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Predator

Predator

Predator

Associate
Joined
12 Jan 2003
Posts
449
Location
Woking
I've got an HIS 3870X2 and can't decide whether to add an additional 3870XT or sell the X2 and get something like a 9800GX2.

I run a 24" Dell TFT, so always game at 1920x1200, and to be honest the X2 which replaced 2 2900Pro's wasn't really any improvement whatsoever.

The graphics market is getting more and more of a nightmare to choose which way to go and unfortunately becuase I have an Asus Maximus Extreme, I can either go XFire or choose one HUGE card.

Suggestions and feedback greatly appreciated.
 
Wait till june 18th as thats when the next gpu's are arriving from ati and nvidia. You should then have a much better selection of cards and options for your upgrade.
 
Predator said:
ok cheers. I guess one thing that is tempting me is the fact OC have a 3870XT on "This Week only" and its a tad cheap!
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probably because they're clearing out!

Always go for the fastest single card solution you can, much neater and often sli/crossfire can actually lower your minimum fps.. at best there are diminishing returns as you add more cards.

Mid june launch for NV and ATI I believe which will see the 2nd hand market start to fill up with 8800GTX/Ultra/9800GX2/HD3870/3870X2 etc nice and cheap or if the performance is mind blowing and required just get one of the newer cards.

Now is the WRONG time to buy.
 
Predator said:
So all these suggestions to wait, is that to replace my 3870X2 or add to it?
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if you're not happy with the performance i'd be tempted to sell it whilst it will still get a price, it will take a hammering over the next 4-8 weeks.

adding a third won't increase you're returns as much as the next gen cards will and you'll take a big dump financially in the process.

btw what were you thinking anyway, the X2 was never an upgrade for 2900 in crossfire.
 
marscay said:
if you're not happy with the performance i'd be tempted to sell it whilst it will still get a price, it will take a hammering over the next 4-8 weeks.

adding a third won't increase you're returns as much as the next gen cards will and you'll take a big dump financially in the process.

btw what were you thinking anyway, the X2 was never an upgrade for 2900 in crossfire.
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The 2900 Pro's ran hot and used up a lot of power. My intention was to run dual X2's but seeing as the drivers have never improved, its seemed pointless so far
 
Predator said:
The 2900 Pro's ran hot and used up a lot of power. My intention was to run dual X2's but seeing as the drivers have never improved, its seemed pointless so far
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I suppose 4 way crossfire will never really be a consistent performer until ATi crack the barrier of sharing RAM between both cores.
 
its about gfx card manufacturers and game writers developing code and drivers to cater for tiny parts of their base too.. hence why 3dm06 etc never seems to have a problem showing good gains.

Chances are if you're buying 4 gfx cards or 2 X2 type cards you're going to be a bencher as much as a gamer so chase the big scores and don't worry too much if your cutting edge solution cripples the performance in some games and makes other flat not run?
 
tbh I just want to be able to game smoothly at 1920x1200 will everything turned on. Is that too much to ask for? Apparently yes
 
i say wait at least 1 month after the card you want is out so you hopefully dont end up paying the marked up prices during the launch period of a product and you can wait for some fanboys/reviewers to test their cards first and give a better idea on how they are like before buying
 
Predator said:
tbh I just want to be able to game smoothly at 1920x1200 will everything turned on. Is that too much to ask for? Apparently yes
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to be fair that is quite a tall order lol.

and one thats been costing me a lot of money for years :(

Can't your 3870x2 manage that in everything bar "that" game?
 
Well I tend to play a lot of Company of Heroes and even that can realy struggle sometimes. COD4 isn't too bad and ofcourse Crisis plays as good as most.

With DDR3 1600 RAM and a Q6600 running at 3.6Ghz, you'd kind of think with a decent card it wouldn't be a problem. Serves me right for going for a 24" TFT I guess!
 
Serves me right for going for a 24" TFT I guess!
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Pfft, 24" is great. Even consoles run 1920x1080 res now. Anything lower than 1680x1050 i consider pathetic.

My 9800GX2 will run COD4 @ 2560x1600 + max settings, with 8xAF perfectly smoothly. But my 8800GTX could run it fine at 1920x1200 maxed out so i dont know why your X2 cannot it seems? especially considering our systems aint that far apart... But i agree you should wait for the new cards. The GTX 280 will be a well needed and overdue improvement.

Also with these higher resolutions the 512MB usable VRAM is not enough these days (which the X2 and GX2 have). This will be the main bottleneck.

A good example of this is that my 8800GTX would run ET:QW @ 2560x1600 maxed out, but my GX2 cannot, even though it easily has the power, it just does not have enough memory for 2560x1600 + the massive texture mapped landscapes. I can run into this memory bottleneck at 1920x1200 aswell with more graphics heavy games, but i have to use AA/AF to run in to it at that res, as AA and AF requires the use of more memory.
 
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The GX2 sounds an excellent card mate and gets great reviews, however I had a good think about this last night and thought.....

Well I bought the X2 for £300 a couple of months ago and I'd be lucky to get anywhere near £200 for it second hand. For £112, I can get a 3870XT which will certainl make a considerable difference to performance and when it comes to getting rid of that, I won't have lost as much cash.

Probably a mad way of looking at it, but do I NEED the latest when these cards only a couple of months ago were supposed to be the best thing ever. PC's are one of the biggest money pits going and you can bet that in 6 months time, the cards that are about to be released will be classed as old and slow;)

Anyway, you can prob guess from this, that I took the plunge this morning and ordered my XT. Hopefully it should last me 12 months with the X2 combined!
 
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