The Results
3D Mark Vantage

    This benchmark has a good set of tools to get a decent idea where a graphics card lays in terms of performance and features.  While not the end all/be all of benchmarks, it is a useful program to gauge the strengths, weaknesses, and differences of competing cards.  Just as a standard user would, I enabled PhysX support, which will help accelerate CPU test #2.  Again, this is a single GTX 285 against CrossFired HD 4870s.  The Performance setting was used with default levels of AA and AF.

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Yes, this graph is correct.  The GTX 285 is using PhysX to speed up this particular test.

    The GTX 285 fairs very well against the HD 4870s, and the overall score is highly dependent on the PhysX support that the NVIDIA card brings to the table.  Note that the GTX 285 is not all that far behind the CF cards in overall GPU score.  This is a best case scenario for the CrossFire setup, as AMD has really put the work into the drivers to make sure it scales optimally.

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance

    This title is not CPU bound as much as many might think.  Effects and shadowing are set to High, with 4X AA and 16X AF enabled.  The built-in benchmark is used and framerates captured.

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    It is actually somewhat surprising to see performance scaling in CrossFire as much as it did over the GTX 285.  Neither is anywhere close to being unplayable, but the CrossFired 4870s is the easy victor here.

Far Cry 2

    While it can be argued that this is the spiritual successor to the original Far Cry, it certainly pushes the boundaries of realtime rendering for games like the original did.  I used the built-in benchmark to play back the “Large Ranch” flythrough.  All settings were put to “High” with 4X AA and 16X AF in DX 10 mode.

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    Now things get interesting.  The CF 4870 cards outpace the single GTX 285 up to 1920×1200.  At 2560×1600 though, the extra framebuffer of the GTX 285 helps it to demolish the CrossFire setup.  I was seriously impressed by how well the GTX 285 handled Far Cry 2 at those settings; it was very playable and looked pretty good.

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