$200-250

[Jacen]

Originally posted by: brencat

Originally posted by: mmnno

Originally posted by: Qbah
The 2GB (2x1GB) one is over 250$, the limit for the OP. There's also a 1GB version (2x512MB) for 235$ before rebates.

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire...&qid=1234914139&sr=8-1

$244 after rebates, if that counts. Still kinda pricey..

Great find @ $245 shipped. Man this is so tempting...has to be the best deal going right now at the high end, correct?

Pretty much. Problem is it goes in and out of stock like every other day on Amazon. There was one on newegg that didn't have nearly as good of a rebate. If you want it, jump on it.

One of hell of a price/performance ratio at $245.

 

[Emo]

I haven't tested it personally but the reviews on Newegg indicate that the 4850x2 is fairly noisy so it wouldn't work for me no matter the performance. If you are willing to take a chance on an open box video card, you could get a bargain. There was a 2gb 4850x2 on Newegg for about $220 that I passed on. Instead, I got an open box XFX GTX 285 for $241 the other day.

 

[Denithor]

Do you have a crossfire motherboard? Because I've seen the 512MB 4870 for as little as $145AR...

 

[mmnno]

Originally posted by: Emo
I haven't tested it personally but the reviews on Newegg indicate that the 4850x2 is fairly noisy so it wouldn't work for me no matter the performance. If you are willing to take a chance on an open box video card, you could get a bargain. There was a 2gb 4850x2 on Newegg for about $220 that I passed on. Instead, I got an open box XFX GTX 285 for $241 the other day.

Some people at hardocp ziptied a couple (quieter) fans to the 4850x2 heatsink and got better temps anyway

 

[Dadofamunky]

Originally posted by: Raider1284
the 2gig version is complete overkill to 99.5% of users. the $224 1gig version is what you should get. 4850 x2 destroys the gtx 260, no reason at all to get that gpu if you just care about performance.

Agree completely. If you're running a 30" monitor, yeah, 2 GB is VERY helpful. But for 1920x1200 or less, there's not much point. It does give you headroom for the future. In fact, if things work out, I may actually go for one of those 4850x2s. Especially after they come up with a better cooling system (or an aftermarket one can be applied). Those things, performance wise, are screaming bargains. It might even persuade me to get into playing games again.

 

[Oyeve]

Hijack question. Sorry. Um, do you need an Xfire mobo to run the 4850 X2? Or just a pcie slot? Been out of the video card loop for like a year, which is a long time in GPU land.

 

[Leyawiin]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001K...ref=pd_sl_378pw7oktw_e

After the rebate its in your price range and most of the time will be faster than anything else around there.

Edit: Oops, Mmnno posted that already. As for the mobo question, you don't need a Crossfire motherboard.

 

[betasub]

Oyeve, your P35 motherboard is fine for an X2 graphics card - "Crossfire-specific" motherboard isn't necessary.

 

[Raider1284]

Originally posted by: Dadofamunky

Originally posted by: Raider1284
the 2gig version is complete overkill to 99.5% of users. the $224 1gig version is what you should get. 4850 x2 destroys the gtx 260, no reason at all to get that gpu if you just care about performance.

If you're running a 30" monitor, yeah, 2 GB is VERY helpful.

link? would think even 2gb would be overkill.

 

[Leyawiin]

2GB on a multi-gpu card isn't pooled or shared. You're really not going to have any more capacity for texture caching than with a 1GB single GPU card. And 1GB (or thereabouts) is preferred these days.

 

[Tempered81]

it really takes 30" res to give issues to rv770's 512mb framebuffer. in this example - here you can see 4850 512 crossfire suffering compared to 4850 x2 with 2gb (2 x 1gb). when you drop down to 1920, 512mb is no longer a limitation.

http://images.anandtech.com/gr...021209154227/18260.png

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=10

 

[bryanW1995]

+1 for 4850 x2.

ignore wreckage, he just misses rollo.