AMD/ATI video adapters series radeon HD 3000 support multi-GPU operation mode : crossFireX, which allow to use immediately 4 GPU , guaranteeing the maximum picture quality with acceptable speed in 3d- applications (games).
NVIDIA company has also similar technologies called quad SLI ; however, recently appeared the possibility to unite 3 graphic adapter in one system : the so-called 3- way NVIDIA SLI configuration.
In case of CrossFire X , 4 GPU was used with two radeon HD 3870 X2, each was equipped with two graphic chips radeon HD 3870. Against them our associates decided to use three cards geForce 8800 Ultra.
Test platform for CrossFireX: Phenom 2,66 GHz, MSI K9A2 platinum (AMD 790FX), Radeon HD 3870 X2 × 2, DDR 2-800 1 GB × 2 (5-5-5-18), 850- Win 64- bit OS Windows vista ultimate. System for 3- way SLI appeared as follows: Core 2 Extreme QX6800 2,66 GHz, ASUSTeK P5N- T deluxe (nForce 780i SLI), GeForce 8800 Ultra × 3, 1200- W PSU .
Systems Energy consumption
3DMark06 1.3.0
Crysis v.1.1
Unreal tournament 3 v.1.2
As it is evident, in any 3d- application the energy consumption of three card NVIDIA occurs higher than a pair radeon HD 3870 X2. In this case, such power consumption prove to be justified : the speed of system on base of top- card NVIDIA was above both in synthetic tests (3DMark06) and in real games. Related Products :
|