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4870 Crossfire overkill for 1680x1050?

Diggsy

Diggsy

Diggsy

Soldato
Joined
31 Aug 2007
Posts
4,866
As per title really, would it be overkill to have 2 4870's in Crossfire on 1680x1050 resolution?

I like to enable as much AA and AF as possible when gaming, but I know the 4800 series handle AA pretty well.

So would I see a big difference in performance with 2, or does the resolution limit it?
 
I suspect it might be overkill in all but a small amount of games. With that res you could probably crossfire two 4850s and see very similar results.
 
No that would be a fine setup, for the really demanding games it well help a lot and besides you have a very nice CPU for it :)

Edit: aekeron makes a great point though, 2 x 4850 would save you a lot of money :)
 
Yeah, I think my CPU is good for a little more of an overclock too, given the right board, which is something i'm also looking at. ;)
 
Everything apart from Crysis. I had an 8800GTS 512 running everything on max @ 1680x1050. You want to run Crysis nicely at 1680x1050, get a 9800GX2, or indeed, 2xHD4870s; but I don't see the point in spending all that money for one game. You'll have to buy a new mobo as well if you want CrossFire.
 
reflux said:
Everything apart from Crysis. I had an 8800GTS 512 running everything on max @ 1680x1050. You want to run Crysis nicely at 1680x1050, get a 9800GX2, or indeed, 2xHD4870s; but I don't see the point in spending all that money for one game. You'll have to buy a new mobo as well if you want CrossFire.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the new board doesn't worry me to be honest, nor does Crysis, as it's still sitting beside me in it's box. I'm not worried about it at all and i'll play it when I can run it well enough.

I may just sit tight, but I have that craving for new stuff again. The release of the 4870 has got me wanting to spend some money!:D
 
I know what it's like; I've changed my CPU once this year, screen once, RAM twice, motherboard twice, graphics card three times, and the only stuff that was worthwhile buying was the screen, RAM and the 9800gx2. Upgradeitis ftl.
 
reflux said:
I know what it's like; I've changed my CPU once this year, screen once, RAM twice, motherboard twice, graphics card three times, and the only stuff that was worthwhile buying was the screen, RAM and the 9800gx2. Upgradeitis ftl.
Click to expand...

:eek: You really have got a bad case of it!!:p
 
If you have the money then for me its not overkill. Personally i would wait on the 4870x2 as thats meant to iron out some of the micro stuttering problems that crossfire and sli have and meant to be around 15 percent faster than 4870 crossfire also. If you can't wait the 4870's in crossfire sounds good to me.
 
You would see a noticable improvement in Crysis (particularly if you want to play on 'very high'), but apart from that you won't see too much improvement with the second card.

If you already have a crossfire-compatible motherboard, then I see no problem with getting a single 4870 and seeing whether you're satisfied with the performance. If not, there's nothing stopping you from getting a second card, but if so you will have saved yourself some cash.
 
The issue is that at 1680x1050, multi-gpu is only starting to show its benefits. For any dual-GPU system the ideal resolution is 1920x1200 or above.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I've been reading a few reviews and it does seem that at my resolution I would not get that much gains with 2 cards vs 1. Other than in the usual benchmarks of course :p

Now, i'm thinking maybe I would be better with one card, but that leaves me with a dilemma...

Do I keep my current motherboard and remain stuck at 3ghz with my Quad, or change to an X38, hopefully get another couple of hundred mhz out of the Quad, and be ready for Crossfire should I change to another screen?

Hmmm, decisions....
 
Running 2 x 4850's in Crossfire with same CPU @ 3.2 on an Asus Maximus board and get no additional benefit over 1 x 4850 for Crysis. Some people seem to be getting a crossfire benefit for Crysis, some aren't. I have benched my rig under both single card and crossfire (at your res) and can categorically confirm (for me) Crysis does not receive any gains with the second card - and at full speed (2 x 16 lanes on the Maximus). I would dearly love to know what folk out there do to get the gains they are stating.

Anyway, the 4850 blows my 8800 GTX away at 20 inch native res and 2 of them in crossfire for all but crysis has yielded some phenomenal results - COD4 being a case in point, where, on maximum eye candy, my fraps average was 143 fps
 
BTW, I can get my Go stepped quad (Q6600) to 3.7ghz with my TRUE under the Maximus board. Its a beast! (Caveat - not fully stressed under Orthos)
 
gbdtil1 said:
Running 2 x 4850's in Crossfire with same CPU @ 3.2 on an Asus Maximus board and get no additional benefit over 1 x 4850 for Crysis. Some people seem to be getting a crossfire benefit for Crysis, some aren't. I have benched my rig under both single card and crossfire (at your res) and can categorically confirm (for me) Crysis does not receive any gains with the second card - and at full speed (2 x 16 lanes on the Maximus). I would dearly love to know what folk out there do to get the gains they are stating.

Anyway, the 4850 blows my 8800 GTX away at 20 inch native res and 2 of them in crossfire for all but crysis has yielded some phenomenal results - COD4 being a case in point, where, on maximum eye candy, my fraps average was 143 fps
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. So do you think the 2 cards is a worthwhile investment at my screen res then? Ignore Crysis, that's just a poorly coded game.
 
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