Long Live The Long-Legged HD4870x2

[spinejam]

No DX11..., but still running strong as ever! :biggrin:

 

[slayernine]

I see your point, awfully glad I have a 5870 just like the 4870 X2 they are both fairly consistent and better than a 480 in a fair number of games at higher settings.

Left 4 Dead is another good example you should ad to your list.

 

[spinejam]

per your request:

 

[GotNoRice]

Thankfully DirectX11 has built-in compatibility with 10.1 hardware and will use all of the 10.1 features of the card. The only thing you are really missing out on with a 10.1 card is tessellation and Shader Model 5.0 (as opposed to 4.1). The difference is not huge.

It's amazing how much performance these 2 year old cards still give, and it's nice that AMD is still regularly improving their performance with driver updates.

It's too bad we'll probably never see 4870x2 quad crossfire go up against 5870 Crossfire and 480 SLI in some of those benchmarks

http://gotnorice.dnsdojo.com/q96502x4870x2QUAD.jpg

 

[MarcVenice]

I really think that those who bought the HD 4870X2 and the GTX 295 actually got quite a lot of bang for buck, if you consider how long those cards will keep playing games at high settings.

 

[Lonyo]

I really think that those who bought the HD 4870X2 and the GTX 295 actually got quite a lot of bang for buck, if you consider how long those cards will keep playing games at high settings.

What were the prices of the two cards when they first came out?
Given that the HD4870 was $300 I assume the HD4870X2 was somewhere north of the $500, but if it was only $500, then we've gone almost nowhere performance wise for $500 in 18 months.

 

[gigahertz20]

This thread has sort of inspired me to just buy a 4870 X2 instead of a 5850, screw DX11, by the time a good amount of games may even use DX11, there will be some new generation of video cards out.

 

[CurseTheSky]

This is the same way I felt about my 8800 GTX. Other than dying (along with a lot of other G80 parts, apparently), it played everything I threw at it at high settings form late 2006 into 2009.

If I can revive it, it'll still see some use in a system somewhere.

 

[Leyawiin]

Both of the old "dualies" are holding up well - GTX 295 is right up there too.

This is the same way I felt about my 8800 GTX. Other than dying (along with a lot of other G80 parts, apparently), it played everything I threw at it at high settings form late 2006 into 2009.

If I can revive it, it'll still see some use in a system somewhere.

My 8800 GTX is still fine with an Arctic Cooling Xtreme 8800 on it. I have it OC'd to Ultra levels and it was playing all my games pretty well when I replaced it this month. The OC'd GTX 260 is nice, but now that I see how it performs I could have just stayed with my 3+ year old 8800 GTX for a while longer.

 

[aigomorla]

yeah but the X2 is prone of dying.

im on my 4th one already.

Ive lost 2 powercolor, and 1 saphire

 

[aggressor]

Isn't the problem with these cards microstuttering\general compatibility and not actual fps?

 

[MadJackalIto]

Hummm... 4870x2 is a good card... but now... you can find very fasters cards!!!

 

[Corporate Thug]

yeah but the X2 is prone of dying.

im on my 4th one already.

Ive lost 2 powercolor, and 1 saphire

wow...

 

[ExcaliburMM]

wow...

Wow is right.

Aigo, how do you pay for these things?

 

[OCGuy]

What do you expect at that resolution?

 

[GotNoRice]

Isn't the problem with these cards microstuttering\general compatibility and not actual fps?

Micro-stutter has not been a serious issue on ATI hardware since the 3xxx cards. Even with the 3xxx cards micro-stutter was not as bad as it was with other configurations such as 8800-era SLI. In terms of compatibility, ATI is now on it's 3rd generation of cards where their top-end card is a Dual-GPU configuration. They have invested a lot of resources in making Crossfire function better in the last two years and it shows. A game not supporting crossfire is now fairly rare. It's become common to have brand new games shipping with excellent crossfire support right on launch day.

yeah but the X2 is prone of dying.

im on my 4th one already.

