AMD Radeon HD 4890 CrossFire

[eidairaman1]

Why doesn't power managemant work in CrossFire? Man 308w in idle is just way too much. So much that Wizz had to have added at least 3-6 months of 100w electricity bill to calculate the perf/price.

you always have something to gripe about when its AMD that is kicking your cards butt in Crossfire.

 

[DarkMatter]

you always have something to gripe about when its AMD that is kicking your cards butt in Crossfire.

Wohooo here comes the poor hurt fanboi. You feel bad? Poor boy...

I will always have something to say about such high and absurd power consumptions, are you telling me they are not high?? 100w over a period of 1 years accounts for a 25-100 euros increase in the electricity bill here (in my case it exceeds that ammount) depending on how much you use the PC, effectively something to take into account. And Zotac GTX275 FYI http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1294352&postcount=4 - You-ll notice how I have something to gripe about that card too. What is that? Hmm, let's see. Power consumtion???? The difference? Other GTX275 consume much less in other reviews...

 

[eidairaman1]

Wohooo here comes the poor hurt fanboi. You feel bad? Poor boy...

I will always have something to say about such high and absurd power consumptions, are you telling me they are not high?? 100w over a period of 1 years accounts for a 25-100 euros increase in the electricity bill here (in my case it exceeds that ammount) depending on how much you use the PC, effectively something to take into account. And Zotac GTX275 FYI http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1294352&postcount=4 - You-ll notice how I have something to gripe about that card too. What is that? Hmm, let's see. Power consumtion???? The difference? Other GTX275 consume much less in other reviews...

So did you complain about the 8800GTX/Ultra? I never hear you complain about them and they were ridiculous.

 

[zithe]

Man, this sucks soooooooooo hard, crossfire for the hd4870 in crysis hardly even scales at all, in fact i get a loss of 1 frame/s. ATI make my heart heavy. I specifically bought the damn things in crossfire so that i WOULD get a playable framerate specifically in CRYSIS. Gay. Very very very gay. I am even considering going vista 64 so i can use catalyst 9.3 for the 9.2 crossfire gain in crysis warhead.

..Did you look at reviews or read what people post every day? ATI hardly scales in Crysis.

Why doesn't power managemant work in CrossFire? Man 308w in idle is just way too much. So much that Wizz had to have added at least 3-6 months of 100w electricity bill to calculate the perf/price.

Because it doesn't love you.

 

[Animalpak]

Nice and deep review. Two of these beast ... Dude this crossFire setup is amazing, best results in every game ( almost )...

WoW Ati just Wow

 

[DarkMatter]

So did you complain about the 8800GTX/Ultra? I never hear you complain about them and they were ridiculous.

Those are nowhere near that power consumption lol. Nowhere near. And still yes I complained. If you saw me doing that or not is no my problem lol.

But yes, in order to satisfy your desires of calling me fanboy again, I'll tell you that effectively, I complained much more about the HD2900XT, but that was of course because I'm a Nvidia fanboy. It had nothing to do with the fact that it consumed much more than the 8800 Ultra while being 25% slower. Nothing to do, puuuuure fanboyism.

 

[HammerON]

Done, I registered and clicked "digg" as you requested.
I would like to encourage others to do the same.

Now, how about welcoming me to this site?

Kitten saved - even though I don't care for cats
Welcome to TPU GandalfNYC

 

[Wile E]

I couldn't care less about power consumption.

Although performance is very impressive, this does tell me that 4890 + 4890X2 (when and if it releases) is not a worthy upgrade for me.

 

[neon neophyte]

Im faced with a problem.

Ive been eyeing up a gtx 295 for awhile now, and was just about to bite on getting one. I just saw the 4890 CF review, and, its changed my perspective slightly. Both are phenomenal overclockers, the 295 can be clocked up to 684 mhz on many, which is lots for a gtx. the 4890s are hitting 1 ghz with the asus volt mod. Power consumption is more on the 4890s, especially at idle. The 4890s make a buttload of noise, the gtx 295 is pretty quiet. I can find a gtx 295 for 627 canadian after tax and delivery. a 4890 is 269 before tax and delivery. i just dont know what to do!!!! gtx 295 or 4890 CF... HELP.

