Getting a 4870x2 is my system a bottleneck? other questions too

[Opterpwn]

Ok I actually just received my 4870x2 in the mail today and I admit I should have thought this out a little more before making the purchase but I thought I would be ok at the time. Would the rest of my system bottleneck the performance of this video card in anyway? I can still send it back if thats the case but I'm getting ansy the box is jumping all over the place the beast wants to be set free. Ok here's my system specs:

Q9450 Overclocked to 3.4GHZ w/TRUE 120 stable
8GB PC-6400 DDR2 ram
Abit IP35 Pro mobo 1 PCI-E 1.1 x16 slot
Corsair TX750 PSU
1920x1200 res monitor



4870x2 is a PCI-E 2.0 card and my board only supports PCI-E 1.1. I know its backwards compatible but will I be running into any bandwidth problems here? Would buying a GTX 280 be better in this regard?

The Video card I'm upgrading from is the 9800gx2 if anyone has owned both cards could you please give your thought on the relative performance between them. I've seen all of the benchmarks comparing these cards but would like your individual testimonies. I'm mostly interested in the smoothness of gameplay and how minimum framerates compare.

 

[Concillian]

I don't think your "system" is a bottleneck here. PCI-E 2.0 vs. 1.1 is virtually a non-factor.

 

[zerocool84]

Actually your system does have a bottleneck, it's your harddrive.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I'd go for a P45 board with that card.

That is a good card you coming from - wow!

 

[Quiksilver]

Q9450 Overclocked to 3.4GHZ w/TRUE 120 stable

I'd say that possibly but other than that... hard drives.

 

[nyker96]

some people have said that the current system can't run a 4870x2 or GTX280 well. don't really know, not too many people uses 4870x2. But I think your system should be fine.

 

[Opterpwn]

I've decided to give it a shot and install this baby and I see that the newest official 8.11 drivers were released today but I have a couple questions. I've read on many other tech forums about people having driver issues and conflicts wether it be artifacting, crashes to desktop, stuttering, and I notice many of these people were switching from nvidia cards. I've read many people advise that a complete reformat and OS install is the only way to ensure none of these problems come up. Would I be ok just uninstalling and then running driver sweeper or driver cleaner once? Also, would anyone recommend that I only install the catalyst driver and not the catalyst control center as well I've read from other people that some other tools work better.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: Opterpwn
I've decided to give it a shot and install this baby and I see that the newest official 8.11 drivers were released today but I have a couple questions. I've read on many other tech forums about people having driver issues and conflicts wether it be artifacting, crashes to desktop, stuttering, and I notice many of these people were switching from nvidia cards. I've read many people advise that a complete reformat and OS install is the only way to ensure none of these problems come up. Would I be ok just uninstalling and then running driver sweeper or driver cleaner once? Also, would anyone recommend that I only install the catalyst driver and not the catalyst control center as well I've read from other people that some other tools work better.

Always clean the old drivers when your install new versions of anything but if you really want to be safe you could always do a clean install of windows. Your choice. Hell it might even be time for you to do some house cleaning.

 

[FalseChristian]

I agree. When you've installed an ATI card from an nVidia card and vice versa always do a clean install of Windows.