1,2,3,4 x GTX480 vs 1,2,3,4 x HD5870

[Monstru]

Hehehe. you like the beasts, don't you?

[Smartidiot89]

Looking at the power consumption part, it seems 4-way CF only consumes about 60W more than 2-way SLI? Can't say I am all that surprised but damn those Fermi's are hungry as hell

[Monstru]

One thing you should take into consideration when looking at power consumption bumbers is the degree in which the software is capable to load all the 4 cards. But you are right, those Fermi are one of the most power hungry VGA's ever made

[E30M3]

It just shows how much better nVidia is to SLI than ati is to CFX, ati fails to deliver.
surely can not matter that ati does not use that much power when you get nothing for it

[lkiller123]

It just shows how much better nVidia is to SLI than ati is to CFX, ati fails to deliver.
surely can not matter that ati does not use that much power when you get nothing for it

You are not trying to start a Fanboy war, are you? Your comment is extremely biased.

[slaveondope]

Retracted

[SoulsCollective]

Oh good grief, let's not start this.

Crossfire scaling is a bit hit-and-miss, just as SLi scaling is so also. Some games will work fine, with great scaling, others will not. There are so many variables, most of which we know nothing of the state of in a particular case - game engine, dev access to drivers and hardware, driver team access to dev team and game code, engine peculiarities, etc - that it's impossible to make statements like "ATi sucks" or "nVidia sucks". Either might suck in one particular game, but that's no reflection on the company in general.

Thanks to OP for great review.

[Biker]

Thanks for the review

Now can we get 4x 2GB 5870's and retest?

I am interested to see if the extra vram helps frame rate scaling on the ATI side, especially with different levels of AA

[anubis]

1,5kw...whoa. Powerlines glowing red hot?

edit: and a big thanks for making these tests... just to show you, there is no such thing as overkill - only lack of money

[CCC]

Thanks for the review

Now can we get 4x 2GB 5870's and retest?

I am interested to see if the extra vram helps frame rate scaling on the ATI side, especially with different levels of AA

+1, i have a 2gb version coming and thinking about adding a 2nd one.

[WaterFlex]

thnx for the numbers.
why 5870 vs 480 not 470?

[Monstru]

Thank you guys!

Biker - sorry but I only have one 2GB HD5870, Asus Matrix. Don't think I'm gonna have 4 of those too soon

WaterFlex - because I had 4 GTX 480 and I only have one GTX 470. And because I tested 1,2,3,4 best ATI GPU vs 1,2,3,4 best Nvidia GPU

[zalbard]

The tech seems to be title dependant, I can't say that QuadFire or Quad-SLI has an edge in scaling over the other...
Great info, thanks for posting!

[nizery]

Thanks for the review