My supercheap QuadFire upgrade!

[qubit]

When I upgraded my system to an E8500, I bought a quality Gigabyte mobo (see specs) to go with it. It happens to support CrossFire, which I've never intended to use and am currently using an nvidia GTX 285 as my main graphics card.

UNTIL NOW. <Cue dramatic music>

So, how can an enthusiast like me resist the temptation of a QuadFire upgrade at a really cheap price? He can't!

Therefore, I've bought two Asus 3850 x2 cards from Overclockers UK at £68.99 inc vat each to play with:



There's only a limited number of them, if you want to buy them too. Now, will Overclockers pay me commission for doing their marketing for them?

So, for £148 all in with shipping, I've got 4 graphics processors to play with. And by the looks of it, performance will be quite good, too. I've got the PSU and case to accomodate them, so it's gonna rock.

I'll do some benchies soon and post them on here.

[ObSo-1337]

wow, nice one mate

looking forward to some benchmarks
would love to see how 4 of these babys will compete against more recent and more expensive cards

Kudos on the puchase!

[qubit]

Cheers ObSo-1337

Also, I have the CPU to drive them. Like many other E8500's, mine does well over 4GHz, so CPU power won't be a problem.

I'm especially looking forward to comparing how much performance improvement two cards have over one, as we all know that past two GPUs, the law of diminishing returns kicks in and you just end up spending heat, noise and money.

[ObSo-1337]

haha i can imagine D: would really love to see these compare to my 4890 and see if i got ripped off ;D

[MoonPig]

Wow, i saw these awhile back and couldn't find any info on them.

Can't wait for benchmarks.

[[Ion]]

Looks awesome, subbed for results!

[T3kl0rd]

Congrats on you purchase. It would appear to me though that you will not see any better results than what you had with your GTX 285. See my link for a comparison. Put the HD 3850 in dual card mode on that webpage then multiply the stats by two and you get identical or lesser stats than what the GTX 285 shows.

4 HD 3850's vs GTX 285

[qubit]

Originally Posted by T3kl0rd

Congrats on you purchase. It would appear to me though that you will not see any better results than what you had with your GTX 285. See my link for a comparison. Put the HD 3850 in dual card mode on that webpage then multiply the stats by two and you get identical or lesser stats than what the GTX 285 shows.

4 HD 3850's vs GTX 285

Thanks.

Comparing paper specs only gives you a very rough idea of performance. So, you could say that because a GTX 285 has a 512-bit bus and a 4890 a 256-bit one, that the 285 is twice as fast. However, we all know that to be false for a whole host of reasons, but broadly speaking, it's the combination of all the performance specs together and the design of the GPU that dictates its performance.

I expect the "usual" results of my setup handily beating the 285 in some cases and losing in others, especially where lots of AA & AF are applied, as the 3850 GPU is quite weak there. Heck, in some odd situations, running both cards might be slower than two. I've seen that in reviews now quite a lot of times.

[Robert-The-Rambler]

Aren't you giving up half the frame buffer? So even if you did have more horsepower you are not going to be able to use much FSAA at higher resolution going forward as games need more and more RAM. You are probably aware that the 3800 series stinks with FSAA above 4X anyway. I've used practically the exactly same setup with 4 Radeon 3870s and results are ludicrously good without FSAA and still impressive with 4X. Sometimes with 8X results were funky in Devil May Cry 4. In the cutscenes framerate would dip really bad. Anyhow, what does that UK price translate to in US. I'm curious. I was one of the early adoptor idiots who bought 4 256 meg 3850s and tried to run that at 2560 * 1600 without FSAA. Strangely back then it really worked for what was out at the time.

[T3kl0rd]

According to Yahoo Currency Converter, he paid $220.13 dollars for his dual 3850x2 setup. Here in America, you can get a GTX 285 for $295.99 after $30 dollar rebate. That is a difference of only $75.86 dollars and much much more power. I don't know what that GPU goes for in GB, but I would expect it to be ballpark of that figure. I would have SLI'ed two of those bad boys for some serious power rivaled only by a HD 5870/5850 CF config for single GPUs. It's your money though.

[Robert-The-Rambler]

Originally Posted by T3kl0rd

According to Yahoo Currency Converter, he paid $220.13 dollars for his dual 3850x2 setup. Here in America, you can get a GTX 285 for $295.99 after $30 dollar rebate. That is a difference of only $75.86 dollars and much much more power. I don't know what that GPU goes for in GB, but I would expect it to be ballpark of that figure. I would have SLI'ed two of those bad boys for some serious power rivaled only by a HD 5870/5850 CF config for single GPUs. It's your money though.

From a value standpoint two 1 gig 4850s would have served better. And if that motherboard actually supports SLI sure it would have made sense to get another 285. I'm guessing this is not really about that type of thing though as it is more an experiment with a very rare setup.

[T3kl0rd]

Originally Posted by Robert-The-Rambler

From a value standpoint two 1 gig 4850s would have served better. And if that motherboard actually supports SLI sure it would have made sense to get another 285. I'm guessing this is not really about that type of thing though as it is more an experiment with a very rare setup.

