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Need new GPU(s) - equal to HD4870X2?

MichaelD

MichaelD

Lifer
I know the new ATI cards "will be out end-Oct", but that means they won't be available until after Thanksgiving and even then at a price-gouging premium. I need a new GPU now. Trying to game at 19x12 on a 7900GTO is torment.

I had a HD4870X2 and it died. RMA'd it and got a refurb replacement. It ran for 3 months and died. Had an 8800GT laying around; it too was a refurb replacement; dead fan now. 🙄 GPUs don't do too well around me, apparently. Thankfully I had this 7900GTO from years back laying around, so at least I have a computer!

So, I need a new GPU, performance equivalent to a HD4870X2. I game at 19x12 and like eye candy. I'm not opposed to NV cards, but ATM, ATIs got the performance vs. price advantage.

Should I do XFire with midrange cards (5950?) Get one big card (5970?) I can't afford two 5970s. Thanks for the help/advice; I've been out of the loop for a long time now...was stupid happy with the 4870X2 when it was working.
 
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i have an Asus 4870X2 i want to sell. I was having problems but it turned out to be low voltage on my 12V rail i'm running a single asus 4870 right now and it's fine for the gaming i do (half life series). how's a "c" note sound?
lmk.
 
I thought I was having low voltage probs on my 12v rail and that was causing a no-boot situation with my 4870X2 as well. BIOS and software monitoring program showed 11.88v. Posted on Corsair's forums and they instructed to check the voltage with a DMM right at the 24-pin connector while the board was running. I saw 12.20 volts. I was pretty shocked. I'm pretty convinced it's not the PS. Thanks for the offer, but I've already got one X2 that may or may not be dead.
 
Mr. Pedantic said:
If the card from Elvis doesn't work out, 4870X2 performance is 5870 territory. You could do GTX460 SLI too.
Click to expand...

Can't do SLI on that board since it's 775 without NV chipset.

The problem with the 5870 is that it's actually slower than 4870x2 in most cases and it's way overpriced compared to a 5850 which you can overclock yourself or even a GTX470.

Michael, since you already had a dual-gpu setup and don't want to wait for HD6000 series, then I recommend a 5850 CF for $480. I picked XFX - that way you won't have to worry about the cards failing in the future.

Benchmarks speak for themselves 🙂
 
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Thanks very much, RussianSensation. I don't know what new cards are equivalent/better than old cards, so your detailed post really helps!. 🙂 Appreciate the benchmark link too; I'm checking it out. :thumbsup:
 
That Techreport article was superb. They really did test everything. The midrange cards in CF/SLI really do kick some butt. I'm just doing a little more research before I pull the trigger on the 5850CF setup. When the new ATI cards come out, the 5850 will be "old tech" but I'm OK with that. Frame rate is what I'm after. If my "old old tech" 4870X2 was still working I'd be happy with that for the foreseable future.
 
Here's another vote for the 5850 crossfire. Reasonably priced and faster than my GTX 460 1GB and the fact you have a non-SLI mobo seals the deal. Go for it!
 
MichaelD said:
That Techreport article was superb. They really did test everything. The midrange cards in CF/SLI really do kick some butt. I'm just doing a little more research before I pull the trigger on the 5850CF setup. When the new ATI cards come out, the 5850 will be "old tech" but I'm OK with that. Frame rate is what I'm after. If my "old old tech" 4870X2 was still working I'd be happy with that for the foreseable future.
Click to expand...

A well-reasoned decision. My 4890 was still just as good for my purposes that I kept it for almost two years. Had I not run into an offer of an EVGA GTX 460 1GB at $170 I would never have made a move.

One generation old tech simply isn't that big a gap any longer. My only other suggestion would be to grab a used 4890 from the for sale forum and ride that until the 6xxx launch. But it will be 4-6 weeks, as you said.
 
i also went from a 4870x2 to 5850CF. i am *very* pleased as it runs all the games i want just fine. even threw in a gtx260 i had for some physx fun.

unfortunately, if you like playing some of the big name titles (ie bfbc2) you may run into (apparently) prevalent driver issues. (i never had the problems, but it seems to be affect enough people to warrant mentioning.)
 
Hi all,

I haven't pulled the trigger yet. Got busy and didn't have a chance to complete the purchase.

@darckhart: Did you 4870X2 die too? I haven't seen anything about "prevalent driver issues" concerning 5850CF. The 4870X2 is a dual-GPU card and I didn't have any issues at all. Then again, I"m not sure if Windows sees it as two cards or just a single card. Any links to these issues? It's worth checking out before I drop five bills.
 
