2 x1950pro's crossifre or x1950xtx single

[thefishdude]

simple question any thing you have to offer will be good

i can get 2 1950pros 256mb in crossfire for about £270

or 1 x1950xtx for £300

wich would be better/faster ??

thanks in advance

 

[dirtyboy]

I haven't looked at any benchmarks, but my money's on the single x1950xtx. I've never seen sli/crossfired cards of lesser power beat a single card of one step up superior power.

 

[cleeve]

From the benches I've seen, it's very close.

[EDIT] on second look, the crossfire'd X1950 PROs look to lose to X1950 XTXs pretty much every time.

But they still look OK for the money...[/EDIT]

 

[thelostchild]

I would go for the x1950xtx because there very closely matched performance wise, but this way you'll save on the electricity bill at least with it

 

[rooophy]

simple question any thing you have to offer will be good

i can get 2 1950pros 256mb in crossfire for about £270

or 1 x1950xtx for £300

wich would be better/faster ??

thanks in advance

Well I run a single sapphire x1950xtx and i can play FEAR with everything maxed, 4x AA and 8x AF in 1920x1200 and the fear benchmark is never below 40FPS.

I'd say one x1950xtx is a good option because i only had to buy a cheap mobo to get one pci-express 16 slot instead of an expensive crossfire board. the price difference between your two x1950pros and one x1950xtx is 30 quid but the price difference between my $68 and a crossfire board would be at least $100 which for you is like 50 or 60 quid. And in the end, if I want to upgrade in the future, i can always get a crossfire mobo and another x1950xtx (they'll be cheap by then) while you'd be stuck with two x1950pro cards and need two new cards.

Or I can keep my x1950xtx as a physics card and get a DX10 card later... I think there are more options with one x1950xtx than two x1950pros.

Let's not forget having to set yourself up in crossfire, although very doable now, is not always the easiest setup even though the x1950pros are implementing it better than an x1950xtx.

 

[col-p-todd]

There is not much of a difference in some games the X1950XTX does better and in other the pro crossfire. with the X1950XTX you'll be able to get a second on in the future for Crossfire.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2858


I,d get the X1950XTX.

p.s.
I just read an article that says that the G80 will be 30% better than the X1950XTX.

 

[shabodah]

Wow, I guess this just goes to show you how far Crossfire has to go. There is no way that 16 pipes/48 shaders at 700mhz should outperform 24 pipes/72 shaders at 575mhz if things were properly optimized. But here in the real world, I still want to see if they sell a 16 pipe 80nm GPU.

 

[jamesgoddard]

If the G80 is only 30% better, then nvidia have some problems

 

[rooophy]

If the G80 is only 30% better, then nvidia have some problems

it's useless to compare the g80 to an R580 part like the x1950xtx, they are two entirely different generations, we gotta compare G80 to R600 and that's impossible at this point since everything is rumor and guesswork.

 

[mandraque]

yea but the g80 will use dx10 which the X1950XT will not be able to do, so i would guess(GUESS, if I'm wrong give me a link and I love you) that the dx10 architecture would be more efficient than the dx9, making a 30% increase a lot more significant(better).....just a guess don't flame me!!

 

[rooophy]

yea but the g80 will use dx10 which the X1950XT will not be able to do, so i would guess(GUESS, if I'm wrong give me a link and I love you) that the dx10 architecture would be more efficient than the dx9, making a 30% increase a lot more significant(better).....just a guess don't flame me!!

i won't flame you

I'd say the G80 will probably perform really well in DX9 but it'll be a lot more expensive too, that's why you'd have to compare it to the R600 part that ATI will release early next year.

As far as this thread is concerned and whether to go for two x1950 pros in crossfire or one x1950xtx it seems the xtx wins the performance by a little margin but offers a lot more flexibility for upgrade paths.

 

[thefishdude]

cheers for all ya opiions guys seems like the xtx is winning the vote and like you said the upgrade path is better interesting that someone mentioned using it as a physic card later when dx10 cards are out

sounds like an interesting propect will that be able to be done ?