I agree, I think he wants to see what 4 GPUs can do and is less concerned about the actual power of them. Those HD 3850x2s are two generations old now though, so I wouldn't have gone that far back for the experiment but I don't think he cares about that either. I really love my HD 3850 but it is for a P4 which under-utilizes it. 1 GTX 285 is more powerful than 2 HD 4850's on paper though, probably in benches too.

[aCid888*]

These cards are only a few % slower than the 3870x2's and even though they are two generations old now they still bang out frames like crazy.

Two of these together will offer serious performance on a budget....I think you did well buying these as they are very solid cards and for that price, whats better????


Subbed and looking forwards to the progress.

[T3kl0rd]

I stand corrected, you can't SLI with his mobo, very highly rated mobo though. I would recommend two HD 4870's for $125 each after rebates from Newegg. Maybe something similar over there in England.

[aCid888*]

Oh yeah, and I thought I'd add.....dont thread crap guys.


He was good enough to share his progress into QuadFire with us so dont be hating him for it....nothing useful to say, jog on.




Edit: Nice post count, Qubit...666.

[WhiteLotus]

for £140 this does look promising, and also interesting to just how it fairs against higher cards.

review - gogogo!

[T3kl0rd]

Originally Posted by aCid888*

Oh yeah, and I thought I'd add.....dont thread crap guys.

He was good enough to share his progress into QuadFire with us so dont be hating him for it....nothing useful to say, jog on.

Edit: Nice post count, Qubit...666.

I congratulated him on his purchase, he can buy what he wants. 2 HD 4870s is a little more juice, like I said it's his money. 4870 seems to handle AA better like the other poster said but I digress.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by Robert-The-Rambler

Aren't you giving up half the frame buffer? So even if you did have more horsepower you are not going to be able to use much FSAA at higher resolution going forward as games need more and more RAM. You are probably aware that the 3800 series stinks with FSAA above 4X anyway. I've used practically the exactly same setup with 4 Radeon 3870s and results are ludicrously good without FSAA and still impressive with 4X. Sometimes with 8X results were funky in Devil May Cry 4. In the cutscenes framerate would dip really bad. Anyhow, what does that UK price translate to in US. I'm curious. I was one of the early adoptor idiots who bought 4 256 meg 3850s and tried to run that at 2560 * 1600 without FSAA. Strangely back then it really worked for what was out at the time.

More like a quarter. Remember it's 512MB x4 here. It hurts to have 2GB of video RAM and only see 512 megs of it. LOL

It's true about this being a limitation, but then I bought these to play with and run a few benchmarks, because of the silly price and because I'm a geek. My GTX 285 isn't going anywhere and when I'm done with them, they'll go on eBay.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by T3kl0rd

According to Yahoo Currency Converter, he paid $220.13 dollars for his dual 3850x2 setup. Here in America, you can get a GTX 285 for $295.99 after $30 dollar rebate. That is a difference of only $75.86 dollars and much much more power. I don't know what that GPU goes for in GB, but I would expect it to be ballpark of that figure. I would have SLI'ed two of those bad boys for some serious power rivaled only by a HD 5870/5850 CF config for single GPUs. It's your money though.

Indeed it is. And I got them for the play factor, as I explained above. If I was recommending a video card for somebody, I wouldn't recommend anything less than a 4870 at the very least nowadays.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by Robert-The-Rambler

From a value standpoint two 1 gig 4850s would have served better. And if that motherboard actually supports SLI sure it would have made sense to get another 285. I'm guessing this is not really about that type of thing though as it is more an experiment with a very rare setup.

The mobo has a P45 chipset, which supports CrossFire only, unfortunately.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by T3kl0rd

I agree, I think he wants to see what 4 GPUs can do and is less concerned about the actual power of them. Those HD 3850x2s are two generations old now though, so I wouldn't have gone that far back for the experiment but I don't think he cares about that either. I really love my HD 3850 but it is for a P4 which under-utilizes it. 1 GTX 285 is more powerful than 2 HD 4850's on paper though, probably in benches too.

Spot on. Having 4 GPU's in my rig really brings out the geek in me - I'm sure we can all relate to this here. It just had to be done.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by aCid888*

These cards are only a few % slower than the 3870x2's and even though they are two generations old now they still bang out frames like crazy.

Two of these together will offer serious performance on a budget....I think you did well buying these as they are very solid cards and for that price, whats better????


Subbed and looking forwards to the progress.

Thanks!

[qubit]

Originally Posted by aCid888*

Oh yeah, and I thought I'd add.....dont thread crap guys.


He was good enough to share his progress into QuadFire with us so dont be hating him for it....nothing useful to say, jog on.




Edit: Nice post count, Qubit...666.

Yeah, that 666 was awesome. I didn't post for hours to avoid spoiling my perfect number.

And thanks for the other bit, too.

[SonDa5]

Sounds sweet!

Looking forward to the results.

[lemonadesoda]

Hey, qubit, stop posting until your benchmarks are done We all want to see this. Hope your PSU can cope... that is certainly going to keep you warm this winter.

P.S. 70 quid for a 3850x2... unreal compared to prices of such things a year ago. It's a cheap bit of fun, and I hope you get some good results.