A 4870x2 for 2560x1600, right choice?

[rxtrom]

Help me justify the ridiculous price tag of the visiontek 4870x2, I always hate spending $$$ on video cards because 3 months down the road they are $150 less.

I have a dell 3007wfp-hc, and I play cod4 and maybe cod5.

I based some of my decision on this http://www.guru3d.com/category/call_duty_4_pc/

I almost bought the 4870 and then would buy another down the road for crossfire, but it seems CS is not a favorite in the gaming community, and I did not want to hassle with it.

Here is the rest of my setup tell me if you think I need a stronger CPU to avoid bottlenecking. I can OC, but would rather just spend my time on the game.

ASUS P5Q Pro
E8400 3.0
OCZ Plat. 2x2gb 1000
corsair 450w PSU <-- Im rolling the dice on this

Thanks in advance

UPDATE
I bought 2 Gbyte 1mb 700mhz cards and will go the xfire route.

For my main purpose, COD4 it seems the 4850x2 2gb card, which is what I'll basically have. Results with the 4870x2 show not difference than a 2x 4870 setup so I assume its the same with this.
See Linkhttp://www.overclockersclub.co...sapphire_4850x2/10.htm

 

[happy medium]

Looks like you could get away with 2 4850's in crossfire?
Save youself a few bucks. You can get 2 4850's for 250.00$ AR at Newegg last I looked.

Edit: Yea you might want to overclock your cpu to at least 3.6.
It should do it easily.

 

[Elfear]

As you can see from my sig I thought the X2 was a great choice for 2560x1600. I had a 512MB 4870 for a little while but it didn't cut it at that resolution. It's hard to justify the X2 at 1680x1050 or below, but it really shines at the higher resolutions.

 

[Tempered81]

yah i'd take 4850 xfire for $250. 4870x2 shows 80FPS and cost twice as much. 4850 xfire shows 67 fps.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

I don't think a 450W Corsair unit would handle an HD4870X2.

 

[rxtrom]

Originally posted by: happy medium
Looks like you could get away with 2 4850's in crossfire?
Save youself a few bucks. You can get 2 4850's for 250.00$ AR at Newegg last I looked.

Edit: Yea you might want to overclock your cpu to at least 3.6.
It should do it easily.

Maybe your right, but I did not want to get involved with Crossfire, I have never done it and the posts i read do not make seem desireable.

One the other hand the money i save on the 2x 4850s i could get a better PSU for OCing and to power the 2 cards.

BUT i guess i need to figure out how they do in COD5 or other future games i might like to play.

 

[happy medium]

You know a 4870 x2 is also crossfire right? Same issues as 2- 4850's in crossfire.

 

[happy medium]

double post sorry

 

[happy medium]

sorry

 

[rxtrom]

Originally posted by: happy medium
You know a 4870 x2 is also crossfire right? Same issues as 2- 4850's in crossfire.

but its a single card, what classifies crossfire 2GPUs or 2cards?

 

[PreachTru]

Originally posted by: happy medium
You know a 4870 x2 is also crossfire right? Same issues as 2- 4850's in crossfire.

Is a Crossfire motherboard required for a 4870x2? I ask because I recently purchased a Gigabyte P45 motherboard that has one 16x and an 8x slot, but when you have two cards in the system it runs both of them at 8x.

With a 4870x2 I assumed it would run the card at 16x because it is a single card.

 

[MarcVenice]

Originally posted by: rxtrom

Originally posted by: happy medium
You know a 4870 x2 is also crossfire right? Same issues as 2- 4850's in crossfire.

but its a single card, what classifies crossfire 2GPUs or 2cards?

Not sure, but since a HD4870X2 performs and behaves almost exactly the same as crossfired HD4870's, it's fair to say that it classifies as crossfire. But, at 2560*1600, the extra memory will be really usefull. CoD 5 is pretty much the same engine as CoD4, so if crossfire scales in CoD4, which it does, then it will scale in CoD5.

Originally posted by: PreachTru

Originally posted by: happy medium
You know a 4870 x2 is also crossfire right? Same issues as 2- 4850's in crossfire.

