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What card is needed to run a 2407?

Mr.Clark

Mr.Clark

Mr.Clark

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Joined
13 Jun 2005
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1,586
I'm very nearly at the stage where I buy a new... well, everything, really.

I'm hoping to get a Dell 2407 monitor (if I had the money now, I'd have ordered one today...*sigh*), and I'm wondering what cardI'll need to get to run that.

Gaming will be things like Half Life 2, Hitman Blood Money, maybe I'll be able to get some new shiny graphics games too. :D

Is Crossfire/SLI essential, or would I get away with a single X1900XT (or XTX)?

Or bang-for-buck, would I be better off with nVidia (and/or SLI)?

Any recommendations gratefully received, thanks :)
 
A single X1900 is fine for the games you list but will struggle at times on games like FEAR and Oblivion if you insist on running them with everything on at native res. Obviously things will get worse as newer games arrive too, especially looking forward to UT2007 and Crysis etc.

In terms of SLI vs X-Fire, I would favour X-Fire.
 
I am hoping to get a 2407 this week ( when my bonus finally arrives) and I will also be going Xfire (already have one X1900Xt, just need the Master) as I thinnk while present games are so so at the Dell's natural res, anything in the coming months will requiere two gpu's
 
So if I was to get an X1900XT now, I could always just stick a Crossfire card in at a later date (when I actually have enough money to get games as well... ;))...

Excellent, thanks both :D
 
What's a price-equivalant nVidia card? Which one is better?

I've also been recommended the 7950GX2, but that's at least £100 more, even on This Week Only. Is it that much better?
 
Cyber-Mav said:
sli has higher efficiency then crossfire.
Click to expand...


Not according to post #145 here

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17587333&page=5

It shows that Crossfire is roughly equivelant to 3 * 7900Gt's ( or 1.5 GX2's) at high resolution

Mr Clark - yes get a decent crossfire mobo and by all means just start off with one X1900 and get the other one at a later date if required.

Be aware though that X1800 master cards disappeared pretty quickly ( there was an "technical" quality problem with them which might have speeded up this however -but thats just a guess)

Also that there are X1950's out soon, as to whether 1950's can be matched with 1900's or not I dont know, but these should be available in a couple of weeks, so if you are starting a new upgrade might be worth waiting........
 
It depends whats in crossfire though you cant make 2x7900GT's compete against 2xX1900XT's as the X1900XT is the better card
 
The 7900GT isn't supposed so compete with the X1900XT

The X1900XT is just basically an XTX as the only difference is the tiny 25/50Mhz lol

I would say it was ATI's under hand way of undermining Nvidia wouldn't you say?

Release 2 different models based on the same card only one it £50-80 cheaper and only 3 fps slower than the flagship.
 
CrossFire doesn't scale as well as SLI in general.

Most reviews show two 7900GTs beating two X1900XTs iirc. However I can also find reviews that show the roles reversed. Its very strange, its almost as if driver settings are slightly tweaked for one brand and not the other.

The more 'reputable' reviewers usually show SLI as better than CrossFire, with two 7900GTs beating two X1900XTXs.

Tbh without a standard testing methodology with similiar driver settings, then benchmarks that are within 10-20fps should be considered 'the same' imo. You can get that difference easy by setting one driver to standard quality, and the other to maximum performance. Plus medium on NV isn't the same as medium on ATI.

Err, to summarise, just get a high end 512MB card from the brand you like and don't fret over a couple of fps, it doesn't matter.
 
Boogle said:
CrossFire doesn't scale as well as SLI in general.

Most reviews show two 7900GTs beating two X1900XTs iirc. However I can also find reviews that show the roles reversed. Its very strange, its almost as if driver settings are slightly tweaked for one brand and not the other.

The more 'reputable' reviewers usually show SLI as better than CrossFire, with two 7900GTs beating two X1900XTXs.

Tbh without a standard testing methodology with similiar driver settings, then benchmarks that are within 10-20fps should be considered 'the same' imo. You can get that difference easy by setting one driver to standard quality, and the other to maximum performance. Plus medium on NV isn't the same as medium on ATI.

Err, to summarise, just get a high end 512MB card from the brand you like and don't fret over a couple of fps, it doesn't matter.
Click to expand...

I completely agree

The one thing no one can argue with at the moment is the hardware unreliability of 7900 GPU's with all the failures being reported

That is why to my mind there is no point buying a high end nV product currently (unless you can afford the GX2 which has a different core)

Anyway I will be happy when my xfire and 2407 system is up and running
 
I'd advise against Crossfire for the moment. This has nothing to do with performance between the two. The drivers are still very poor for it. Even some of the more ardent ATI supporters on Rage3D are complaining about driver support.
 
Thanks for all that, I think I'll go with a single XT for the moment, then I at least have the scope to go Crossfire later if and when games need it/driver support increases.
 
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