98% scaling in DMC4 and SF4, what more can you want?

However I digress a wider variety is necessary and will be done don't you worry, it's good so see such a promising taste of scaling performance tho.

I hear that, ever since TF2 has had a "multicore Rendering" option, my FPS in that game has skyrocketed.

mastrdrver said:

How is the multiplayer on Team Fortress 2 anyway?

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The best I've played IMO, but probably because it suits my style of multiplayer gameplay, things like CS Source may be more up your alley but suffice to say...

TEE EFF CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

qubit said:

That's a good, interesting review, Wolf. It seems that adding an i7 to the mix allows some unheard of scaling - I certainly saw a doubling of framerates in a couple of casual scenarios with my 9800 GX2 (I think it was Half-Life 2 or something).

If you would like some constructive criticism, then I would suggest using a planer font for your graphs. That one isn't that easy to read, especially at that small size. Otherwise, great work, nice one.

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Cheers man, from both camps it does seem that given the right mix either can pretty much scale perfectly, now to expand the list of titles that I explore scaling in.

Cheers, Well here in Australia I work for iiNet (3rd largest ISP) and we have quite an extensive gaming community, they've authorized me to write articles that they will review and pending that will go on the website http://www.3fl.net.au/

I don't yet think I'm up to scratch, really need to be able to devote 12+ hours to serious testing.

phanbuey said:

Wolf, try using 182.47 vs the latest drivers for the gt200 scaling... the results may be pretty big.

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I have been told some 18x series are better for SLi, I'll give these a whirl why not

a_ump said:

very true. i'm selling my HD 4870 to my friend for $100. he wanted to test it so we did. he had 4gb ram like myself(ddr2 800 4-4-4-12), but his CPU is the e6850 @ 3.8ghz. At 1440x900 his max res, with my card installed after a ccleaner run, max settings, the game dipped in fps to 35 sometimes. with my system i play 1680x1050 max and never drop fps, i leave v-sync enabled so thats 60fps. how ever they implemented their multi core is how all games should as it seems it works amazingly.

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It's just win, I was really happy to see It jump after throwing some serious gfx horepower at it and still dripping below 60 fps (GTX295) ever since they enabled that setting, i'f im running SLi GT200 cards I would be very hard pressed to find myself staring down less than 100 fps. for TF2 and my gaming style I need high FPS, I cant see the difference, but I can feel it, averaging over 150 fps makes the game INCREDIBLY responsive.

a_ump said:

nice review, i had always heard that ATI xfire scaled better than SLI did, but it appears otherwise. I second, third, 4th, or w/e motion the idea to do more games though

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That's where I'm at now, don't have a heap of time mid week though.

So, what games are your suggestions folks? another big one I've had from mates is UT3, and Crysis Warhead 1.1 64-bit.

hayder.master said:

nice work dude , now im go back to put my craysis score my test maybe it is help , 4870 1G+4850 1G

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Cheers man! let me know how it goes