Replacement for 4870X2

[Rambo89]

last couple of weeks ive been getting driver crashes and BSOD's constantly but it stopped recently.

Decided to load Batman AA up since ive not really gave it a shot and the game randomly crashed forcing me to reboot PC and upon doing so when i got to the windows screen it was just white with the curser icon so i rebooted PC again to be greeted with corrupted graphics on my BIOS screen etc so after switching PC off for a few mins and loading back up all is fine and im in Windows.

But im sure this is a sign the card is slowly dying and as ive had the card from basically release the warranty is well gone.

Was just wondering what card at between £100-£200 would be a worthy replacement? Im currently waiting to start work so ill not be replacing for a few weeks but just wanting to know what the best upgrade would be, wont have much to spend and cant really go over £200.

 

[Orcvader]

If you can wait till next month, the 6000 series should be out.

 

[Rambo89]

Not fussed about getting a big amazing top of the range graphics card anymore like i was when i got my 4870X2, i just need something that will run what i need at 1920 x 1200 well enough, which would be World of Warcraft, CSS, Dead rising 2, TF2.

Dont play many games these days, i can wait but its more if im right it can die anytime now or im wrong and ill get 3 months out of it.

 

[Rroff]

Closest thing to fitting your budget and being roughly as good or better than the 4870X2 is the 5850.

Otherwise the GTX460 1Gig is cheap and cheerful and will do well enough at 1920x in all those titles.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-148-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-064-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1830

Tho tbh anything from a GTS250/GTS450/5770/4870 onwards would run most of those games okish at that res, possibly even 9800GT, 5750 or 4850 depending on how demanding you are on framerate.

 

[Rambo89]

Cheers will have a look at the range on the website.

 

[Marine-RX179]

Well, if you have to buy one now, either a GTX460 1GB (£170) or 5850 (£200) or GTX470 (£230). But if you can wait till Oct/Nov, then may be you could wait for 6850 and see what they're made off.

 

[sja360]

i could be wrong but isn't a 4870x2 more like a 5870 in performance under some conditions?
Rambo do you like to use Anti-aliasing or anistrophic filtering at all when gaming at 1900x1200?

 

[PaulyD]

I agree with sja360, when I checked benchmarks it seemed the 4870x2 I had at the time was consistently scoring around the same as a 5870 so the only upgrade path for me was a 5970 as didn't want to upgrade my PSU as well for fermi.

However for those games like Rroff said you won't need much grunt and a lower card will be fine even for that res.

Would either get a 5850 and overclock it to get similar performance for less noise and power usage or try hold out til 6000 series hit for price drops on existing cards and get a better one for a little bit more (either cheap 6000 depending on reviews or a 5870 after a price drop)

 

[Rambo89]

Yeah i use it when i can.

Im also not too bothered about loosing some performance really, just as long as it isn't massive, not even sure if this is ready to go or was just batman doing something dodgy.

Will see how it goes.

 

[arc@css]

i could be wrong but isn't a 4870x2 more like a 5870 in performance under some conditions?
Rambo do you like to use Anti-aliasing or anistrophic filtering at all when gaming at 1900x1200?

Most often I tend to read that a 4870x2 is slightly faster than a 5870 but the 5870 is usually smoother, less potential issues because of only one gpu. I 'think' the 4870x2 will perform better in dx9 games, some in dx10 and of course none in dx11.

 

[Marine-RX179]

^Agreed. While by data the 4870x2 would be higher in frame rate, but when frame rate in game reach the point of as low as 25-30fps, the single GPU card would most likely be smoother than the two GPU 4870x2, despite both at similar frame rate.

Also, GTX460 1GB aside, the 5850 and GTX470 can overclock to 5870 speed and beyond, and for GTX470 it can overclock to match the speed of a stock GTX480.

Actually something just hit me...could the 4870x2 be overheating, thus leading to the crashes and BSOD? May be there a lot of dust stuck on the heatsink...giving the card a thorough cleaning and replace the thermal paste with something decent might help. I heard people had their 4870x2 reaching over 100C in no lesser than 1 occasion.

 

[Rambo89]

overheating isn't the problem, i ruled this out by downloading FurMark as im sure this is best way to stress the GPU and monitor the temps.

Running that in multigpu mode with my current fan settings temps barely hit 60, i run my fan at 50-60% when using PC just for games/browsing as it cools the graphics well and i dont hear the noise due to always wearing headset.