9800 gtx vs dual ati

which is better between a singel 1gb 9800m GTX and dual ati 3870 at 512 mb each?

 

I would say the single 9800M GTX but I'm not 100% sure on that.

 

SLI easily. It ain't hard to tell.

 

im not talking bout sli..just a single nvidia card

 

Oops I meant to say the Crossfire 3870s easily wins.

 

oh hehehe..chhers

 

The 2 3870s will win it.

 

Easily, the Xfire will win. Depends on the game though. Some are very poorly optimized for Xfire.

 

Which laptops are we talking about here?

If by "better" you don't necessarily mean "more powerful", I'd go with the single 9800M GTX. It may be weaker at games that utilize Crossfire well, but what about those that do not? At least the single card will be a more consistent performer, which in my book, can be classified as a "better" thing. But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong

 

Agreed but i would prolly go Xfire cuz it's only gonna get better =)

 

Xfire is where it's at.

 

the notebook crossfire setups are going to become much more powerful than they are now because that is ATI's primetime mobile gaming GPU's that they're competing in the DTR notebooks. so obviously ATI would (should) be motivated in getting drivers for these cards.

for this moment in time, the 9800gtx will perform much more constant than the crossfire setup, but eventually the crossfire setup will mature and newer drivers will help get better performance from the cards to where it provides constant performance.

 

This has been discussed a lot on the OCZ section because the whitebook uses the 3870 in crossfire and others wanted to know the same thing. I suggest you take a look there. Also, nobody really knows what the 3870s can truly do because ATI hasn't released any mobility drivers for them like nVidia just started doing. So that is something to keep in mind.

 

Eh, everything with these ATI cards is about waiting.

"Don't worry, 8.11 will change everything."

8.11 hits, nothing happens....

"Oh it's 8.12! That's the one! Just you wait Nvidia!"

8.12 hits....

Nvidia: *laughs*

So what are we waiting for now?

 

Ummm, we are waiting for ATI to actually provide mobile support. Those two versions you mentioned don't have any mobile support. Right now it is almost like comparing apples and oranges. nVidias mobile cards have full support with mobile drivers, whereas ATI cards have to use a mobility modder to make them compatible.

 

might i point out vista and the 8000m series both had many problems when they came out. gotta wait for drivers to mature.

many 8800 cards were downclocking themselves providing inferior performance.

 

Yeah the crossfire HD3870 will outperform the single 9800M GTX by a fair margin, but in games which can take advantage of dual GPUs. Not all games are optimized for dual GPUs and some actually perform on just one which kind of defeats the purpose >_>

 

the 9800 gtx is a great card but they charge absolutely ridiculous amount for an upgrade

For example a crossfire 3870 is much cheaper then a SINGLE GTX why is that?

 

It's because for a long time nVidia had no high end competition from ATi in notebooks.

Now they do, and hopefully prices start to drop. Alienware (even if you don't like them) has already started to drop some of the prices on the 9800GT's - (I think they should have dropped a while ago, since you know, its the same card as the 8800GTX, but whatever...) so hopefully, that's a sign. Haven't seen any other ones getting cheaper with nVidia solutions, though.

 

believe me once that 4000 card hits mainstream nvidia will have to drop there prices especially with the way the economy is now buying ATI now for consumers makes more sense because of the price. and the hardcore gaming is only a niche market so if a high end 4000 card is cheap maybe people wll pony up for it

 

If nVidia continues to beat their cards easily and ATi is continually lazy with a true support platform for their video cards in mobile solutions, nVidia may stay on top regardless of price. People will pay for the best, and as you say hardcore is a niche market- it's a niche market because those people can pay for that market- so I doubt that the economy will affect new said laptops, but I could be wrong.

But this is all speculation, anyway, and who doesn't like cheaper!? I'm all for it.

 

Well Nvidia has had a hold on most of the higher end notebook GPU market for a while so ATI's arrival will most certainly bring some much needed competition. Competition is always nice for the market since we get more competitive prices as consumers

Also note ATI's naming scheme is less deceiving than Nvidia's >.>

 

Templesa yep at the end of the day cheaper = better have you seen the msi with the 4850? That thing only costs like $1350 and has a high end processor amazing

Forever, Competitive pricing is what its all about but honestly do any of you think nvidia will lower there prices to match ati? Theres a possibility there, i just dont see that happening though i can already see a high end nvidia vs ATI being about $300 more expensive but who knows, let wait and see

Oh and merry christmas guys!

 

Looking at the Mobility 4850 specs (550/750/800 SP's), it's on par with a desktop HD 4830, and as we all ought to know, this card outperforms a desktop 9800 GT.

 

Exactly. I've been checking out the OCZ forums for a month now since I'm in a market for a new laptop, and all I've been hearing is the 3870 in crossfire is still only a 3dMark GPU. Wonder when ATI will go nVidias route and put more effort in the drivers that handle their fancy chips. At this point in time I'd rather go for the nVidia, but it none of these OCZ resellers are offering that as a config option.

In fact, the only real reason I haven't bought it yet, other than the prospect of killing my warranty by OC'ing the Quad, is that not ready for prime time GPU. So ATI get on it!