*edit* id like to assume there are more than just fanboys here.

 

[Binge]

Get both. Your indecisive nature can't be helped by the inevitable fanboy flame-war that might happen since you gave people the initiative to pick sides...

 

[magibeg]

Can't we just like the fact that crossfire seems to scale well with the 4890? If you're buying 2 of them i don't think you're pinching pennies power wise.

 

[eidairaman1]

Those are nowhere near that power consumption lol. Nowhere near. And still yes I complained. If you saw me doing that or not is no my problem lol.

But yes, in order to satisfy your desires of calling me fanboy again, I'll tell you that effectively, I complained much more about the HD2900XT, but that was of course because I'm a Nvidia fanboy. It had nothing to do with the fact that it consumed much more than the 8800 Ultra while being 25% slower. Nothing to do, puuuuure fanboyism.

At least you admit you are because I never called you Fanboy, you said it yourself, I just noticed you come into most ATI/AMD related Topics and Bitch and whine.

 

[TooFast]

Im faced with a problem.

Ive been eyeing up a gtx 295 for awhile now, and was just about to bite on getting one. I just saw the 4890 CF review, and, its changed my perspective slightly. Both are phenomenal overclockers, the 295 can be clocked up to 684 mhz on many, which is lots for a gtx. the 4890s are hitting 1 ghz with the asus volt mod. Power consumption is more on the 4890s, especially at idle. The 4890s make a buttload of noise, the gtx 295 is pretty quiet. I can find a gtx 295 for 627 canadian after tax and delivery. a 4890 is 269 before tax and delivery. i just dont know what to do!!!! gtx 295 or 4890 CF... HELP.

*edit* id like to assume there are more than just fanboys here.

I would go for the 4890's. either way you are using 2 gpus, u might as well go for the faster setup!

 

[DarkMatter]

At least you admit you are because I never called you Fanboy, you said it yourself, I just noticed you come into most ATI/AMD related Topics and Bitch and whine.

Haha I admited it? You know what's sarcasm? It was clear you were implying I am one, don't try to hide in a corner now.
YOU think I always ONLY bitch about AMD because it's your precious and because you hardly ever enter Nvidia threads to begin with. You just assume. You aren't even able to see the cons of Ati cards, you can forgive anything when it's AMD, I don't. When I say something bad about Nvidia cards or technology it passes totally unnoticed, but when I remotely say something that is not good for AMD/Ati hohohohoh man, you are in a trouble. I will repeat the important part you purposedly missed, I will always bitch, complain, call it as you want, about things that simply are not correct and twice the power consumption at 308 is way too much, and yes 308 vs 230 is twice as much on the GPU. The very first day that AMD releases something that hasn't a big drawback I will not say anything, but that didn't happen since the X1900 series, the last Ati card I had.

Power consumption matters, I don't care if you don't care about the power consumption. Power consumption affects the true price of owning a card, so you can't be shouting a better performance/price when the card will cost you $50 more per year in electricity than the other card you are comparing to. It's that simple. Period.

EDIT: I will traduce the sarcasm about the 8800GTX/Ultra for you BTW. How in hell could I bitch about the Ultra's power consumption when the much slower HD2900XT consumed more? Tell me. That's one more example of how you are unable to see the bad when it comes to Ati/AMD. The 8800 was ridiculous? Then what should we think of the ONLY competition at the time?? Not to mention that 8800 GTX's power consumtion was aroud the same of the X1900XTX. No, when that happens you just assume it's the trend, a là "this performance requires this consumption". That's not the case right now.

 

[RomeoX47]

It is possible to mix in CF a Shappire 4870 & Shappire 4890 ?
lol?

