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- Date:
- Tuesday , August 17, 2010
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
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GeForce GTX 460 SLI vs. Radeon HD 5870 CFX @ 5760
Last week we showed you that GTX 460 1GB SLI was a better performer than the much more expensive Radeon HD 5870 CrossFireX at 2560x1200 resolution. This week we look at 5760x1200, a super widescreen gaming resolution using both company's multi-display technologies; NV Surround and ATI Eyefinity.
Introduction
We’ve been seeing NVIDIA’s new mainstream champion, the GeForce GTX 460 hold the spotlight by providing a solid gameplay experience while representing a very good value. When two of these Galaxy GTX 460 1GB video cards are combined in a system and SLI is enabled we have witnessed incredible gaming performance that surpasses even the competition's high-end video card solutions in CrossFireX configurations. This SLI scaling is a true wakeup call for AMD, begging for better multi-GPU CrossFireX scaling efficiency. Previously we looked at these configurations using a single 30" monitor at a very large 2560x1200 resolution. Today we take our NV Surround and Eyefinity users into consideration and show you 3x1 5760x1200 resolution using each company's multi-display gaming technology.
Test Setup
We are using two Galaxy GeForce GTX 460 1GB Super OC video cards. These video cards are factory overclocked and operate at 810MHz GPU clock speed, 1600MHz shader frequency and 4GHz memory. We are also using two "reference" Radeon HD 5870 1GB video cards overclocked to common factory speeds of 850MHz GPU and 4.8GHz memory. We are using an apples-to-apples comparison between Galaxy GTX 460 1GB SLI and Radeon HD 5870 1GB CFX in terms of resolution and in-game quality settings. While we usually show you frame rates at "highest playable" settings, these A2A results do not represent "playable" settings in all games. Given that these results do not represent canned timedemos but are rather real world gaming run-throughs.
The system specifications are MSI X58 Eclipse, Intel Core i7 920 @ 3.6GHz, 6GB DDR3, Dell 3007WFP, Win7 x64. We are using the latest Catalyst 10.7a BETA driver for the AMD video cards and NVIDIA ForceWare drivers 258.96 WHQL.
5760x120 - 3x1
Metro 2033
In Metro 2033, running at 5760x1200 with "Very High" in-game settings and AAA enabled, we see that performance delta is very small between the two configurations. The Galaxy GeForce GTX 460 SLI is technically faster considering average frame rate, but the spread is only 1.5 frames per second. In the game itself we could not tell one card configuration from the other. This is the first time since our 2560x1600 testing that performance has been roughly the same between these two card combinations.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
In Battlefield: Bad Company 2 we tested at 5760x1200 with 2X AA enabled, and once again we see Galaxy GeForce GTX 460 SLI winning in terms of average frame rate. That is not really where the true win is playing this game. When you look at the graph, you will notice that the Radeon HD 5870 1GB CFX configuration's frame rate has many severe down-spikes in frame rate. The Galaxy GeForce GTX 460 SLI flows much better and returns a frame rate that is much more consistent. This consistency translates to a much better gameplay experience.
This goes to show why real-world gameplay information is much more important than just a "benchmark" or "timedemo." If you had just seen the average framerates on a bar chart it would be misleading and not tell the whole story.
You keep asking why we have not made BF:BC2 CrossFireX performance and issue with AMD. This is not a new issue and AMD sees that its CFX card setups keep taking a beating in this game. At this point I have to assume that AMD does not have the resources to address the problem.
Aliens vs. Predator
In Aliens vs. Predator we are testing at 5760x1200 with No AA enabled. We had to disable AA completely in this game in order to actually complete our run-through on the Radeon HD 5870 1GB CFX, otherwise the game was too laggy and we ended up dying. When we die in our gaming run-through it tends to negate the process so it has to be started over which can be very resource consuming.
As you can see, this game, unlike the other two, has a much larger delta in the average framerate. The Galaxy GeForce GTX 460 SLI is pulling in much higher frame rates, though it did lag behind in one area where performance dropped abruptly. This happened when the character (a Predator) was hunched over a fellow Predator, arming his wrist explosive device, for some reason it seemed like SLI dropped the ball here, or there was some sort of memory bandwidth bottleneck for about 20 seconds. Overall though, the experience was noticeably better with Galaxy GeForce GTX 460 SLI.
1GB Bottlenecks at 5760
There are some limitations with gaming in a triple display configuration at 5760x1200. Notably the amount of RAM on the video card will impact how high you can set the graphics settings in a game as well as the level of AntiAliasing. The GeForce GTX 460 has 1GB of RAM on board, and we have found limitations with this amount at these triple display resolutions. Similarly the Radeon HD 5870 also has 1GB of memory on board. This allowed us to make an apples-to-apples comparison, but note that each game can only be taken so far in terms of AA.
For example, in Metro 2033 it is absolutely impossible to run at 5760x1200 with 4X AA (the only AA option supported) enabled. In Aliens vs. Predator it is also near impossible to play with 2X AA enabled, and thus we had to lower it to "No AA" just to be able to do our run-through on both combinations. In Bad Company 2 the absolute highest we could set was 2X AA, any higher and it was simply too laggy and choppy to actually complete the run-through. Therefore, we are at the highest possible settings without completely being bottlenecked by the memory capacity. As such, both of these card configurations are simply limited by other factors that keep their overall potential capped at high resolutions like 5760x1200. It was quite interesting though that we saw Radeon HD 5870 CrossFireX catch up to Galaxy GeForce GTX 460 SLI in Metro 2033.
The Bottom Line
NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 460 SLI continues to impress, even at triple display resolutions. However, as the resolution increases, the gap does close between the Radeon HD 5870 CrossFireX and GeForce GTX 460 SLI. In the end though, there is no denying that GeForce GTX 460 SLI provided faster framerates and a smoother, more consistent, gameplay experience.
When AMD’s ATI Eyefinity was debuted, there was nothing else to compare it to at the time. We’ve certainly had great performances with AMD video cards in ATI Eyefnity, and still do. It seems though that NVIDIA has been hard at work too, trying to steal that crown, and it seems NVIDIA's hard work has paid off. Yes, NVIDIA was caught off guard by ATI Eyefinity, but it seems NVIDIA's current generation of video cards are more than capable of pushing triple displays with SLI at very fast framerates. NVIDIA has certainly surprised everyone with the GeForce GTX 460 and its amazing SLI scaling and performance.
It is also worth noting that in single card configurations, AMD's ATI Radeon HD 5800 series still rules the multi-display market and has no competition. It looks as though AMD's CrossFireX implementation is the only poison in the well at this time. Single 5850s and 5870s are still great cards, but we do have to say that the GeForce GTX 460 has taken away the HD 5850's "Best Value" crown that it has worn since its introduction. With GeForce GTX 460 1GB SLI performance compared to any level of CrossFireX, well, AMD should just be embarrassed.
One Galaxy GeForce GTX 460 1GB will cost you $229 after $10 MIR. That is a relatively "inexpensive" $460 SLI setup that will provide some awesome gaming performance even in a triple display configuration.