 

[Slobogob]

If the G80 is only 30% better, then nvidia have some problems

it's useless to compare the g80 to an R580 part like the x1950xtx, they are two entirely different generations, we gotta compare G80 to R600 and that's impossible at this point since everything is rumor and guesswork.

People still compare the x8xx series to the 7600GS or others. Yet both sport totally different shaders (2.0 and 3.0). Why? Because of the performance/price ratio. The G80 will have to face whatever DX9-stuff reaches into it´s price segment. Real DX10 games are at least a year away and MS hopes it can finish vista until chrismas... Until there is a good base of DX10 games, the G80 and every other DX10 card will have to face off with the older and cheaper DX9 cards. In addition the first generation DX10 cards will have to live with the risk that they aren´t powerful enough to run DX10 games next year.

 

[rooophy]

cheers for all ya opiions guys seems like the xtx is winning the vote and like you said the upgrade path is better interesting that someone mentioned using it as a physic card later when dx10 cards are out

sounds like an interesting propect will that be able to be done ?

I think using GPUs for physics will become the norm, they have enormous power compared to whatever dedicated physics cards are out there and ATI was about to release the RD600 which was essentially a motherboard with three pci-express 16x slots, two for graphics and one for physics using an x1000 series GPU. I heard Nvidia is going to go a similar paths with the new 6xx series chipsets. I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that GPU as physics processors will happen in the next 12 to 18 months, just about the time you'd upgrade your video card...

 

[rooophy]

Until there is a good base of DX10 games, the G80 and every other DX10 card will have to face off with the older and cheaper DX9 cards. In addition the first generation DX10 cards will have to live with the risk that they aren´t powerful enough to run DX10 games next year.

That's right but I would expect the DX10 cards to carry a hefty price premium compared to the DX9 cards and that might skew the comparison in favor of DX9 parts until those DX10 games show up. Also, DX10 is ONLY going to be released for Vista and that might slow things down quite a bit, I wonder if people will switch to Vista quickly or resist the change. I know I won't rush for Vista even though my rig can comfortable run it (once I plug another gig of Ram in it).

 

[Slobogob]

That's right but I would expect the DX10 cards to carry a hefty price premium compared to the DX9 cards and that might skew the comparison in favor of DX9 parts until those DX10 games show up. Also, DX10 is ONLY going to be released for Vista and that might slow things down quite a bit, I wonder if people will switch to Vista quickly or resist the change. I know I won't rush for Vista even though my rig can comfortable run it (once I plug another gig of Ram in it).

People will switch to Vista sooner or later. At the latest when their new computer ships with it installed. The gamers once there is a DX10 game out there that they really want. The enthusiasts, as soon as possible, with the option to switch between Vista and XP...

 

[rooophy]

People will switch to Vista sooner or later. At the latest when their new computer ships with it installed. The gamers once there is a DX10 game out there that they really want. The enthusiasts, as soon as possible, with the option to switch between Vista and XP...

Yes that's probably rght, I still think it'll be a good idea to skip the first generation of DX10 cards though, or at least to wait a little until they are cheaper.

 

[Slobogob]

People will switch to Vista sooner or later. At the latest when their new computer ships with it installed. The gamers once there is a DX10 game out there that they really want. The enthusiasts, as soon as possible, with the option to switch between Vista and XP...

Yes that's probably rght, I still think it'll be a good idea to skip the first generation of DX10 cards though, or at least to wait a little until they are cheaper.

Can´t argue with that. Nobody wants to be a beta tester. Well, at least not if you have to PAY for beta testing.

 

[col-p-todd]

How much are the first DX10 cards going to cost +-???

I,m thinking about getting a X1950XTX but i,m not sure to get the X1950XTX or a DX10 card. :?

 

[rooophy]

How much are the first DX10 cards going to cost +-???

I,m thinking about getting a X1950XTX but i,m not sure to get the X1950XTX or a DX10 card. :?

Hard to tell at this point but I wouldn't be surprised to see those 30% more expensive than the top DX9 parts. But I'm just speculating. At around $420 for an x1950xtx you're getting a lot of bang for your buck and the card is not too loud even under load. Who knows how loud the DX10 cards are gonna be especially the first generation.