X-bit labs

There Will Be Speed: The Clash of Modern Multi-GPU Technologies (page 19)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko, Anton Shilov

[ 03/24/2008 | 05:01 PM ]

Futuremark 3DMark06

The system with two Radeon HD 3870 X2 cards working in 4-way CrossFireX mode wins 3DMark06, too. Its opponent, the system with two GeForce 9800 GX2, fails the test, being but slightly ahead of the single GeForce 9800 GX2. The results of the single dual-chip cards are also indicative of higher scalability of ATI’s technology.

The modern multi-GPU platforms seem to hit the performance ceiling in the SM2.0 tests. The expensive and hot GeForce 9800 GX2 Quad SLI configuration also betrays poor driver optimizations since its result is lower than that of the single GeForce 9800 GX2 and equals the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB only.

According to the SM3.0/HDR tests, the ATI CrossFireX platform has better scalability than Nvidia’s SLI. Moreover, the most expensive and supposedly the fastest Quad SLI configuration is but a little ahead of the single dual-chip card from Nvidia and is no match to ATI’s 4-way CrossFireX config that easily scores 8,000 points.

Oddly enough, the GeForce 9800 GX2 Quad SLI system doesn’t show compatibility problems in the individual SM2.0 tests. Although its scalability isn’t perfect, it competes with the4-way CrossFireX system successfully and even beats it at 2560x1500.

Nvidia’s solutions have no chances in the shaders-heavy SM3.0/HDR tests, yet it is in these tests that they show good performance scalability. The Radeons are superior even at 2560x1600 whereas Nvidia only wins the 1280x1024 resolution of the first test.