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4870x2 Queries (owners please look)

Buckster

Buckster

Buckster

Soldato
Joined
20 Aug 2006
Posts
9,779
I'm half tempted with one of these - but also 50% sided on getting a GTX285 ...

re the 4870x2 will I be loosing out in performance majorly due to my mobo not supporting PCI-E 2 (is it ?) - ie doesn't have the full dual lanes or whatever they are - my mobo is a P5b-Deluxe

also anyone with the 4870x2 do you get microstutters and other annoying Crossfire problems - I had these with my 3870x2 - although I appreciate that was an older tech

last query - is a 700W PSU just enough ? Tagan dual-power one - has 4 12V rails - the 2 dedicated PCI-E power ones are 20A each

cheers, Mark.
 
Well I recently bought one for my brother, who funnily enough like you just moved from a 3870x2. So far he has not experienced any micro stuttering yet, currently I think he playing Fallout 3 and COD 5 so I'm not sure if it occurs in those games.

He plays at the 1680*1050, which imo having a 4870X2 is overkill but he likes to put everything at MAX (AA and AF). :D In regard to the motherboard, he has P5W DH deluxe which I don't think is PCI express 2 but I cant notice any performance drops.

Your 700watt psu should be fine, he runs it with a 600watt OCZ,
 
I have one and have never had any problems with microstuttering....only issue really is the ati drivers.....still get errors where the colour in ccc deavtivates and i have to switch it back on.....really annoying. For the price the 4870 is great...but i hear the nvidia drivers are much better for there cards....maybe someone will confirm this
 
I havent had any problems with mine, can run basically everything (except crysis obviously but its crap anyway) at max :)
 
I am running the above card on a P35-DS4 which I'm sure isn't PCI-E 2 and i don't get any stutterings or any of the issues you mentioned. I'm running on a HX620w psu so 700 should be fine.
 
Not had any problems with mine at all since I've had it. As previously mentioned it'll run everything maxed out barring Crysis. Also running on a 620w Corsair PSU so the 700w should be perfectly fine as long as it's a decent 700w.
 
no problem with my 4870X2...most expensive card I ever bought (well most expensive computer part I ever bought lol). and its been fine since day 1 :D
 
I had problems with it and went for a 285 - never looked back. The fact that you mention micro-stuttering means you are aware of what it looks like to you. In which case, my best advice would be to find a mate (or someone on here who lives close!) so that you can go and experience a X2 first hand. Personally, the MS was too much resulting in input-lag and an unresponsive gaming system. I tried absolutely everything to fix it and bear in mind I had mine under water (not that the X2 even overclocks that well anyways). Getting a single card solution for me, was what I should have done in the first place but you live and learn! It's great to hear so many people are happy with their X2s but it just wasnt for me. Most obvious in FPSs but even in Company of Heroes I could feel how unresponsive the camera was - but this is again subjective.

EDIT: Have you considered the 4890? As long as you steer cleer of a Sapphire you would be able to get near 285 performance for much less money! Might be worth considering as most of them OC to ~1Ghz core.
 
thanks to all of you - have to say I'm siding on a GTX285 at the moment - just because of any Crossfire esque issues

had considered the 4890 but one of the games I play - FSX gets lower frame rates with the 4890 than my 8800GTX - that said I play FSX less and less these days

re 4890 why hughy do you say to steer clear of the Sapphire ? I thought Sapphires were one of the better ones ?
 
I have a gigbayte X2 and i have had no micro stuttering issues at all and the card has been a nice stable excellent performer upto now. Micro stutter is one of them things that can be a problem but isn't the problem some make it out to be and therefore making it a factor in buying is probably not the best thing to do. It should run fine on any decent psu over 500w and right now for the price i would say it's the card to get but thats just a personal opinion based on what has been for me a completely positive experience with it. As for drivers despite what you might sometimes read neither company has a perfect record and i havn't had any major driver related problems with ati anymore then i did with nvidia so again not really something to hold against or for any card from either maker.
 
Had a Force 3D 4870X2 for six months. Only had one problem; crashing in FEAR 2, which was fixed after a week.

Great card, micro-stuttering/input-lag/dual-GPU-hell/ati-cards-are-rubbish is all vastly over exaggerated.
 
reflux said:
Great card, micro-stuttering/input-lag/dual-GPU-hell/ati-cards-are-rubbish is all vastly over exaggerated.
Click to expand...

+1 on this...I dunno why people think its alright for them to slate ATI cards for micro stuttering and all that crap...none of these thing I have experienced with all the ATI cards I have owned in the last 3yrs... :D
 
reflux said:
Had a Force 3D 4870X2 for six months. Only had one problem; crashing in FEAR 2, which was fixed after a week.

Great card, micro-stuttering/input-lag/dual-GPU-hell/ati-cards-are-rubbish is all vastly over exaggerated.
Click to expand...

Sorry mate I'm going to have to completely disagree with you. Have you ever setup 2x computers and A-Bed them? Honestly? Around the time of CCC 9.3 me and 3 friends did and we all agreed whilst my rig (the X2) was getting higher FPS, my mate Steve's (who was using a single 4870) had more consistent smoothness despite lower FPS. Also his games 'felt' more responsive. Clearly, this was less than a scientific experiment but for me, games 'feeling' snappy is REALLY important. I play a lot of FPshooters and all of them were much more enjoyable on a single card solution (notwithstanding UT3 which was absolutely FANTASTIC on the X2).
 
Well clearly its subjective which is why I would say to Buckster the best possible thing he can do is go and try an X2 'in the flesh' so to speak. That way you can see if it will be an issue for you.

Another one of my mates has an i7 rig (we did our test on E8400 @>4Ghz) and I saw his X2 a week ago and even to this day, I can see exactly the issues I have been describing on this thread. He did not notice any difference untill he played on my GTX285 the other day...All I'm saying is for the vast majority of people, it is NOT an issue but for me personally (and several of my mates) it IS. OK? I don't wish to offend any of the happy X2 owners, there's no doubt aboot what a great bit of tech it is but personally I don't get on with multi-gpu solutions!
 
I get through a lot of video cards and the X2 was no worse or better for me than any of them. In the past two years, I've had an X1950Pro, an 8800GTS 320mb, an HD3870, two HD3870s in CrossFire, an 8800GTS 512mb, a 9800GX2, an HD4870X2, two different GTX 280s, two different HD4890s and one GTX260 (which I currently use).

The only setup that didn't work properly was the 3870 CrossFire.

I'm not saying you're wrong, because clearly you've done your research. I appreciate that people have problems, but those problems are in the minority.
 
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