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Crossfire question

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Soldato
Joined
26 Dec 2008
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So its coming up for my birthday and am thinking of asking for a new graphics card.

I currently have a ATI Radeon 4870 512mb and might be getting a 4870X2.

The 4870X2 has 2gig of vram, what kinda effect will this have on performance if I was to crossfire these two together?

Would I be better switching the 4870 out for the 4870X2 or would it be worth actually crossfiring them.

It has been ages since I had a Crossfire or a Sli set up.

I usually game at 1920 by 1080 since thats the max my HDTV outputs at.

Rest of spec:

QX9650 at 3.6ghz
Geil Black Dragon 6gig ram (800mhz) [I did have 8 but one stick died and I havent been bothered to RMA it back]
Asus Maximus Formula mobo
 
You would be best just selling your 4870 512MB if you want an X2, there's no real benefit especially at 1920x1200 to having 3 RV770 GPUs going, it would add very little to your overall frame rate.
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

In terms of the gaming at 1080p would I be better getting another 4870 512mb since I already have one or just get a 4870X2.

I probably wouldnt get as good a price for the original 4870 since the sticker came off the GPU from the heat lol.

Also in terms of power consumption 4870 Crossfire vs 4870X2?
 
I wouldn't imagine the sticker coming off would lower your potential sale price really.

While you could get a second 512MB 4870, an X2 would be better due to it effectively being 2 1GB 4870s. 512MB is alright for now, but an increasing number of games are benefiting from having more than 512MB.
 
TheMightyTen said:
As I understand it you would only have 512MB used on each core of the 4870x2 to match the 512MB of the 4870.
Click to expand...

He woud lose all the X2's memory, so he would only have 512mb in total, as Xfire goes by the card with the lowest amount, so that would be the single 4870's 512mb, as the X2 has 1gb per core, so its not worth doing.

Id just flog the 4870 and get the x2, as even if you add another 4870 to it to go Xfire, your still only going to have 512mb, as you always lose 1x cards memory, and if one card has more memory than the other, then it would be that cards that you lose. :)
 
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My 4870x2 runs everything I throw at it (bar Crysis but I only played through that once anyway) perfectly at 1920x1200.

The single 4870x2 will be a good bit better than 2x 4870 512MBs.

Depending on when your birthday is, and how much of a hankering you have to upgrade, you could wait for the next batch of ATI cards (I believe April/May? - can't remember).
 
tibbsey said:
My 4870x2 runs everything I throw at it (bar Crysis but I only played through that once anyway) perfectly at 1920x1200.

The single 4870x2 will be a good bit better than 2x 4870 512MBs.

Depending on when your birthday is, and how much of a hankering you have to upgrade, you could wait for the next batch of ATI cards (I believe April/May? - can't remember).
Click to expand...

Seems to be a constant thing for me. I got the 4870 512mb a WEEK before ATI announced the 4870 1gig, they dont even offer an upgrade which is a bit crap.

Any idea on the new specs for the new ATIs?

I think I need a new PSU aswell. I have some crappy Sumvision 600w which I bought from the company that rhymes with Me-buyer. I should have got a better one to begin with but meh, I have been lectured already about this choice.

I am thinking a corsair 550 or 600w will be enough for 4870X2?

Also whats the performance of the 4850X2 compared to the 4870 512mb, I may get this depending on the price. Or I am just thinking aloud lol.

EDIT: Nevermind about the 4850X2 lol
 
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