Conclusion
Conclusion
If you take a look into the past, multi card setups have always been a somewhat temperamental solution to the never-ending quest for high performance. We remember a time when just getting SLI and Crossfire to run properly in the vast majority of applications was a lesson in frustration. Well, times have changed. While scaling still isn’t perfect across every game for a number of reasons, both NVIDIA’s and ATI’s technologies have matured to the point where we can consider them a viable option for people who want the best of the best. Naturally, there are still pitfalls as we saw with NVIDIA’s rendering problems in Aliens versus Predator (
EDIT: Please note this is a game issue that affects NVIDIA cards and NOT a driver issue. It should be fixed in an upcoming patch.) ) and ATI’s image quality issues in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 but these scenarios are much less prevalent than they were about a year ago. That in itself bodes well for multi card setups.
Back when we first reviewed the GTX 470, we were impressed with its overall performance in comparison to the HD 5850 particularly when image quality settings were increased. Our observations regarding a framerate advantage haven’t changed when another card is added since for the most part two GTX 470s in SLI still routinely beat out a pair of HD 5850 cards.
However, the facts are quite clear: in general, ATI’s cards offer better multi GPU scaling than anything NVIDIA can currently offer. Believe it or not, NVIDIA’s SLI scaling is actually very, very good considering we saw on average a 60% to 81% increase when going from one card to two. We’re just not that excited about it because ATI threw a live hand grenade into the SLI party by posting performance increases that were simply jaw-dropping in nearly every respect. It is because of this dual card scaling that a HD 5850 Crossfire setup can make up a ton of lost ground when compared to ATI’s single GPU scores. On the other hand, the HD 5970 is simply trampled by the GTX 470 SLI setup.
Luckily for NVIDIA, we didn’t stop at the average framerates and included (as usual) minimums as well. In this category the GTX 470 SLI is still head and shoulders above the competition when IQ settings are pushed since it doesn’t exhibit the numerous dips in performance that characterize the Crossfire experience. I don’t know about you but I would much rather have a slightly lower average framerates if it means my system won’t bog down when I’m fighting for my life in a game. Basically, a fluid gaming experience is what SLI is ideal for…or at least until ATI can figure out a way to bring up their minimum framerates in some games.
Considering the drivers we were using for NVIDIA’s cards aren’t exactly what we would call mature, the stability these two GTX 470s exhibited was nothing short of praise-worthy. There was a minor hiccup when it came to rendering some overhead objects in AvP without AA enabled but other than that, sailing was smooth. ATI’s solution on the other hand had numerous issues in Aliens versus Predator, Metro 2033 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2, only of which the latter didn’t affect gameplay too much. There were also problems with the drivers (10.3a and 10.2 WHQL) actually detecting both cards which seems to be a reoccurring frustration with every second driver from ATI’s team. NVIDIA’s average SLI scaling might not be up to the level of Crossfire but its seamless implementation has yet to be equaled by the competition.
While performance is good and minimum framerates are awe-inspiring, our main concerns about a GTX 470 SLI lie in two areas: price and power consumption. Both aspects wouldn’t have been too much of a concern if NVIDIA had managed to carry their average single card performance lead over the HD 5850 into multi card benchmarks. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen so as it stands we feel that spending $700 for two GTX 470 cards is a hard sell when you can buy a similarly performing solution from ATI for more than $100 less. When you add a power consumption gap of more than 100 watts into the equation, it becomes extremely hard to recommend a GTX 470 SLI setup at this point in time for someone who isn’t hell-bent on going with NVIDIA cards.
It is quite evident that while the GTX 470 is a clear winner against a single HD 5850, SLI is currently struggling to mirror the downright amazing scaling that Crossfire offers. Overall framerates for a GTX 470 SLI system are still incredible but the HD 5850 in Crossfire is simply too close for comfort in most cases. It is also important to remember that NVIDIA’s drives are still quite immature and multi card performance is usually one of the first things addressed when new versions are released. As such we intend to take another look at GTX 470 SLI performance in the future. While we can’t outright recommend going SLI in this case, it offers enough convincing performance wins that it should be at least considered by enthusiasts.