Ive lost 2 powercolor, and 1 saphire

Damn that's crazy. I will say that when I got my cards I was not happy with the idle and load temperatures using the automatic fan settings. Idle of 80C and 90C+ load was not uncommon. Thankfully using MSI Afterburner I have fan profiles set that keep it 45-55C idle and usually no higher than 75C load while not being too loud either.

Hummm... 4870x2 is a good card... but now... you can find very fasters cards!!!

Well ATI isn't even making 4870x2's anymore so anyone looking to buy one at this point is very likely looking at used cards. But that's not really a bad thing. I got both of my cards for about $200 each. With what other card can you get 5870-Fermi level performance for $200? The GTX295 would be the only other card that would probably come close but prices on those cards have not gone down as much since up until Fermi that was still the best Nvidia had to offer.

 

[Zebo]

I really think that those who bought the HD 4870X2 and the GTX 295 actually got quite a lot of bang for buck, if you consider how long those cards will keep playing games at high settings.

One day you guys will figure value of two... Today two 5850s is where it's at if you can find MSRP.

The 240's for $60 AR kicked but too.

 

[Zebo]

yeah but the X2 is prone of dying.

im on my 4th one already.

Ive lost 2 powercolor, and 1 saphire

A lot of dual cards are. Too much heat and power in a small area. I'm on my 2nd 295 from EVGA.... Wait till you see GTX480 fails.

2 cards is the way to go. For resale and cooling.

 

[Gillbot]

yeah but the X2 is prone of dying.

im on my 4th one already.

Ive lost 2 powercolor, and 1 saphire

IMHO, all the ATi x2 series cards are prone to death. I've seen many (mostly aigo's) die for no good reason. Even under water cooling to control the heat.

 

[aigomorla]

Damn that's crazy. I will say that when I got my cards I was not happy with the idle and load temperatures using the automatic fan settings. Idle of 80C and 90C+ load was not uncommon. Thankfully using MSI Afterburner I have fan profiles set that keep it 45-55C idle and usually no higher than 75C load while not being too loud either.

don't think heat was the problem...

My cards never saw excess of 45C on any of the 4 cores.

The display port would just give up and die.
The card would respond like its working, but u plug anything into the display port, it would not display.

That was the problem i had with 2 power colors, and there RMA service has been awesome.

Now it just happened on saphire.
And i had a really good long run with that saphire too.

I dont think im gonna have the luxury of getting a RMA on that card either.
When i RMA's the powercolor, it took almost 2 months because of back order, and non availability.

 

[Zebo]

Water keeps core cool not the interconnects and such. Thermal cycling of those at high current is what kills cards. Water or air makes no diff. They, solder joints, actually melt apart over time. Water can be worse because you are prone to OC given low GPU temps and pump more current though card.

 

[palladium]

sigh...should have spend the extra NZ$300 for the 4870X2 instead of the GTX280 back then..oh well, my next card would be a 5970/dual Fermi.

 

[dguy6789]

Water keeps core cool not the interconnects and such. Thermal cycling of those at high current is what kills cards. Water or air makes no diff. They, solder joints, actually melt apart over time. Water can be worse because you are prone to OC given low GPU temps and pump more current though card.

Yup. Extremely easy to improperly cool these things. Lots of components on the 4870x2(and 5970) require active airflow. Just putting two water blocks on the GPUs is asking for an early death.

 

[aigomorla]

Yup. Extremely easy to improperly cool these things. Lots of components on the 4870x2(and 5970) require active airflow. Just putting two water blocks on the GPUs is asking for an early death.

how when the entire top layer is a copper plate designed to fit the X2?

If anything the convection cooling off a cold plate would be better then having 2 stacked right on top of each other.

So tell me how air cooling is better then that?

Guys when u watercool a GPU u can cut its load temps by up to half on average.
So tell me how that's not beneficial?

And today's full cover blocks have total coverage down to the vrms, so there isnt a dinky sink that goes over it.

 

[jaggerwild]

Crossfire-X 4870 X2 never an issue...

I had the nickel plated blocks

Also two 3870 X2 crossfire-X no issues till I tried to flash them and didn't use the right software.

They all work well but I had to keep the stock fan turned way up, noise wasn't an issue.