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Multi GPU scaling in Age of Conan: 2,3,4 way Crossfire / SLi charts !
AmazingAvery
Age of Conan AdvocateMember UncommonPosts: 7,188
LINK AnandTech do a nice little feature!
Test System:
CPU Intel Core i7-965 3.2GHz
Motherboard ASUS Rampage II Extreme X58
Video Cards ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB CrossFire
ATI Radeon HD 4850 CrossFire
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
ATI Radeon HD 4850
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 SLI
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 SLI
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 SLI
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ SLI
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 core 216
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+
Video Drivers Catalyst 8.12 hotfix
ForceWare 181.22
Hard Drive Intel X25-M 80GB SSD
RAM 6 x 1GB DDR3-1066 7-7-7-20
Operating System Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit SP1
PSU PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 1200W
Bearing in mind that this is on a kick ass expensive test system.
Also it is on custom settings that are "High" + with added extra's boosts available from the video settings.
1680 x 1050 (usually 22" monitor)
1920x1200 (usually 24" monitor)
2560x1600 (usually 30" monitor + )
The testing also features a break down per $100 US. As well as from 2 to 4 GPU % increase charts - both from the different resolutions you are playing at which is very handy.
Analysis:
We can see at all resolutions in terms of 4 Graphics Cards that ATI cards scale better, more so too at higher resolutions with the game.
However, on your average 22" and 24" PC the GTX 285 from Nvidia in "3 way" SLi performs better overall. The highest res is still an ATI winner though. If your thinking ever of going with 4 cards then ATI is the cheapest bang for buck at any res too.
The more cards you add the more chance of getting a bottleneck if your CPU speed is slow. Increasing the speed your CPU runs add results in the GPU's working better.
We can also see from the charts with these specific cards that AoC scales quite well from 1 card to 2 cards across the board usually resulting in over 50% increase over 1 card to 2. This is also dependant on your own system, settings and resolution you play at. For me with 2 cards I average a 65% increase in FPS over just having 1 card. That was worth it for me, in other games too and also the nice discount I paid 
Personally I am packing 2x GTX 285's now, on 24" inch monitor set up as my main system. Although I can only fit a maximum of two on my motherboard. However, the price increase from potentially adding a 3rd doesn't justify the expenditure and this can really be shown on all games from the link above. Unless money is no object and your die-hard lol.
Comments
Out of curiousity does anyone see any similar results to these charts based on res played at?
Of course. Resolution brings down FPS some. I am not that advanced though. Running 8 series GTX on high
, but resolution is not that high either. Still looks flawless to me 
What about frame rates, does it run ok at that setting with that card in your particular set up?
What about frame rates, does it run ok at that setting with that card in your particular set up?
Ohh yeah by all means. My FPS is typically 60-80 out in the woods and at it's lowest in the most demanding places in the game like Villas it is 35. 35 is definitely the minimum (on high). Good enough for me.
What about frame rates, does it run ok at that setting with that card in your particular set up?
i have just a 1x 8800GTS G92
and on a 28" 1920x1200 it does:
~30 on max settings in cities
~50 outside
~90+ in dungeons
<20 in very crowded city areas
yeah, somtimes i have to go to mid settings
here are some screens from my PC:
That seems about right.
Here's my rig;
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 3ghz
4GB OCZ Reaper PC8600 RAM
Dual Sapphire HD4870 512mb RAM running in Crossfire
3 x 320GB SATA HDD
Thermaltake Black Armor Case (full tower)
Samsung 21.6" LCD monitor
Windows Vista Ultimate SP1
I typically have FPS in the 55-68 range while playing at 1680x1050 resolution with all advanced settings on, minus one or two tweaks for personal preference. In heavy traffic areas, my FPS will drop to about 39-46.
My system is just air cooled, with a combination of Thermaltake and generic fans; I also replaced the stock fans on my 4870s with Arctic Accelero Twin Turbos (which dropped the GPU temps on both cards by over 16 degrees and are waaaay quieter).
Anyway; I'm not overclocking in any way, shape, or form, although I suppose I could. Don't really feel like burning a pretty expensive rig just to get a minor raise in FPS.
A lot of people complain about mediocre performance after purchasing a higher-end video card; what they don't understand is that you have to match components in order to get the full benefit of each piece. If you don't, you end up with a bottleneck in your system that slows down overall performance.
A better GPU will only provide limited return if you are running it with 1 or 2 GB of low-end RAM and a mid-range processor. Normally you just end up being disappointed with the less-than-stellar performance of your new card.
Abbatoir / Abbatoir Cinq
Adnihilo
Beorn Judge's Edge
Somnulus
Perfect Black
----------------------
Asheron's Call / Asheron's Call 2
Everquest / Everquest 2
Anarchy Online
Shadowbane
Dark Age of Camelot
Star Wars Galaxies
Matrix Online
World of Warcraft
Guild Wars
City of Heroes
dang, i know my rig is obsolete, but not THAT obsolete, my card is not even on the charts anymore.
i dont know if i wanna laugh, cry..or go to WaWa....
*grabs money bag*
Also, with banging cards such as those. id like to see how these bad boys handle in a 48 vs. 48 siege with everything cranked up. and oh yah with DX 10 on a 40 in + screen >=)
ya i know , even if its suicide, if the cards can handle that then they are truely beasts.
The hidden surprise on that chart is the 4870 x2. For price vs performance, at just 70 bucks more than a single GTX 280, you get more performance than 3 GTX280's...lol.
I am happy with my 4870, and it truly rocks! ATI finally got one card right!
Cheers
its well known fact that 99.9% of games doesnt scale at all in quad setups.. 90% doesnt scale at all in tri settups.. so either you live under a rock.. or you made this post as reason to brag about your new rig.. , good for you then, mine is getting out of date.. as it dings 1 year birthday
The point is to show the particular scaling from testing here, presented with charts. Nothing else. I don't think there is any bragging here. As these cards are becoming more cheaper it can be quite revelent moving forward and interesting for some. In essence it would be crazy to fork out for one game, but in this situation it shows what the deal is with AoC at this point in time.
Absolutely, it even clearly outperforms 2x GTX 295
AoC ran extremely well on the ATI xx70x2s from the start. I built my current main rig in pre launch, using the 3870x2 (that was beaten around quite nicely at that time) and I never had any performance issues. In fact my rig still easily outperforms some current high end cards, as the perfromance for the "old" 3970x2 was cranked up nicely with the newer driver releases as well.
I'm not any kind of ATI fan and I usually, just as now, own rigs with both, nvidia as well as ATI gfx, but for AoC, I'd recommend especially the 4870 series any day. They scale perfectly in Crossfire and sure have the best price per performance ratio available at the moment.
Edit: Ugly typos...