9800 GX2 for $360, HD4850 X2 for $400, or GTX 280 for $470?

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: Kadence
I'm probably going to get two 4850's, but I was curious on benchmarks and stuff for a Tri-Fire setup. As well as if you need any sort of special power supplies or anything.

There's also a chance I might get 2 4850's, and then in another year or two add another newer Crossfire-compatible card to go with them, so I'd like having a setup that makes that an option.

A couple of P35 boards, but your bandwidth gets limited

DFI LP LT P35 T2R

DFI LP UT P35 T2R

An MSI x48 Board, might be OK, but as soon as you use more than 2 slots you hose your bandwidth

MSI X48 Platinum

I've been looking around and the ASUS P5E Deluxe seems to be the sweet spot on the bang/buck x48 boards. There's a DFI and a Gigabyte in that price range too, but users are flashing the Asus with the higher end ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA bios and getting a better feature set for a good deal less cash.

I try not to worry about future proofing a system too far in advance, maybe a few months... at the most. In a year we'll probably be trying to figure out how to stick a pair 5870x3's in X68 board LOL..

 

[Kadence]

The P5E Deluxe is the exact board I had picked. What I'm wondering is what kind of connectors a mobo needs, and also what kind of connectors a power supply needs, if one wants to have the option for Tri-Crossfire. A power supply and mobo aren't the kinds of things I'd be replacing often.

And also if a large site had done benchmarks on a 3X Crossfire setup.

 

[Borealis7]

@OP: if you're going to run XP why bother with the best DX10 card? you dont get DX10 in XP. you could get a cheapo 8800GT/S (any g92 chip) which delivers good performence and save you some money.

now if you intend to upgrade to Vista / Windows 7 in 2010 by then you'll have far better card to get, or current high-end for cheap.

 

[Kadence]

An 8800 wouldn't be significantly cheaper than a 4850. There's not too many DX10 only games I'd be interested in, if something comes along I could always get Vista - doubtful though as I can't stand Vista There's plenty of DX9 games where a solid GPU would help out, e.g. Oblivion. The lowest GPU I'd get would be a single 4850 anyway. And I'd feel better with 2 crossfired 4850's; the great prices are tough to resist too, it's a sweetheart deal for well less than $400.

 

[Kadence]

I ended up getting an HD4850 (will add another GPU in the next few months) and the Asus P5E Deluxe. But I found that I can't do Triple Crossfire because the P5E Deluxe only has 2 2.0 PCI-E x16 slots. I didn't understand the difference between PCI-E x16 and PCI-E x1 before; the first is required for the HD series, and reportedly for Crossfire 2.0 x16 slots are better.

There aren't too many boards with 3 2.0 PCI-E x16 slots, and as sgrinavi said those seem to have the third slot (or multiple slots) limited in terms of bandwidth (I didn't understand what that meant at the time).

I could still theoretically tri-crossfire with an X1550 which is available in PCI-E x1 and regular PCI, but that doesn't seem worth the bother.

 

[bonecrusher]

go for 9800gx2 from evga it would cost u $260

 

[Synomenon]

I just got a 9800GX2 from Newegg ($284 - $30 MIR). Nice card and I don't notice any micro-stuttering.

 

[Narynan]

I would say that the 3rd card at this point is worthless, and that it 1550 would not corssfire with the two 4850's you got.

 

[Kadence]

Like I said, I already got an HD4850 I'll probably crossfire it with another 4850 or 4870 when I get a 1920x1200 monitor.

 

[Trax416]

Originally posted by: Sentry2

Originally posted by: vgkarthik88
c again nib95 makes an excellent point. also if u wait a bit ( arrrgh waiting!! hate it!! ) partners will launch custom coolers for 4870 which will let u OC like mad!! u can take a GTX 280 at stock with that!

If he's willing to do a vmod. Even with an aftermarket cooler a 4870 is likely to top out at 800MHz maybe a bit more. Stock vgpu from what I've seen on the 4870's is around 1.26v. The memory on the other hand....overclock away with stock voltage...

Don't get a GX2. If you're gonna run dual gpu's get 2x 4850's and a X38/X48 board. If not get a GTX 280 and an X38/X48 but for crying out loud don't get an nvidia board. :beer:

I have owned X38 and P35 boards. The best board I have ever owned under $200, is the EVGA 750I FTW board. Hands down. No issues, never problems overclocking, and has been rock solid since I bought it.

It has also gotten better reviews then almost All sub $200 X38 and P35 boards.

The Nvidia hate is unwarranted when buying certain boards.

I also want to point out, that the GX2 is the same price as a 4870, in some cases cheaper, and it out performs the 4870.