 

[Wile E]

Haha I admited it? You know what's sarcasm? It was clear you were implying I am one, don't try to hide in a corner now.
YOU think I always ONLY bitch about AMD because it's your precious and because you hardly ever enter Nvidia threads to begin with. You just assume. You aren't even able to see the cons of Ati cards, you can forgive anything when it's AMD, I don't. When I say something bad about Nvidia cards or technology it passes totally unnoticed, but when I remotely say something that is not good for AMD/Ati hohohohoh man, you are in a trouble. I will repeat the important part you purposedly missed, I will always bitch, complain, call it as you want, about things that simply are not correct and twice the power consumption at 308 is way too much, and yes 308 vs 230 is twice as much on the GPU. The very first day that AMD releases something that hasn't a big drawback I will not say anything, but that didn't happen since the X1900 series, the last Ati card I had.

Power consumption matters, I don't care if you don't care about the power consumption. Power consumption affects the true price of owning a card, so you can't be shouting a better performance/price when the card will cost you $50 more per year in electricity than the other card you are comparing to. It's that simple. Period.

EDIT: I will traduce the sarcasm about the 8800GTX/Ultra for you BTW. How in hell could I bitch about the Ultra's power consumption when the much slower HD2900XT consumed more? Tell me. That's one more example of how you are unable to see the bad when it comes to Ati/AMD. The 8800 was ridiculous? Then what should we think of the ONLY competition at the time?? Not to mention that 8800 GTX's power consumtion was aroud the same of the X1900XTX. No, when that happens you just assume it's the trend, a là "this performance requires this consumption". That's not the case right now.

If somebody is even remotely considering something as graphically powerful as a 4890 Crossfire, I'm willing to be the majority of them aren't concerned about power consumption.

I know I'm sure as hell not. In fact, I flash all of my cards, be it my ATI's or my nVidias, to operate on 3d voltage and speeds 24/7. I completely eliminate any traces of a 2D profile.

I shut off all power saving options on every aspect of my rig. With a machine this powerful, what's the sense in trying to save power? Just buy a damn low-powered rig for 24/7 use, and only turn on the powerful rig for gaming or heavy tasks.

 

[DarkMatter]

If somebody is even remotely considering something as graphically powerful as a 4890 Crossfire, I'm willing to be the majority of them aren't concerned about power consumption.

I know I'm sure as hell not. In fact, I flash all of my cards, be it my ATI's or my nVidias, to operate on 3d voltage and speeds 24/7. I completely eliminate any traces of a 2D profile.

I shut off all power saving options on every aspect of my rig. With a machine this powerful, what's the sense in trying to save power? Just buy a damn low-powered rig for 24/7 use, and only turn on the powerful rig for gaming or heavy tasks.

I have not a problem with that, I'm not talking about that in fact, but hell don't say that CF is better from a performance-per-dollar basis then. It's that simple, how many times I have heard "buy two cards in sli/crossfire instead of a single GTX280/285, it's cheaper and or faster"? After 6-12 months of using it the single card solution becomes much cheaper. That wasn't trully the case when cards were sold for $500 as 2x$500 vs 2x$550 isn't much of a difference, but when recommending $200-250 cards $50 becomes of big relevance. You can't exclude power consumption when talking about money. Period.

You want the fastest no matter the price? I'm sure GTX285 SLI is faster and price difference will be mitigated by the lower electricity bill.

 

[Wile E]

I have not a problem with that, I'm not talking about that in fact, but hell don't say that CF is better from a performance-per-dollar basis then. It's that simple, how many times I have heard "buy two cards in sli/crossfire instead of a single GTX280/285, it's cheaper and or faster"? After 6-12 months of using it the single card solution becomes much cheaper. That wasn't trully the case when cards were sold for $500 as 2x$500 vs 2x$550 isn't much of a difference, but when recommending $200-250 cards $50 becomes of big relevance. Period.

You want the fastest no matter the price? I'm sure GTX285 SLI is faster and price difference will be mitigated by the lower electricity bill.

I wasn't commenting on price. That's a whole other ball game right there. lol. Although, those that have a Crossfire board may want to consider this over an nVidia card solution, so it still has it's place in the market. These still do edge out the GTX295, the most powerful nVidia solution they could run.

