PLEASE DON'T QUOTE THE ENTIRE POST, AS IT IS VERY LONG!
Before I start, I want you guys to keep in mind that everyone's results vary, and that's just the nature of PC gaming. I stress the importance of the average results below the reviews, as the 3 systems used in the reviews differ.
Now, what I want to point out here are the Tom's Hardware, Overclocker's Club, and Bit-Tech reviews, all 3 of which are reliable. I want everyone to look at the numbers and decide for yourselves what it is you are seeing. The numbers (in FPS) are given as a comparison between the 4870 X2, 9800 GX2, and GTX 280 at 1920x1200, an increasingly popular resolution. I leave out AA in the first 2 simply because I have never seen AA as necessary for 1920x1200, but I added the 3rd review with AA due to demand. The 3 rigs used vary a bit (as well as the drivers, I'm sure), as you'll see below, and performance scales accordingly. Also keep in mind that the 4870 X2 is a dual-GPU card. Averages and final thoughts are below all benchmark results.
Tom's Hardware
Benchmark Setup:
* Asus P5E3 Deluxe (Intel X38)
* Intel Core 2 Quad QX6850 (3 GHz)
* Crucial 2 x 1 Go DDR3 1333 MHz 7-7-7-20
* Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250 Go
* Lector DVD Asus 12x
* Coolermaster RealPower Pro 850W
o Windows Vista
o Catalyst 8.8 beta (8.52.2)
o ForceWare 177.79 beta
Crysis:
Flight Simulator X
Call of Duty 4
World in Conflict
Supreme Commander
Unreal Tournament III
Mass Effect
Race Driver GRID
Overclocker's Club
Benchmark Hardware and Software
* Processor: Intel Q9450 Core 2 Quad 333x8
* Motherboard: Gigabyte X48-DQ6
* Memory: Mushkin XP2 Redline 8000 2 x 2GB 5-5-5-12
* Video Card(s): Sapphire HD4870X2
* Power Supply: Mushkin 800w Modular Power Supply
* Hard Drive: 1 x Seagate 1TB SATA
* Optical Drive: NEC DV5700
* OS: Windows Vista Ultimate Edition
Comparison Video Cards:
* 2x HD 4870s in CrossFire
* Sapphire HD 4870
* Palit 9800 GX2
* XFX GTX 280
Crysis
Call of Duty 4
World in Conflict
Bioshock
Call of Juarez
Company of Heroes: Opposing Force
Knights of the Sea
Bit-Tech
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 (operating at 3.00GHz – 9x333MHz); Asus Maximus Formula motherboard (Intel X38 Express with two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots); 2x 2GB Corsair XMS2-6400C5 (operating in dual channel at DDR2-800 5-5-5-12-1T); Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 200GB SATA hard drive; Enermax Galaxy DXX 1000W PSU; Windows Vista Ultimate x86-64 (with Service Pack 1); Intel inf 8.3.0 WHQL.
Crysis DX10 2x AA
Crysis DX9 2x AA
Call of Duty 4 4x AA
World in Conflict 2x AA
Half-Life 2: Ep Two 4x AA
Assassin's Creed 4x AA
Race Driver: GRID 4x AA
TechPowerUp
Test Setup:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.6 GHz
(Wolfdale, 6144 KB Cache)
Motherboard: Gigabyte P35C-DS3R
Intel P35
Memory: 2x 1024MB A.DATA DDR2 1066+ CL4
Harddisk: WD Raptor 740ADFD 74 GB
Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 700W
Software: Windows XP SP2
Drivers: NVIDIA: 175.19, GTX 260 & 280: 177.41, 9500 GT & 9800 GT: 177.72
ATI: Catalyst 8.7, 3870 X2 & 4870 X2: 8.52.2
* All video card results were obtained on this exact system with the exact same configuration.
* All games were set to their highest quality setting
Call of Duty 4 4x AA
Call of Juarez 4x AA
Company of Heroes 4x AA
Crysis 4x AA
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars 4x AA
Far Cry 4x AA
F.E.A.R. 4x AA
Prey 4x AA
Quake 4 4x AA
Splinter Cell 3 4x AA
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 4x AA
Supreme Commander 4x AA
Team Fortress 2 4x AA
Unreal Tournament 3 4x AA
World in Conflict 4x AA
Hot Hardware
Test Setup
Core 2 Extreme QX6850 (3GHz)
Asus Striker II Extreme
(nForce 790i SLI Ultra chipset)
Asus P5E3 Premium
(X48 Express)
Windows Vista Ultimate SP1
DirectX June 2008 Redist
NVIDIA Forceware v177.39 / v177.83
ATI Catalyst v8.8b
Half-Life 2 Ep 2 4x AA
Unreal Tournament 3 no AA (no option)
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars 4x AA
Crysis 1.2 no AA (no option)
Averages and Price/Performance (Price/FPS = Dollar per frame. Lower is better)
- 4870 X2: 102 FPS, Price: $569/102 FPS = 5.57
- 4870: 57.6 FPS, Price: $290/57.6 FPS = 5.03
- GTX 280: 84.11 FPS, Price: $440/84.11 FPS = 5.23
- 9800 GX2: 81.45 FPS, Price: $285/81.45 FPS = 3.49
I decided to also show the average for the single-GPU 4870 to show a more accurate comparison between ATI's single-GPU card and nVidia's.
I also added the Bit-Tech review, seeing as people wanted to see AA results.
The average FPS for the 4870 X2 across the 5 reviews shows a lead of ~17 FPS over the GTX 280 (15%). I am using an overall average as there are 5 different rigs used, different drivers used, and different games used (except for a few that are the same between the reviews), as well as the addition of AA in some of the reviews. Now, what about the price/performance ratio? Well, the 4870 X2 is a little more per frame than GTX 280. Now, many have boasted the price/performance ratio of the 4870 X2 being far greater than the GTX 280. I don't see that here, except for the single-GPU 4870. Furthermore, the 9800 GX2 beats all 3 by far with being only $3.49 per frame, with very similar performance vs the GTX 280, making it an excellent choice. Sure, the GX2 is essentially EOL but by today's standards, it's still an extremely nice video card.
The results given are quite typical of a dual-GPU vs a single GPU, so there's not much surprise here that the 4870 X2 beats the GTX 280 by a small margin. In fact, it is quite remarkable that a single GPU comes that close to beating a dual-GPU card. The more accurate comparison between 2 great cards should be single vs single and dual vs dual, not dual vs single. It's just not accurate. If you compare the single-GPU 4870 to the GTX 280, you have a true comparison between 2 single-GPU cards, and the GTX 280 wins.
The GTX 280 is still a great contender vs the 4870 X2, for $130 cheaper. For those of us on a budget and using a 24" LCD, the GTX 280 is a great card. For even cheaper, the 9800 GX2 is also great. Why didn't I post 1680x1050 results? Because these are cards designed for use on larger monitors, 24" and up and are priced accordingly. Those of us that use 24" would also prefer to use a stronger card to handle the very high resolution, and saving a few bucks in the process is always nice. There are some games that the 4870 X2 excels in, but the fact remains that it does not excel in ALL games, as the benches show. The best ATI card, sure, but not THE best card right now when more than top performance is taken into account.
Bring the heat ATI. The Green Team is still soldiering on!