Graphic Card Decision

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  1. Posts : 990
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       #11

    For what it's worth, I use Sapphire Radeon's HD4870X2 (2 cars so 4 GPUs) and have found them to be exceptionally robust.

    And let me say it again, *nothing* I have thrown at these cards has slowed them down, not even slightly, despite serious effort into hacking games into doing things they're not supposed to do. Using max, max, max settings and increasing LOD to infinity, for example.

    The latest cards are fast, sure. But they're overkill and marketing nightmares. Besides, you will have some *serious* noise levels with the fans these new cards run. Bottom line, even today, I'd run a single X2 Radeon over 1 single card. Half the price (if not more) and performance that's just as good in the real world.

    So unless all you do is run benchmarks, save some money.
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  2. Posts : 177
    Windows 7 Pro X64
    Thread Starter
       #12

    Fumz said:
    dannyboy2005 said:
    Yes, untill i saw the hefty £500 price tag.
    Yeah, lol, it's steep alright, but if you think about it, you're not going to get off any cheaper going to an sli/crossfire setup that can match it.
    lol, You could buy a car for that price man lol. Or a nice holiday, but your trying to persuade me to buy a mass produced piece of circuit board LOL.

    ^^J/k. Dose sound lovely. But, i have seen a few ATI 4870X2 on the bay for around £180. I could buy 2 of them (£360) and save my self around £150.

    I suppose my other option is to buy one, see how i get on, then in a few weeks when a newer card comes out (And the price drops for the 4870X2) then buy another one and crossfire it?

    Thanks All, Your a great help! (y)
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  3. Posts : 990
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       #13

    I guarantee you this, even one HD4870x2 will chew through anything you can put it through. And I mean *anything*.

    That's a bold statement and I don't make it lightly.

    I've tested my home-build in ways that are unnatural, if I could kill these cards, I would have by now.
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  4. Posts : 177
    Windows 7 Pro X64
    Thread Starter
       #14

    Captain Zero said:
    For what it's worth, I use Sapphire Radeon's HD4870X2 (2 cars so 4 GPUs) and have found them to be exceptionally robust.

    And let me say it again, *nothing* I have thrown at these cards has slowed them down, not even slightly, despite serious effort into hacking games into doing things they're not supposed to do. Using max, max, max settings and increasing LOD to infinity, for example.

    The latest cards are fast, sure. But they're overkill and marketing nightmares. Besides, you will have some *serious* noise levels with the fans these new cards run. Bottom line, even today, I'd run a single X2 Radeon over 1 single card. Half the price (if not more) and performance that's just as good in the real world.

    So unless all you do is run benchmarks, save some money.
    Great summery there Captain, Rep has been left.

    I'll look into a bit more of the 4870X2 and compare it against my 8800GTX (Which in its hey day several years ago was tbqh, a Sl*t) but unfortunately, games have came faster and demand more hardware, its technology after all.

    I do plan to O/C my processor to about 4.6Ghz/ 4.8Ghz as i believe i can do it with the system cooling i have purchased .

    I'm not interested in bench marking at all. I made my current pc over 5 years ago iirc, and i based it on a alienware computer and planed to keep it for several years. Times moved on, games more demanding and IMO, its becoming slow (I have reformatted within the last 6 months, so its completely clean)

    Thanks for your help dudes, I'll get back to you in the near future.
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  5. Posts : 169
    Win7 Ultimate x64
       #15

    The 4870x2 is a pretty damn good card (as long as the game supports crossfire). I don't know what games you play but there is a chance your CPU will eventually turn into your bottleneck. A lot of newer games are cpu intensive just as much as gpu. So I would not advise going with anything higher powered(like the GTX 480 or Radeon 5970) until you've upgraded your cpu because they won't be using their full potential.
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  6. Posts : 8
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
       #16

    AMD makes great graphic cards
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  7. Posts : 990
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       #17

    [QUOTE=jr26;777003]The 4870x2 is a pretty damn good card (as long as the game supports crossfire). [QUOTE]

    Agreed. And to clarify, one card (even the X2 with 2x GPU's) isn't technically using CrossFire and the system doesn't see it as such. CrossFire/SLI isn't what makes the 'bridge' necessary, it's combining both PCI-E slots that makes this an issue.

    Still, I've never had any kind of problem running 4 GPU's in CrossFire mode. Even on *very* old games.
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  8. Posts : 177
    Windows 7 Pro X64
    Thread Starter
       #18

    jr26 said:
    The 4870x2 is a pretty damn good card (as long as the game supports crossfire). I don't know what games you play but there is a chance your CPU will eventually turn into your bottleneck. A lot of newer games are cpu intensive just as much as gpu. So I would not advise going with anything higher powered(like the GTX 480 or Radeon 5970) until you've upgraded your cpu because they won't be using their full potential.
    why will mmy cpu be a problem? Its a 930, it has simular specs to the new 970 and half the price.
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  9. Posts : 2,606
    Windows 7 Pro X64 SP1
       #19

    I guess that I'd have two problems with the 4870X2:

    It seems to be currently unavailable new at retail (at least at www.newegg.com, in the US), should you want to buy new.

    It's a single-card crossfire solution. I think that crossfire is effective, but it's not as robust as a single card. (I had some unhappy experiences with a pair of 4870s in crossfire. Maybe ATI has cleaned up their driver act since.)

    The fan noise on a Radeon HD5870 is unobjectionable. A GTX480 can get a bit loud when the card is fully exercised.

    The next step down gets you nearly as good a card at a more attractive price: Radeon 5850, nVidia GTX470.

    As for your CPU bottlenecking the system, I suggest that you overclock it. My I7 920 runs all the time at 3.8 GHz with a Thermalright Ultra 120 air cooler. It's possible to do better with other CPUs, but not much better.
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  10. Posts : 169
    Win7 Ultimate x64
       #20

    dannyboy2005 said:
    jr26 said:
    The 4870x2 is a pretty damn good card (as long as the game supports crossfire). I don't know what games you play but there is a chance your CPU will eventually turn into your bottleneck. A lot of newer games are cpu intensive just as much as gpu. So I would not advise going with anything higher powered(like the GTX 480 or Radeon 5970) until you've upgraded your cpu because they won't be using their full potential.
    why will mmy cpu be a problem? Its a 930, it has simular specs to the new 970 and half the price.

    I thought you had a Amd Athlon 4800+ X2? That's what your specs show. If you have a 930 your fine. I should have known when you said 4.6 Ghz... Duh on me!
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