ATI HD 3870 in Crossfire vs. HD 3870 X2

[Comment Bot]

Please feel free to comment about our story entitled "ATI HD 3870 in Crossfire vs. HD 3870 X2"

[bill_bright]

I was a little disappointed in this comparison. What about power consumption? These new AMD cards are based on AMD's new, much more efficient, 55nm technology and there is no mention of this in the comparison. Remembering the article opened with a comment that these cards had been reviewed individually, I checked the individual reviews of the GECUBE HD3870 X2 and the ASUS HD 3870 and there is no mention anywhere about this significant technological breakthrough for AMD. Fortunately, there were some power consumption measurements, but sadly, none with a 2-card setup.

Lower power consumption is one of the significant advantages of this advanced technology over previous generations - and an ever important concern for this Earth. Power demand is also nice to know when determining power supply horsepower requirements.

In a comparison, I would have liked to have read the difference in power consumption at idle and full power between the two setups. The difference could mean the difference between using an existing PSU, or buying a new one - which may be a budget buster.

My guess is 2 cards at idle consumes a chunk more power than a single card with shared RAM, fan, and other components. I would expect the X2 consumes less power at full load over two cards too.

Over time, it may be more beneficial to purchase the more expensive X2 card up front, then save the difference and even more, in energy costs over the life of the card. With that in mind, my "final thoughts" might be different than that presented in the comparison.

So if you can get two HD 3870s for less than the X2, is that the route you should take?

Maybe not.

JMHO.

[Wester547]

Good review, but.... abrupt question: Isn't Episode One getting a bit long in the tooth now? :P Shouldn't Episode Two be used?

[Assimilator87]

I was hoping you guys would test the two platforms at the same clocks to find out if there are any inherent advantages to either setup.

[MrMilli]

Strange conclusion ...

First of all, the HD3870 X2 isn't PCIE 2.0 compliant (because of the PLX switch) so PCIE 2.0 can't matter.

Second thing, encouraging to run CF on a P35 motherboard is just crazy. A P35 motherboard runs CF in 16x-4x mode (except of your P35 motherboard) which slows down CF up to 40%.

Asus & Gecube offer HD3870 X2's with 4 DVI's.

You should really update your motherboard because the Asus Blitz Extreme is really something special. It's using a PCIE switch to split it's 16x PCIE into two 8x PCIE. So your CF system has extra latency because of the PCIE switch, isn't PCIE 2.0 and is running in 8x mode while the HD3870 is PCIE 2.0 and runs best with PCIE 16x. No wonder the gap between the two is so big. I think it's time to switch to a X38 or X48 motherboard.

[atlmann10]

OK here's what I am wondering I ordered and HD 3870 from newegg believe it or not I paid for the rush shipping and everything and they screwed up. I am kinda wondering if newegg is getting to be to much to handle themselves. It has been 6 days since I ordered a 3 day delivery with rush handling and I still don't have it. Well enough of my *****ing. I am wondering what the performance outcome will be if I take my 512 mb ddr4 card and pair it with an x2 for 2 more gpus and the ram on that card. Kinda strange to see DDR4 and DDR3 mixed but that would be triple crossfire right seeing as a system see's an x2 as a single. But I'd actually have 3 gpu's running and twice the ram or is that twice and a half. If anyone does it let me know what comes out of it I am interested. I will probably wait a minute and let the price drop b4 I do it.

[Mr.Tweak]

Originally Posted by Wester547

Good review, but.... abrupt question: Isn't Episode One getting a bit long in the tooth now? :P Shouldn't Episode Two be used?

We've got a full revamp of the benchmarks coming right up!

EP1 gone and replaced with EP2.