Is a Crossfire motherboard required for a 4870x2? I ask because I recently purchased a Gigabyte P45 motherboard that has one 16x and an 8x slot, but when you have two cards in the system it runs both of them at 8x.

With a 4870x2 I assumed it would run the card at 16x because it is a single card.

No, you do not need a CF capable motherboard for a 4870X2.

 

[vj8usa]

Originally posted by: happy medium
Looks like you could get away with 2 4850's in crossfire?
Save youself a few bucks. You can get 2 4850's for 250.00$ AR at Newegg last I looked.

Edit: Yea you might want to overclock your cpu to at least 3.6.
It should do it easily.

Won't you run out of framebuffer awful quick at such high resolutions, though? I wouldn't be comfortable using 512MB cards at 2560x1600.

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: vj8usa

Originally posted by: happy medium
Looks like you could get away with 2 4850's in crossfire?
Save youself a few bucks. You can get 2 4850's for 250.00$ AR at Newegg last I looked.

Edit: Yea you might want to overclock your cpu to at least 3.6.
It should do it easily.

Won't you run out of framebuffer awful quick at such high resolutions, though? I wouldn't be comfortable using 512MB cards at 2560x1600.

In the Op's benchmark,

4870X2 : 80 FPS

4850 CF: 67 FPS

 

[rxtrom]

So the same drivers apply to the 4870x2 as a 4000 series crossfire setup? So the games that do not run crossfire will not run a 4870x2 either?

 

[jeffw2767602]

Games that don't run crossfire will only utilize 1gb of memory and one of the 4870x2's gpus. So you would just be running the game on a 1gb 4870....still not bad if you ask me.

 

[rxtrom]

I am on the wire, leaning to going 4850 x2.

 

[betasub]

That ultra resolution deserves the larger frame buffer and fast GDDR5 of the 4870X2.

 

[Insomniator]

I would definitely go for the 4870X2. At least if a game doesn't scale a single 1gb 4870 still has a chance, a single 512 4850 however does not.

 

[rxtrom]

Updated, see link

http://www.overclockersclub.co...sapphire_4850x2/10.htm

 

[MarcVenice]

I want to jump on the HD4850 X2 bandwagon to, be it with a two HD4850's in CF, or a HD4850X2, but most reviews are showing to poor scaling. I want it to scale in Far Cry 2, World in Conflict, but also in Brothers in Arms, Clear Sky, Fallout 3 etc etc. I'm giving it 30 more days or so ...

 

[happy medium]

Marc I believe there is a driver hot fix for these driver scaling problems allready. 2 -4850's in crossfire should run at more than 57 fps at all resolutions in Far cry 2 in this review?


http://www.overclockersclub.co...sapphire_4850x2/12.htm

Hot fix for Far cry2?

http://www.fudzilla.com/index....iew&id=10028&Itemid=39

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: happy medium
Marc I believe there is a driver hot fix for these driver scaling problems allready. 2 -4850's in crossfire should run at more than 57 fps at all resolutions in Far cry 2 in this review?


http://www.overclockersclub.co...sapphire_4850x2/12.htm

I think that OCC review is messed up:
http://www.pcgameshardware.com...eon_HD_4850_X2/?page=7

And here's how the 4870X2 does in FARCRY2 with the hotfix, which OCC didn't use.
http://www.pcgameshardware.com...force_overview/?page=2

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: jaredpace

Originally posted by: happy medium
Marc I believe there is a driver hot fix for these driver scaling problems allready. 2 -4850's in crossfire should run at more than 57 fps at all resolutions in Far cry 2 in this review?


http://www.overclockersclub.co...sapphire_4850x2/12.htm

I think that OCC review is messed up:
http://www.pcgameshardware.com...eon_HD_4850_X2/?page=7

And here's how the 4870X2 does in FARCRY2 with the hotfix, which OCC didn't use.
http://www.pcgameshardware.com...force_overview/?page=2

Much better, I thought something was wrong.
Thanks for the link Jared.