http://en.expreview.com/?p=53
 
 
Im surprised the Crossfire did so well! I was expecting it to suck as everywhere I read they say the drivers need improvement? 100+% scale in 3dmark?  Anyone care to question the validity of this review?
 
*please no price gouging comments

I seriously considered dual 3850's or 3870's, but have concerns with compatibility/stability.  This review paints a prettier picture of crossfire than other reviews. I don't doubt potential fr large gains, but how much frustration will there be inbetween.  Thye sure got decent gains though.  

F&#*$ price gouging... heh, j/k
 
Seriously though... I didn't expect such gains from Crossfire vs. Single. Crossfire even faired pretty well vs. SLI.

That looks awesome... i was looking at HD3850's has anyone seen Crossfire scalings on these?

 
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3151
 
2 3850s = the performance of 1 8800GTX 768MB/384-bit
179.99 x 2 = $359.98                                 $500.00
 
I am going to put 2 3850's for my last upgrade on my A8R32-MVP Deluxe (S939) AMD Opteron 165 @ 3.0ghz & 4gigs of Patriot CL 2-2-2-5 1T and see how it handles Vista & DX10 (I hope physics processing will be possible..)
 

I found LOTS of links about the 3870 X2s !!  The r700 is closer than I thought.
It will be available in February...So rumors say.
The 10.1 also makes the ATI cards a little more future proof as well.
I'm itching to upgrade my X1950XT !!

 
I wouldn't question the vaidity as it seems similar to what many others were reporting, but it is still a semi-iffy site, but there's nothing gravely out of whack, the single numbers on the HD3870 are still lower than the single numbers on the GF8800GT, and the Xfire numbers are a little better but nothing wildly so with the GT doing better in some and the HD3870 doing better in others. I'd want a little more supporting evidence before formulating opinions in general, but interesting none the less.
 
I'm with Paul about the stabilty/compatability issues with such setups though, still a bit iffy.
 

 
Aww, C'mon!  

 
Funny thing is I'm already itching to upgrade the new HD2600 mobile solution, but it's more an issue of other factors than just the graphics, but with the possability of a new R700 single core mobile solution by spring/summer when I shop for new gear, that's looking very interesting, especially if it can give me near/above HD3K performance. Otherwise the Hd3K and G92 based mobile solutions may be the attraction.

Surprising performance by the 3870 to me.

What I can tell from that is that nvidia have seriously rubbish sli drivers for half life 2!
 
And Lost planet!  
 
ATI is kicking ass if that is true... now if only their crossfire 3/4way scaled as well, they'd be on a winner, for once.

Crossfire really flexes it's muscles with AA and AF. I dunno 'bout you guys, but that makes me a lot more inclined to get two of those cards.

The CROSSFIRE numbers are good,but you'll notice the SLI setup is still faster.So ya,CROSSFIRE has good potential,but AMD/ATI still needs to beat out NVIDIA.
 
Dahak
 
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3DMARK 05 13,685    

This review definatly made me happy, As a X38 owner the only option for multi GPU's is with crossfire. Im glad that the cards are doing well as I already have a 3870 on the way. My plans are to get the second whenever the prices return to normal.
 
*THAT does not count as a price gouging comment!

 
In what game?
 
Seems like they trade blows, and even with AA.
 
HL2 without AA Xfire wins, with AA SLi wins.
UT3 low res SLi wins, high res Xfire wins no AA
COJ DX10 Xfire wins them all including AA
Lost Planet DX10 SLi wins them all  
ETQW Xfire wins them all including AA
COH SLi wins without AA, Xfire wins with AA
 
So if you don't include the Bungholiomark results then Xfire slightly outperforms SLi on average, but including 3Dmk then they are even.  

I dont think people realize that the bench marks of two cards, and not of CF and SLI. The fact that a Slower card (3870) is in most cases keeping up, and sometimes beating a faster card (8800gt) show how much better CF is. The 8800gt is supposed to be somewhere around 20% better than a single 3870. But when you have a dual setup, the 3870's are on par with 2 8800gt's. And knowing that SLI is limited to only 2 cards, and CF can have up to 4 helps even more. 4 3870's would be faster than 2 8800gtx's.

Intel's chipsets will be a saving grace to AMD! Theres decent value in getting two 3850's or 3870's and putting them in your Intel box. SLI has yet to be licensed to Intel but Crossfire has been, currently is, and will continue to be. Nvidia isn't planning on licensing SLI to Intel any time soon either. Am I the only one that sees the irony in this?
 
http://www.nordichardware.com/news,7050.html

I wish SLI and Xfire were both cross-compatible since I'm on a SLI board.  I still wouldn't get 2 3870s though but it sure looks enticing.

It is pretty ironic. But i would have to think that amd planed this. As much as people were saying that getting ati was a bad idea, it might just be its saving grace. Rich Arabas dosnt hurt either. Intel is in a pickle though. It wants to push AMD as far out of the market as it can with out becoming a monopoly. But if Intel sells more chipsets that are CF, it helps AMD as well. It was a very smart move to get ATI if AMD knew that there cpu's wouldnt be able to keep up with intel's. This way, they can feed off of the success of intel while they try and fix there company.

Link is down.
 
I have read other reviews and from what I can tell Crossfire seems to scale just a little bit better than SLI. As usual, it depends mostly on the game, with some games actually taking a performance HIT. Because of this application-dependent nature I still don't count either solution as being practical or cost-effective.
 
I will give my blessing to the first multi-GPU solution that scales almost linearly in EVERY application. I have read that ATI is working on an alternate frame rendering mode that is supposed to be application independent under DX9. I don't think it's ready for prime time yet though.