AnandTech Exclusive: CrossFire Benchmarks Revealed
by Derek Wilson on July 22, 2005 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Doom 3 Performance
For Doom 3, we see CrossFire outperforming the 7800 GTX and coming close to NVIDIA 6800 Ultra SLI performance. The OpenGL foundation of Id's Doom 3 is generally handled better by NVIDIA's parts, and Doom 3 in particular makes heavy use of shadow algorithms that tend to favor NVIDIA as well. All this adds up to mean that CrossFire has shown some very solid performance in our first benchmark.While the increase in performance isn't quite double, the performance increase from a single X850 XT to CrossFire is up 43% as opposed to SLI's benefit of 34% over a single card. This is very impressive indeed. It may be that the higher single card performance of the NVIDIA part means that it has less room to improve, but no matter what the reason, this first test instantly legitimizes CrossFire as a real SLI competitor. ATI definitely has something to smile about here.
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AnnoyedGrunt - Saturday, July 23, 2005 - link
There seems to be something wrong with the Splinter Cell scores.The 6800U gets the same 40.2 FPS for both 1600x1200 and 1600x1200 4XAA.
Yet the 6800U SLI gets 75.9 w/out AA and 53.7 w/AA.
I'm guessing that the 40.2 is incorrect for the single card with AA, and that the actual score is lower, probably around 30-35 (based on the X850 single card score).
Using the 30-35 FPS score as a baseline would mean that SLI has a 53%-79% improvement.
I'm not sure if these estimates are real or not, but I definitely think something is wrong with your numbers and that the ~34% improvemnt in your conclusion is incorrect as well.
Thanks,
D'oh!
michal1980 - Saturday, July 23, 2005 - link
all these crt users need to wake up and join everyone else. 99% of all gamers useing crts? phhf, only gamers that also have record players because they swear they can hear the differance between a record and a cd. that difference is noise. where as almost everything in you pc is digital, you guys choose to live with the noise/cross talk, other anamolies that plague your crts because of the d/a conversion, and the non-error correcting communiation.while i will enjoy my perfect geometery, no need to have all magnets placed miles apart, whinning at res to high. monitor flickering when res changes. and the fact is that 99% of gamers do not spend the big $$$. i mean hell like 70% of the video cards out there are on board. and i'm geussing only like 5% are high end that can go aboce 12x10 res. at 12x10 most people can play perfectly on there lcds.
grow up crt fanboys, and wake up to what is really happening, your crts are dieing, our lcds are getting better. who really wants a 100+ box with a 4 ft footprint on there desk. only gamer snoobs like you.
DerekWilson - Saturday, July 23, 2005 - link
CrystalBay (and anyone else who cares) ... you want the bf2 demo we use? Email me and I'll send it to you.It is difficult to setup bf2 to get repeatable results, and I'd recommend that you spend some time inside EA's demo.cmd for benchmarking the game and reading various forums on the subject.
Just to let everyone know, we have to actually take the csv file bf2 generates with the frametimes for each frame and we average the last 1700 frames. DICE actually records frametimes for the loadscreen, and it's more acurate for us to use their recorded times than to use something like fraps.
That's all the "support" I'll give for the demo file, but if you still want it, feel free to ask.
Derek Wilson
Staples - Saturday, July 23, 2005 - link
I am impressed with the performance gain. Seems to be more than NVIDIA SLI.CrystalBay - Saturday, July 23, 2005 - link
This is bogus why doesn't AT release the AT BF2 time demoElJefe - Saturday, July 23, 2005 - link
My crt cost over a 1000 dollars. 23 inch mitsubishi.there's nothing on the market that beats a crt for gaming. you have to be smoking some seriously badly cut ghetto crack to consider that an lcd is anything besides prettier,thinner and easier on the eyes than a high quality crt. And really, it is only easier on the eyes for doing 2d work, well, except for when the pixels get in the way of the font being perfectly round and clean, then it sux there too.
even a skank level crt beats out 600 dollar lcd's.
Reapsy00 - Friday, July 22, 2005 - link
#17 Your mouth opens and closes and crap pours outReapsy00 - Friday, July 22, 2005 - link
Whats the point of these benchmarks without minimum fps?Zebo - Friday, July 22, 2005 - link
::::YAWN:::::Too little too late.
flatblastard - Friday, July 22, 2005 - link
I have been a skeptic of SLI/Xfire and the like. I guess I just don't see the need for two cards, although I'm sure there is one or two reasons. I bought the 850pe earlier this year and I have to say I still don't regret it, even if it was overpriced. I'm thinking I will just keep using this card until R520 reaches the surface. Then I will be able to decide whether to buy the x850 master, or just do what I've always done and get the next single card in either the mid or high end.