Phil_Boggild

Haven't heard of that mod. Ok. I did the above test with the Siscorally TOD, but sure, I've got nothing to do tonight. I'm off to Crymod!

Edit: Whoa, that texture pack is 2 GB. I'm on a 1 mb connection, so that would take me virtually until morning to download. If memory serves the level 6 CCC config can be installed to max out all of the cvar settings, and is specified for "Next generation hardware. Experimental usage only". I'm going to apply that to add stress.

Phil_Boggild

Ok, new round of tests done. In lieu of the texture pack that was suggested, I upped the ante on my 4870 by installing the CUDAATS CCC config version 2.21 on the level 6 Ultra High-End setting. This setting essentially sets all cvar configuration values for maximum visual quality and therefore maximum stress on the system.

Additionally, I enabled 4xAA and 16xAF as per the previous test, and also added Adaptive AA to the mix to really push things. Catalyst AI was set to Advanced, and Mipmap Quality was set to its highest setting. I also overclocked the GPU clock to 765 MHz, and the memory clock to 950 MHz.

All benchmarks were carried out in DX10 64.

As before, performance over the 16x slot and the 8x slot were virtually identical, with the average FPS over the 16x slot coming in at 19.1, and 18.9 using the 8x slot.

Also, contrary to what someone said earlier in the thread, the performance difference between the P45 and X38/X48 diminishes a great deal as resolution is increased, usually resulting in a difference of no more than 1-2 FPS at 1920 x 1200, as found in the following test.

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=761&p=2

Attached Thumbnails

     

rico2001

Case closed for the 4870. Will pull out the 4850 X2 tomorrow.

Crysis: DX10

4870 @ 8X pci-e 2.0


4870 @ 16X pci-e 2.0



STALKER Clear Sky: DX10.1, 0xAA

4870 @ 8X pci-e 2.0


4870 @ 16X pci-e 2.0

__________________
My reviews:
4870, 4870 Tri-fire, 4850 X2 Quad-fire, 4850 X2 vs. 4870 X2,
4850 X2 + 4870 Tri-fire, 4850 X2 + 4870 X2 Quad-fire, 4850 + 4870 Crossfire,
(NEW) 4890 vs. 4850 X2

Steam nick: rico2001

"The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be only sustainable competitive advantage." ~Arie de Geus

djglenn

Guys, I just wanted to register to say thanks.... I have just ordered a new 4890, and was put off buying a 2nd due to the fact that I own a P45 motherboard...

I will be watching this thread with interest as this is the first place I have found any sort of positive feedback based on using crossfire on a P45 chipset.

Rico2001, do you use the Asus P5Q-PRO board for all of your reviews? I am interested, because I own exactly the same board....

Thanks.

Phil_Boggild

Djglenn, I shall answer on Rico's behalf, and say that yes, he uses the P5Q Pro for everything. You can see it in the photos in his reviews. Given that the 4870 1gb doesn't appear to be bottlenecked at all, two 4890's almost certainly would be fine. I intend to have the same set up on the same board this time next week, so we'll be in the same boat.

Very much case closed for the 4870. The 4850x2 will be interesting, given that at 8x bandwidth is going to be shared by two GPUs. If anything's going to show a bottleneck, it'll be this.

djglenn

Thanks.

I am told by the delivery companies tracking system that my card should be here today...I have been reading more and more reviews complaining about the noise from 4890 cards...I hope its not completely unbearable.

Btw, I bought my card from scan as it is on a deal of the day supersaver for £120. I also get free delivery as I am a member of Hexus. Offer ends at 1pm today.

Phil_Boggild

I won't be buying today, but thanks. The regular price is £130, which isn't so bad. I assume we're talking about the XFX cards.

rico2001

@djglenn
Yes Phil was correct, I’ve used the ASUS P5Q-Pro on all of my reviews. Also I used the same Intel E8300 at various speeds with 6GB of ram. The only thing different from review to review are the Ati catalyst drivers. Thanks Phil for answering.

__________________
My reviews:
4870, 4870 Tri-fire, 4850 X2 Quad-fire, 4850 X2 vs. 4870 X2,
4850 X2 + 4870 Tri-fire, 4850 X2 + 4870 X2 Quad-fire, 4850 + 4870 Crossfire,
(NEW) 4890 vs. 4850 X2

Steam nick: rico2001

"The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be only sustainable competitive advantage." ~Arie de Geus

MoboMatt333

You may very well be the only one with that mobo.
the extreme is not so extreme. the ud3p is a better board.
thank god it has 2x pci ex x16's onboard.


As for the orig. post, I'd go with the 4890. you can swap out your mobo a a later time for something w/ dual x16 pci ex.

Phil_Boggild

If you look at our benchmarks, we've shown pretty conclusively that an x8 PCIe port doesn't bottleneck a 4870 in the least, even under extreme conditions and even when overclocked. I can't see any immediate need to get a new mobo.