My 4870 CF 3DMark Vantage Scores

Performance setting

ATI 4870 CF - Cat 8.7 Beta
QX9770 3.8Ghz
Vista x64 SP1
4GB DDR3 1600

3DMark P14990 (assume P is for Performance setting)
GPU Score 14845
CPU Score 15442

GURU3D results for GTX 280 http://www.guru3d.com/article/gefo [...] ew-test/17

Of note, the GPU score differences. If we assume the 4870X2 performs the same as 4870 CF, that would mean that 4870X2 CF would clearly beat up on a Tri SLI GTX 280 setup.

If the 4870X2 is 15% faster than 4870 CF then this is going to be one powerful GPU combo.

The benchmarks id seen show almost no difference between the the x2 and 2 4870's in xfire....

Benchmarks I saw of the 4870X2 looking at the min (not avg or max) showed a 15-20% gain over 4870 CF (in DX10 games).

But most importantly, I think the 4870X2 is an affordable solution (and even more so with the 4850X2) that will permit many to actually play Crysis as it was meant to be played.

Crytek might even start to see some positive return on their huge investment.

Either way, it has forced nVidia to seriously rethink their ridiculous pricing of their cards which I believe has been part of the problem why folks would rather just buy a complete XBOX360 or PS3 rather than $650 for a single video card. Who knows, maybe this will inject some much needed enthusiasm into PC gaming and make it affordable for the masses again.

Lets face it nVidia have pretty much raked the PC gamer over the coals for the last 18 months of same old same old releases with new revenue twists (Tri SLI) and when they finally release something new they not only do business as usual, they make the price even higher. Thanks to ATI, nVidia are now forced to drop their prices.

Now lets see if ATI try to do the same...lets see if they have a long term vision (of keeping PC gaming alive) or if they want to continue the task of making it unaffordable for the masses and watch the PC gaming market dwindle even more. The retail price of the 4870X2 will tell us a lot - $499 is a winner ($399 is extremely optimistic), $599 is business as usual.