Dual-GPU Comparison – 3850×2 vs 3870×2 vs 9800GX2

 

Call of Duty 4 is a stunning DirectX 9.0c based game that really looks awesome and has a very full feature set. With lots of advanced lighting, smoke and water effects, the game has excellent explosions along with fast gameplay. Using the in-built Call Of Duty features, a 10 minute long gameplay demo was recorded and replayed on each of the GPU’s using the /timedemo command a total of 5 times. The highest and lowest FPS results were then removed, with an average being calculated from the remaining 3 results.

 

 

 

Call of Duty 4 shows a clear preference for the 9800GX2 at both 1280×1024 and 1900×1200 resolutions, with the card leaving both the 3850X2 and 3870×2 in the dust. However, when converting these results to our CPF (Value Per Frame) chart both the ATI 3850×2 and 3870×2 beat the 9800GX2 in lower resolution gaming, with the GX2 just managing to fight back when it comes to gaming at 1900×1200.

 

 

 

Bioshock is a recent FPS shooter by 2K games. Based on the UT3 engine it has a large amount of advanced DirectX techniques including excellent water rendering and superb lighting and smoke techniques. All results were recorded using F.R.A.P.S with a total of 5 identical runs through the same area of the game. The highest and lowest results were then removed, with an average being calculated from the remaining 3 results.

 

 

 

Just when we thought the Call of Duty benchmarks were quite embarrassing for the ATI 38**x2 series of GPU’s, BIOSHOCK takes things even further, with the 9800GX2 obtaining a whopping 70FPS advantage over the 3870×2 at the lower 1280×1024 resolution, and an equally impressive 43FPS advantage at 1900×1200. This huge performance margin is more than enough to secure the 9800GX2 a place at the top (or bottom – depending on how you look at it!) of the CPF scale, with the 3850×2 and 3870×2 cards fighting for the overall 2nd position.