 

[DarkMatter]

I wasn't commenting on price. That's a whole other ball game right there. lol. Although, those that have a Crossfire board may want to consider this over an nVidia card solution, so it still has it's place in the market. These still do edge out the GTX295, the most powerful nVidia solution they could run.

You won't get anything close to that performance in anything but Core i7 so Crossfire only boards is irrelevant. Recommending this crossfire over a GTX295/HD4870 X2 or even a single GTX285 for a Core2 system based in the performance numbers seen here is missleading, to say the least.

Anyway all my comments were regarding the perf/price so what's the point of your reply if it was not just to argue then?

 

[Wile E]

You won't get anything close to that performance in anything but Core i7 so Crossfire only boards is irrelevant. Recommending this crossfire over a GTX295/HD4870 X2 or even a single GTX285 for a Core2 system based in the performance numbers seen here is missleading, to say the least.

Anyway all my comments were regarding the perf/price so what's the point of your reply if it was not just to argue then?

No, an OC'ed Yorkfield quad is more than enough to run those setups without bottlenecking, especially at high resolutions. I get no difference in framerates between 3.6Ghz and 4.4Ghz on my setup @ 1920x1200.

And, from what I read in your posts, the most major basis of your argument against 4890 xfire was power consumption. At least that's the way it come across.

 

[DarkMatter]

No, an OC'ed Yorkfield quad is more than enough to run those setups without bottlenecking, especially at high resolutions. I get no difference in framerates between 3.6Ghz and 4.4Ghz on my setup @ 1920x1200.

It's not. And it doesn't matter how much you overclock the CPU, Core i7 even the 920 at stock means a massive increase in performance over the highest clocked Core2 in the world, when it comes to multi GPU. It's probably because of the platform and triple channel memory, idk.

And, from what I read in your posts, the most major basis of your argument against 4890 xfire was power consumption. At least that's the way it come across.

Because power consumption = price, money. In fact not only because of how much you pay for the electricity consumed by the card, but because you have to pay for a similar ammount again in summer to cool your house because of the added heat. Believe me, my brother has been out of home for a month many times and I did the same, spent the same electricity except for the fact that his PC was shut down and only that supposed a difference of 10 euros in the bill. It has happened enough times to see the pattern. We hardly spend electricity except on the PCs so it's clear from whe it comes the bill.

EDIT: I read all my posts again just to be sure and there's hardly a single one where I don't mention the perf/price and electricity expenses, BTW.

 

[neon neophyte]

i actually think the multicore problem with core2s stems from the fact that they arent really quadcores, but rather, 2x2. It is increasingly difficult to write code that will optimize core2s 2x2 setup. I think this is done much easier on a true quad. PhenomII or CORE i7. Both are true quadcores.

 

[mdm-adph]

Can't we just like the fact that crossfire seems to scale well with the 4890? If you're buying 2 of them i don't think you're pinching pennies power wise.

Thanks for pointing that out. It's like someone complaining about the gas mileage on a Ferrari -- nobody gives a shit. Yet, there's always people who'll complain about it, and not just from a technical aspect, either. :shadedshu

 

[neon neophyte]

some of us are in the market for a tesla roadster.

point is. energy efficiency matters. i never want my computer using 2000w. ever. 1000w is too high to be honest. i want performance increases without the extra cost in energy. thats true innovation. efficiency is innovation. just simply pumping more power into aging technology is... less innovative. the 4890 does a nice job of cleaning up its idle waste energy. kudos to the ati team on that.

thats what made core2s so great over p4s. they consumed far less electricity per core without sacrifice to performance. try to understand this matters to many. including myself.

*edit* @romeo i dont think you can crossfire a 4870 and a 4890. i think i read that somewhere. i think i also read that the 4890 does burst on the memory and the 4870 doesnt... or something. there are differences. even if it is the same gpu.

 

[btarunr]

ahem? Why is everyone so worked up about the power consumptions?

Speaking of power, you will be surprised to notice that a pair of HD 4890 accelerators consumes nearly the same (in fact less) amount of power as a single Radeon HD 4870 X2 accelerator, on peak and average scales.