No my 4870x2 was fine (had the msi one). But you know how it sucks down power like no tomorrow, acts like a space heater, and sounds like a small vacuum cleaner.... Well, 5850 fixed that.. *and* I got dx11... so I bought 1 card.... then I was playing m2033 and warhead and well... 1 card wasn't cutting it and bestbuy was having a sale... soo it became CF. haha.

As for driver issues, like I mentioned, it's for a small subset of games (mw2, bfbc2, probly others that i didn't play) and hardware configurations and W7x64 *AND 5850CF* where the driver version makes a difference. Search on xtremesystems and you'll find lots. As for me, I never had the problems (enlarged mouse pointer, banding, flickering), and by now, I'm playing other games, so it's a non issue.
 
Hmm, thanks darckhart. Being that I haven't pulled the trigger on the 5850CF setup yet, I think I will wait until the release of the 6xxx series. Though it's killling me to game w/this 7900GTO (I can't even use my native 19x12 res!) there are good things coming. Like a few here, I'm sure, I'm waiting for the new ATI cards to make the prices drop on the existing AMD/NVidia cards. If I can get a $260 5850 for $225-ish, that would be nice indeed.
 
Rumor is that AMD is playing some strange name game change with it's 6000 series. The 6850 and 6870 launching in October are not high end replacements for the 5800 series. The 6800 series is using the Barts GPU and is really an upgrade from the 5700.

Supposedly the 6850 and 6870 performance falls around the 5830 and 5850. I don't believe it even out performs the 5870. Well, so goes the rumors anyway. We'll see soon enough.

But I'm getting the impression that AMD will not release anything equal or faster than the 4870 X2 until November. Cayman launches in November and supposedly will be called the 6950 and 6970 (still single GPU based though). And the dual Cayman GPU card in December.

If you are really in a bind and hurting. I'm thinking go ahead and get a GTX 470 $300+ (I personally want to take a break from ATI after all the 4870 X2 driver issues) or a 5870 $350+.

Otherwise you may need to wait until November to really see the good AMD stuff.
 
@Ravynmagi: I agree with you that AMD won't release the good stuff until the end of the year...i.e. around Thanksgiving, just in time for XMas shopping. This time around I'm not looking for "the high-end card" like I did w/the 4870X2. <--that was a present to myself. I'd never owned the high end card before neither from ATI nor NVidia. So I treated myself. Great card for two years until it died. Heat-related, I'm sure.

No, this time I'm probably going to try CF proper with two mid-range cards. UNLESS there is a compelling single GPU solution for the same price as the CF setup. I'm looking at an under-$500 setup that will carry over to my next PC. I just dropped a few hundred on a LGA775/Q9550 setup so I could reuse my RAM. (last-gen tech=1/3rd the price it was when new).
With a good GPU I can play any game I want with eye candy at 19x12, and that's what will make me happy.

ATM, a 5850CF setup seems to be the real sweet spot for price/performance. I'm hoping to snag a 5850CF setup for $100 less than it goes for now, once the new ATI cards come out. Assuming, of course, that they really do kick butt and aren't priced out of the stratosphere.
 
I vote go with 2x 6850's 🙂 crazy value and wow do those guys Crossfire well.

*** edit:

you say you want to do SLI or Xfire, well I just wanted to mention that xfire on 5xxx isnt nearly as good as the scaleing on the 6xxx cards. Plus they do tesselation abit better than the 5xxx series.
 
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@ckoons1: PM received. Thanks for the offer but I'll pass. I'm done with the X2 cards.

Well folks, I went in a completely different direction. 😱 After checking out all of the reviews and benchmarks of the 6870, I saw that NVidia dropped the price of the GTX470 a whole lot. As in down to $260 in some cases! I scoured the benchmarks and pondered and pulled my hair...I NEED A NEW GRAPHICS CARD BADLY! I'm currently trying to game with a 7900GTO. Yeah, sucksville! Compared with the GTX470, the 6850 gets spanked, the 6870 trades wins and the 5870 costs more than either. I also didn't want to break the $300 mark...money's tight these days.

I had to buy NOW; 68xx was out and reviewed. While the 6850/70 has some nice new features and lower power consumption, the GTX470 came out on top for me. I wound up getting a Gigabyte 470, the UltraDurable series (though it's not overclocked, it is a non-reference card w/a heavier PCB, better caps, memory, etc.)

At $24 more than a "regular" 470, it comes with a "free" Mafia 2 download. I was planning on buying the game anyway and on it's own it costs $50 ATM.

I really was "this close" to getting a 6850CF setup. But that little voice that says "What if you have probs getting the CF to work correctly?" just wouldn't shut up. :/ I've had a TON of computer probs lately...so tired of dealing with them. I decided on a single card solution.

There's still a lot of life left in the 470/480s. Yeah, they run hot but I'm used to that anyway from my 4870X2. For the games I play and at this price point, I think I made the right decision.
 
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