 

I'd just like to mention that everybody knocking ATI needs to read up on what the R700 / 4800 series of cards did to NVidia, since it seems a lot of you still think of ATI as having 2900 / 3800 series cards. The 4850 forced an immediate $100 price cut (Literally overnight) in NVidia's 9800 GTX, the 4870 forced a large price cut on the GTX 260, and ATI has solidly won this round of graphics cards across the entire price spectrum. The 4850 appears to be poised to similarly rock NVidia's world in the mobile market.

 

Exactly, people also doesn't realize that the mobile 48xx series will probably fit into the same power envelope as the 38xx series so MFRs like OCZ could provide an upgrade path for one heck of a mobile gaming monster.

 

Well if you look at the desktop market, Nvidia has a hold on the highest highest end of the GPU market, but at a very hefty price. Their higher end GPUs are still more expensive than an ATI equivalent.

That being said, we'll see. Unlike in desktops, notebook manufacturers are the ones buying the GPUs and implementing them into their laptops so this is a notable difference between the notebook GPU market and the desktop GPU market. If the prices are considerably lower for a same performance, chances are the manufacturers will purchase from ATI rather than Nvidia perhaps and we'll get to see more ATI powered graphics in laptops.

 

This is a perfect example of what I just said earlier. The 4870x2 completely spanks the GTX280 in performance, yet people still think NVidia holds the top card crown. While the GTX295 will likely top the 4870x2, it's a single slot but 2 PCBs, so 'single card' in technicality only. You all really need to reexamine the desktop market from June on (Release of 4800 series), ATI is winning at every price point.

NVidia has to downclock and cut out the stream processors on all their mobile cards. ATI with 55nm process can keep the stream processors the same and simply cut clocks to fit the thermal specifications. That's why the upcoming mobile 4850 will soundly outperform the 9800M GTX.

Now when NVidia die-shrinks the GTX 200 series to 55nm, which is happening in a month or two, then we'll see how things shake out. The GTX 260 is currently the only competitively priced card in NVidia's current lineup, but I expect NVidia's response with 55nm and probably higher clocked versions of existing cards to restore some balance to what the 4800 series accomplished.

 

But that's Crossfire no? The GTX280 is still on par with the HD4870 and the single most pwoerful GPU out there last I checked. It just costs a butt load more money, which makes it very cost inefficient.

ATI has a far more effective price/performance ratio than Nvidia does. IMO, past the 8800 GT/8800 GTS, Nvidia's higher end cards just aren't worth the money when compared to ATI's HD4850 and the like.

Nvidia is also bad at downsizing to mobile form as you said while ATI's mobile and desktop counterparts are comparable to a certain extent.

I'm not bashing ATI. I actually think they're winning the market as it stands. I'm just stating that at pure brute power, Nvidia does have the top single GPU. I'd buy an HD4850 over a GTX280 any day currently ebcause I'd be getting more for my money

 

Why are you even talking about the 8800 GT / 8800 GTS you do realize that's 2 full graphic card generations behind what's current? Not to mention the HD 4830 is faster than the 9800 GT and is back and forth with the 9800 GTX, is about $40 cheaper than the GTX and on similar pricing with the GT.

The 4870x2 is not crossfire, it's a single card using a single PCI-E slot. You can crossfire 4870x2's. It has 2 cores I believe on the same PCB, but is a single card, so yes, the 4870x2 is the fastest single card on the market. "The last time you checked" is really the problem I'm getting at.

ATI, with no qualifications, asterisks, or exceptions, has the fastest single card on the market with the 4870x2.

 

I'm actually one of the people knocking ATI. Despite that. I totally agree with you guys, the 48 series is a HUGE upgrade. However, at this point, ATI seems to be having trouble releasing the drivers necessary to make even the 38 crossfire to work to its potential on anything but some benchmarking software. At this point, it doesnt seem like they're going out of their way to help pospective and current consumers out either. OCZ doesnt help that by only offering the 38 by default in the whitebook. I would absolutely consider taking the 48 in crossfire (or not) over the 9800gtx if I had the choice. Therein lies the problem though. All I really want is the choice.

Man I really hope that Hydra technology is really all that its being hyped up to be.

 

Alright well pardon my misjudgment, I'm still behind in terms of desktop GPUs. Don't need to go get all on my case lol

Last time I was up to date, ATI had just release the HD4850 and it wasn't yet on par due to incomplete optimization of drivers so pardon me for not keeping up to date.

Well if that's the case then ATI has really caught up in the desktop department. Hopefully they will make their place more known in the notebook department because their GPUs are really good and unlike Nvidia, their desktop/notebook counterparts are actually somewhat accurate.

 

There's an MSI notebook with a mobile 4850 coming out late January, I've posted the offer to downclock my 4850 to 550/750 and run benchmarks.

 

Update, Crysis benchmarks now available, more coming once I downclock my CPU from the BIOS. The GPU, once downclocked, is identical to the mobile version, so once I lock my FSB multiplier to 6x in my BIOS and force persistent CPU affinity settings for Crysis.exe, I'll have the equivalent of a Mobility HD 4850 system with a P8600.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4319342&postcount=125

 

No, I am. And it's Mr.