X-bit labs

Two vs. Three: Zotac GeForce 9800 GX2 Against 3-Way CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 3870 (page 10)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 04/04/2008 | 12:18 PM ]

Half-Life 2: Episode Two

The 3-way CrossFire system is somewhat faster than the Zotac GeForce 9800 GX2 at 1600x1200 and 1920x1200. The latter outperforms the opponent by 11-12% at 2560x1600, though.

Both solutions look equal in this test if you don’t count such factors as the number of slots they take and the level of power consumption.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

The game doesn’t support FSAA when you enable the dynamic lighting model, but loses much of its visual appeal with the static model. This is the reason why we benchmarked the cards in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. using anisotropic filtering only.

Nvidia’s solutions have always been strong in this game, and the Zotac GeForce 9800 GX2 confirms this point once again. The 3-way CrossFireX platform is not a failure, though. It ensures good results at resolutions up to 1920x1200 inclusive. It can only not be used for the yet-exotic 2560x1600 mode.