Is 4850 CF overkill for 1680x1050?

[VirtualLarry]

Just wondering if attempting to crossfire a pair of 4850s is overkill for playing on a 22" 1680x1050 screen? My goal would be to get framerates that are 60fps at a minimum, faster would be mostly useless, as I tend to play with vsync enabled.

Would I be better off with just a single 4850? I'm not hugely big on AA, but I guess that's a strong point with the 4850 cards.

Just wondering if, due to the lower resolution, if I would turn out to be CPU limited, and thus adding a GPU would be a waste.

Consider the CPU to be a 3.2GHz C2D, 1MB L2 cache, or better. (Planning on a couple of Q6600 rigs running at 3.6Ghz soon.)

 

[SergeC]

Yes, it's overkill. Except for Crysis, of course.

 

[nanaki333]

yeah, but you know the saying.... it's like a condom... it's better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it

 

[Sylvanas]

At that res with CF 4850's you could play everything at 8xAA no worries, but I think a single 4870 would be a better buy, and still give you ample room to crank up the AA.

 

[natty1]

go with a single 4870 and avoid the hassles of multi-gpu

 

[natty1]

or even a single gtx 280 which only costs $449 now

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: natty1
go with a single 4870 and avoid the hassles of multi-gpu

What hassles? You plug in the bridge and check a box

 

[Ares202]

Originally posted by: sgrinavi

Originally posted by: natty1
go with a single 4870 and avoid the hassles of multi-gpu

What hassles? You plug in the bridge and check a box

Lots of games still dont utalise multi-gpu well or at all, so its always better to go for a single gpu if price/performace is similar

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: Ares202

Originally posted by: sgrinavi

Originally posted by: natty1
go with a single 4870 and avoid the hassles of multi-gpu

What hassles? You plug in the bridge and check a box

Lots of games still dont utalise multi-gpu well or at all, so its always better to go for a single gpu if price/performace is similar

Right on, then you have the option of adding a second one later!

 

[Chosonman]

Originally posted by: SergeC
Yes, it's overkill. Except for Crysis, of course.

Cysis is poorly optimized from what I know.

 

[zod96]

I was wondering about CF at 1680x1050 also. I like to game with Max AA and AF and all the eye candy. When I played BF2 it was fine on my 8800GT. Now with stalker and obilivion not so much. But from looking at benchmarks, some show a big big difference in Frame rates with CF and other show almost nothing gained. So which is it..

 

[Chosonman]

Originally posted by: zod96
I was wondering about CF at 1680x1050 also. I like to game with Max AA and AF and all the eye candy. When I played BF2 it was fine on my 8800GT. Now with stalker and obilivion not so much. But from looking at benchmarks, some show a big big difference in Frame rates with CF and other show almost nothing gained. So which is it..

It depends on the game and how well they coded it for multi GPU and Multi CPU. It also depends on if they optimized if for CF or SLI.

For BBB (Best bang for the Buck) go for the best single card solution out there at the time.

 

[Me XMan]

I'm crossfiring two ATI 4850's on Foxconn P35A with E8400 4GHz and having no problems at all. Fast at Crysis and COD4. thumbsup;
Current System
Crysis 1400x960 No AA
Crysis 1680x1050 No AA

 

[blackangst1]

Im looking at the same thing, same size monitor and resolution; however I have a 6800GTS 640 which is flaky as hell.

 

[chrismr]

Originally posted by: Me XMan
I'm crossfiring two ATI 4850's on Foxconn P35A with E8400 4GHz and having no problems at all. Fast at Crysis and COD4. thumbsup;
Current System
Crysis 1400x960 No AA
Crysis 1680x1050 No AA

I am surprised. I had no end of hassles when I tried crossfiring 2 x 3850's on my P35. Especially in COD 4.

Wonder if its just a case of them sorting out driver issues since I tried?

Edit: wow, just realised how out of date my sig is!

 

[zod96]

What happens when a game is not crossfire or sli enabled? Dot he extra cards just sit their doing nothing?

 

[dakels]

Originally posted by: nanaki333
yeah, but you know the saying.... it's like a condom... it's better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it

Yes but at some point you need to ditch the 3 year old unused condom in your pocket.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Overkill.

A single 4850 is fine for 16x10 and even 19x12 for some games. A single 4870 is perhaps overkill for 16x10 but fills you with the warmth of future-proofiness and gets you a better cooling system.

Get a 4870 instead, use the catalyst profile fan speed fix, and enjoy 16x10 without your case bursting into flames from the trapped heat of 2 x 4850

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: zod96
What happens when a game is not crossfire or sli enabled? Dot he extra cards just sit their doing nothing?

CF and SLI are enabled through a windows app... I was under the impression that they were working whenever you were in a 3d mode

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hmm. I already purchased two 4850 VisionTek cards at BB for the $150 deal, so I don't want to return them and buy a 4870.

The real reason that I asked this question in this thread is because I have two cards, and am planning on building two Q6600 rigs, so I was wondering if I should crossfire them on one rig, and figure out a different video card solution for the other rig, or if I should allocate one video card per rig. Since I own a 22" and a 20" 1680x1050 LCD.

Will UT3 benefit from crossfire, or will I be able to run 60fps with only one card?

 

[Tempered81]

NO WAIii!!! Crossfire them, larry. You could move one card to the other PC if you absolutely had to have 2 gaming rigs at once for a day or two (for friends or whatever)

 

[The Odorous One]

You will get a nice kick with CF VL. Using the Crysis Benchmark Tool 1.05 I get 38 fps ave. with one 4850 and 52 fps ave. @ 1680 x 1050 no AA, DX9, 64 bit, high settings with CF.

UT3 runs like butter. I have a Samasung 225BW 22" TFT and a Mitsubihi 22" 2070SB CRT.

CF on the CRT @ 1600 x 1200 @ 100 Hz is incredible to say the least.

Edit: Larry, I am not sure this would even apply to you, but FYI: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2207724&enterthread=y

 

[twjr]

I've been thinking the same thing and I've come to the conclusion that 4850CF is going to be the way to go for me. The ability to run everything maxed on Oblivion and see a tangible framerate increase over my 8800gts320 and ability to warm my room was the selling point.

 

[dakels]

Originally posted by: twjr
....and ability to warm my room was the selling point.

:laugh:

VL: For UT3 I think you should easily get 80fps+ on single 4850's.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: Chosonman

Originally posted by: zod96
I was wondering about CF at 1680x1050 also. I like to game with Max AA and AF and all the eye candy. When I played BF2 it was fine on my 8800GT. Now with stalker and obilivion not so much. But from looking at benchmarks, some show a big big difference in Frame rates with CF and other show almost nothing gained. So which is it..

It depends on the game and how well they coded it for multi GPU and Multi CPU. It also depends on if they optimized if for CF or SLI.

For BBB (Best bang for the Buck) go for the best single card solution out there at the time.

The BBB for most of the games I play was 2x4850s for $315 OTD at Best Buy. Minimum framerates are also important, if not more important, than max or average FPS. The only game I play frequently that has little to no support for Crossfire is Company of Heroes.

Edit: Heat can be an issue you might have to deal with dual GPUs in a cramped case. My 4850s don't hardly break 70°C after I flashed with a MSI BIOS edited to have a minimum fan duty of 30%. Unfortunately my cards idle in the low 60°C range even with the fixes. RT is about 23°C too, so without the AC running in the house I could have a potential problem.