Looking at Crossfire 4870s

[mhouck]

I'm thinking about a possible upgrade to 2x4870's 1 gb's (Holding my breath on the 4890s) in the next month or so. I'm doing my due diligence and looking at a couple of sites to see what prices are doing and which cards are getting good reviews. Here's one that's interesting based on being single slot and a pretty good price IMHO. $169 after rebate

Gigabyte GV-R487D5-1GD

I don't know anything about Gigabyte GPU's. Looks like it has a 3 year parts/2 year labor warranty.

I can't find any reviews of the this card. I would really like to know how loud/effective the cooling system is on it. Does anybody have any info on Gigabyte as GPU's go? Any links to reviews? Noise/thermals?

Also, is there a higher archy of ATI partners like Nvidia?

 

[Rick James]

I've found sapphire to be one of the best

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102810

 

[Denithor]

XFX hands down the best. Double lifetime warranty (transferable to second owner - increases resell value) and their warranty covers damage from overclocking. None of the other ATi partners offer anything like their service & warranty. Visiontek offers a lifetime warranty but it doesn't cover overclocking & you void it if you remove the stock cooler.

Sapphire actually has one of the worst RMA policies of the ATi partners - they charge a $15 fee to return a card even when it's determined to be defective.

 

[thilanliyan]

XFX definitely.

 

[Rick James]

I wouldn't spend 50 more dollars for an XFX over a Sapphire

 

[thilanliyan]

If the Gigabyte is that cheap it should be alright. And their CS is not bad. I recently had to RMA a Gigabyte m/b and it didn't cost me a penny in fees or anything like that...other than the cost of shipping it out to them.

 

[mhouck]

:frown: I just found this out... Atomicmpc

"The Zalman managed to keep idle temps at 41 degrees and load temps at only 54 degrees, with a constant noise level of 64dBA. Fan control isn't possible through software here, as this uses a two-pin fan connector - RPM monitoring will also not function."

That's a fairly obnoxious drawback I wasn't aware of.

So I guess I'm looking at XFX and Visiontek. What about PowerColor? They have some interesting cooling solutions.

 

[dust]

I got two Gigabyte 512 in CF and no problems with them so far, except for some driver related issues with the 9.2 CCC. They also run pretty cool, idle temp 27-36c, load temp 47-55c with the fans at 40 and 45% respectively. Any higher than that and it would be noisy.

 

[mhouck]

Originally posted by: Drivenbyvoltage
I got two Gigabyte 512 in CF and no problems with them so far, except for some driver related issues with the 9.2 CCC. They also run pretty cool, idle temp 27-36c, load temp 47-55c with the fans at 40 and 45% respectively. Any higher than that and it would be noisy.

Is it a model with the same cooling setp I linked to? If so then I'll get them today.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: mhouck

Originally posted by: Drivenbyvoltage
I got two Gigabyte 512 in CF and no problems with them so far, except for some driver related issues with the 9.2 CCC. They also run pretty cool, idle temp 27-36c, load temp 47-55c with the fans at 40 and 45% respectively. Any higher than that and it would be noisy.

Is it a model with the same cooling setp I linked to? If so then I'll get them today.

I think it's a bad idea to have crossfired 4870s with only 512 mb of vram. Sooner or later you'll run into lack of memory bottleneck. Spend more for the 1 gb versions. The one you've linked there at the beginning looks good to me.

 

[dust]

Originally posted by: error8

Originally posted by: mhouck

Originally posted by: Drivenbyvoltage
I got two Gigabyte 512 in CF and no problems with them so far, except for some driver related issues with the 9.2 CCC. They also run pretty cool, idle temp 27-36c, load temp 47-55c with the fans at 40 and 45% respectively. Any higher than that and it would be noisy.

Is it a model with the same cooling setp I linked to? If so then I'll get them today.

I think it's a bad idea to have crossfired 4870s with only 512 mb of vram. Sooner or later you'll run into lack of memory bottleneck. Spend more for the 1 gb versions. The one you've linked there at the beginning looks good to me.

And you're probably right. I did buy them back in September though and the 1gb version wasn't available in the MEast back then. They're fine for a 24" though.

To the OP: no, my cards are both like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814125225 .


Edit: IMO if anything, the card you linked should be better, dunno abt the fan support though.

 

[imported_Asianman]

If you're using a large LCD (greater than 24 inches), then its best you either sell your current 4870 and get a 4870x2 or get a 1GB model. If you're stuck on 512 mb, then its best if you go for a sapphire or a powercolour if you're on a budget. The lowest priced 4870 is the powercolour at $154.99 after mail in rebate

 

[SlowSpyder]

I bought the Sapphire Toxic edition. I did a good amount of research before I bought and think it was the best 4870 you could get. With my frequencies at 820/4600 my idle temps are low 40's. With the GPU fully loaded I see 54C. It's really a very, very good cooler that Sapphire uses for the Toxic edition. They sell a different 4870 that looks similar to the Toxic edition, but it's a step below. I think that is probably a good unit too, but from what I've seen reading around the web is that the Toxic edition is a solid step better yet.

But, if I was buying today, I think I'd have to get the Asus Matrix 4870. It has the ability to adjust the voltage on the core and memory. It also has the ability to use custom power saving profiles. I've seen some reviews where they push the core to about 900MHz which is quite impressive in my opinion.

 

[nobodyknows]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
I bought the Sapphire Toxic edition. I did a good amount of research before I bought and think it was the best 4870 you could get. With my frequencies at 820/4600 my idle temps are low 40's. With the GPU fully loaded I see 54C. It's really a very, very good cooler that Sapphire uses for the Toxic edition. They sell a different 4870 that looks similar to the Toxic edition, but it's a step below. I think that is probably a good unit too, but from what I've seen reading around the web is that the Toxic edition is a solid step better yet.

But, if I was buying today, I think I'd have to get the Asus Matrix 4870. It has the ability to adjust the voltage on the core and memory. It also has the ability to use custom power saving profiles. I've seen some reviews where they push the core to about 900MHz which is quite impressive in my opinion.

I have that card, it has the heat pipe cooler also. It's very quiet (fan set to 45%) and in my Antec 300 case idels around 36-38C.

 

[OCGuy]

That is going to be monster performance for the price after the new card pushes everything down a slot.


Great time to buy...

 

[apoppin]

beware the heatpipe coolers!

they are perfect for single video card setups but dump too much heat into your case for the 2nd card

and together they will roast your CPU unless you have awesome airflow

 

[mhouck]

Originally posted by: apoppin
beware the heatpipe coolers!

they are perfect for single video card setups but dump too much heat into your case for the 2nd card

and together they will roast your CPU unless you have awesome airflow

Maybe my best bet then would be to get two cheaper 1gb 4870's and get two waterblocks for them. Don't have to worry about thermals or sound at that point. I haven't attempt h2o on my GPU's yet because the warranties would be gone.

 

[vj8usa]

Originally posted by: mhouck
:frown: I just found this out... Atomicmpc

"The Zalman managed to keep idle temps at 41 degrees and load temps at only 54 degrees, with a constant noise level of 64dBA. Fan control isn't possible through software here, as this uses a two-pin fan connector - RPM monitoring will also not function."

That's a fairly obnoxious drawback I wasn't aware of.

So I guess I'm looking at XFX and Visiontek. What about PowerColor? They have some interesting cooling solutions.

If you have a spare Fanmate laying around, you can use that to quiet it down. I used one on my 4850, and it went from being annoyingly loud to dead silent (temps barely went up, too).