Monday, September 8th 2008
HD 4670 Crossfire Outperforms HD 4850
Pre-release 3DMark tests show that two Radeon HD 4670 graphics cards in Crossfire multi-GPU mode outperforms a single Radeon HD 4850 card. The HD 4670 cards score just a little above the HD 4850 in three tests that include 3DMark06 in Shader Model 2.0 mode, the same benchmark in SM 3.0 mode and 3DMark Vantage.
The cards scored 54xx 3DMarks in SM2.0 and 65xx 3DMarks in SM3.0 tests, a 4850 on the same test-bed produced 49xx and 57xx respectively. With 3DMark Vantage, the Crossfire setup churned out 7300, with the single HD 4850 just 100 points behind at 7200. These scores can be attributed to the raw texturing power the HD 4670 cards have despite memory bandwidth advantage staying with the single HD 4850. Indications are that the HD 4650 won't scale as well since (at least reference models) lack hardware Crossfire.
Source:
GPU Café
The cards scored 54xx 3DMarks in SM2.0 and 65xx 3DMarks in SM3.0 tests, a 4850 on the same test-bed produced 49xx and 57xx respectively. With 3DMark Vantage, the Crossfire setup churned out 7300, with the single HD 4850 just 100 points behind at 7200. These scores can be attributed to the raw texturing power the HD 4670 cards have despite memory bandwidth advantage staying with the single HD 4850. Indications are that the HD 4650 won't scale as well since (at least reference models) lack hardware Crossfire.
29 Comments on HD 4670 Crossfire Outperforms HD 4850
But whats the point of crossfire of these cards ?
One will cost not less than $100, crossfire will be more than $200 . HD4850 can be had for $150 .
Then there are the crossfire issues with games, and microstuttering issue .
Usually, it consumes more power, and costs more. This might be the rare exception, but until I see pricing information, I'm not holding my breath.
Probably cheaper than 1xnvidia and would consume less power and I'd have a crossfire ready motherboard.. Oh well, they'll take a while to get to market :)
@newtekie1, I Agree. ITs not a huge gain either and it shows how good the architecture is. Ive not seen many instances, if any, where its cheaper, less power and better overall, myself.
The biggest question would be cost, as the cheapest 4850 on egg is $155 with rebates, call it $170-$180 typical selling price. So at $80 each, 2x 4670 would be a good show, but any more and you would be better off with a single HD 4850 since you don't have to worry about crossfire scaling, compatibility, or driver issues that might kill performance of a crossfire set up. But still, sub $100 price wouldnt be unthinkable, that would put the 4670 right against the 9600GT in pricing and still leave room for that rumored "RV770 LE" with 480 shaders to fill that gap between the 4670 and 4850.
The 6600GT @ 140 was cheaper than a 6800GT @ 300 even in SLI by 20 bucks.
The 7600GT SLI could tie a 7950GT and was cheaper ocne they fell to 120 compared to the 280-320 asked for the 7950GT.
It has happened.
Still its better to get a single powerful card and get another when the need arises
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBKSLS2XDbk&feature=related