Wolfenstein

Finally among our revised benchmark suite we have Wolfenstein, the most recent game to be released using the id Software Tech 4 engine. All things considered it’s not a very graphically intensive game, but at this point it’s the most recent OpenGL title available. It’s more than likely the entire OpenGL landscape will be thrown upside-down once id releases Rage next year.

Wolfenstein ends up getting CPU bound rather quickly, particularly with multi-GPU in the mix. Only at 2560 can these cards really get out and stretch their legs, and even the 480 SLI is likely approaching the cap. With that in mind the GTX 580 ends up splitting the difference between the GTX 480 and 5970 – the 5970 is around 17% faster than the 580, followed by the 580 being about the same difference from the 480.

Mass Effect 2 Compute and Tessellation
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  • donjuancarlos - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link

    Along that line it's shoo-in, not shoe-in. :)
  • Ryan Smith - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link

    In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!

    Thanks for the heads up, Don.
  • Troll Trolling - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link

    You guys made my day.
  • samspqr - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link

    more important, where it says:

    "Both the Radeon HD 5970 and Radeon HD 6870 CF are worthy competitors to the GTX 580 – they’re faster and in the case of the 6870 CF largely comparable in terms of power/temperature/noise."

    it should say:

    "Both the Radeon HD 5970 and Radeon HD 6870 CF come out on top of the GTX 580 – they’re faster in nearly all benchmarks, and in both cases largely comparable in terms of price, power and temperature; 6870CF is also comparable in terms of noise, while 5970 comes out significantly louder."
  • DominionSeraph - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link

    No, it should say, "Both 6850 CF and GTX460 SLI blow everything else out of the water given that they're practically giving away the highly overclockable 6850's for ~$185, 1GB GTX 460's for ~$180 AR, and 768MB GTX 460's for $145 AR."
  • DreamerX5521 - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link

    by looking at the test results, I guess 6870CF is a better choice than a single 580 in term of performance/watt, price (about the same), temperature, noise, etc..
  • Kim Leo - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link

    I noticed that as well, a little surprising I did expect a bit more considering all the hype, but then again it's built on the Fermi.
    I'm not sure what's up with the pricing? Do they think that there will be a market for GTX480 when Cayman comes and with the GF110 out?
  • Sihastru - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link

    If you can live with the sub-par minimum framerates that plagues so many games with CF setups.
  • JarredWalton - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link

    Amen. I'm a 5850 CF user (and 4870X2 before that), and I can tell you I'd much rather have a single GPU and forget about profiles and other issues. But then, 30" LCDs need more than a single GPU in most games.
  • B3an - Wednesday, November 10, 2010 - link

    30" monitors dont need anything more than a high-end single GPU for most games. 99.9% of PC games are playable maxed out plus AA at 2560 res with just one of my 5870's in use, of with my previous 480. Theres only a handful of games that need dual GPU's to be playable at this res. Mainly because most games are console ports these days.

    And the OP is wrong, 6870 CF is not any better than the 580 with temperature or noise. 580 being better under load with noise, better with temps at idle, but only very slightly hotter under load.

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