So let me get this straight

[THERESONATOR]

I read a couple of times on various forums and articles that some of the latest cards, eg 4870X2, is not worth it if you are not running resolutions above 1680x1050 because it will tend to run about the same (eg in crysis at max settings in terms of fps at that resolution and lower) as a card that you could buy for a half or third of the price eg 4850 or 4870.

So I went out and bought a Gigabyte 512mb 4870 from Play.com for £169, felt it would go well with my x58 Gigabyte UD5 motherboard. I don't know what thats about, just had a hunch Gigabyte products would work well together (is there any clout behind this?). Originally I was going to buy the 4870X2 because I was keen on getting the best of the best, but money got in the way.

Here is my set up now, bought in December.

Core i7 920 @ 2.76Ghz (very minor overclock, this thing overclocks itself even if you dont tell it to!), stock fan, retail
3x 1gb 1600Mhz Corsair 9-9-9-24
Gigabyte EX58 UD5 motherboard
Currently running a really lousy nVidia 7500LE I borrowed from my brother (yuk) because I sold my two 7800GTXs (ahhhhh no gaming)

So basically, did I make the right move since I run a max resolution of 1680x1050 on a Samsung Syncmaster 2032MW LCD widescreen 22"?

I think I'm going to get at least 30 FPS average on Crysis at all the highest settings, which is what I want. If I can do Crysis, I am happy!

BTW, its really cool that this system only cost around £750 total, cheaper than some of the (worse) Skt 775 setups that most people still run.

Last question: if at some point I decide to get another Gigabyte 512mb 4870 from Play.com, how much is my FPS on Crysis at high settings going to be improved? I kinda wanna know if I was good to hold off on going full on Crossfire right now instead of waiting.

 

[Mr. Lennon]

Should of got a GTX 260+ or 280.

512mb of ram will limit the amount of AA and AF you can apply, even at 1680x1050 resolution.

 

[Pelu]

i was thinking on a 280... alone...

those multi gpu setups... and ATI is sucking my... $%^&

 

[THERESONATOR]

Since those nvidia cards are at a minimum 20% more expensive yet according to bench marks from various online reviews provide in many cases worse FPS at my resolution (and if better FPS then by only one or two frames), I didnt think that nvidia was a viable option.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I run a 4870 on a 1680x1050 monitor and love it.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3415&p=3

If you look at that res in the line graphs you'll see in the AT review that with 4xAA it really isn't a big performance hit. I'd say below 1920x1200 you're fine with 512MB right now, and probably will be ok for the immediate future. At that res with 4xAA/16xAF a few games are 2-3FPS faster with 1GB, but generally the performance is very close.

 

[THERESONATOR]

Cool. I mean look at it, you can get almost 50fps on Oblivion now, look at their Oblivion benchmark. I would love to be able to run that game maxed out settings, its a very beautiful game.

 

[THERESONATOR]

When I get the Gigabyte 4870 512mb through the door and try it out I will let you guys know how it runs

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
I run a 4870 on a 1680x1050 monitor and love it.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3415&p=3

If you look at that res in the line graphs you'll see in the AT review that with 4xAA it really isn't a big performance hit. I'd say below 1920x1200 you're fine with 512MB right now, and probably will be ok for the immediate future. At that res with 4xAA/16xAF a few games are 2-3FPS faster with 1GB, but generally the performance is very close.

:thumbsup: