Widescreen Gaming Forum

For the first time in ten years of assembling my own PCs (my first vidcard was a Rage Pro 128, quickly paired with a Voodoo 2), and though I just bought a pair of GTX 280s (the first one at the insane release price...), I consider buying an Ati card...

The main reason : unreal performance w/ free filtering at the highest res's, especially in all those Xbox360 ports we're forced to deal with.
(Games like Overlord, Assassin's Creed, DiRT that tend to crawl at 3840x1024, even though a GTX280 SLI gives a nice, noticeable boost over a single card.)

The main drawback : these cards seem to run HOT (really, dangerously hot) and be noisy as hell.
(Performance is one thing, but I use my PC to play several hours every single day or so, and I take noise/heat/stability very seriously.)

As a long-time SLIer, I'm not fond of multi-GPU cards either.

That 4850 X2 with DDR3 might be just what I need, if it produces less heat while maintaining the same kind of performance as the 4870 version.
Too bad there ain't many "2 GPUs vs. 2 GPUs" reviews, so that I can get a clear comparison between my GTX 280 SLI and a single 4870 GX2 !

Good news for you then. Get a Sapphire version of this card: :)

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Cools better than the GTX-280
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Noise is on par with the GTX-280

link


AnandTech had a review which included a 280 sli:

link

Uh, I don't know what to think, this german review says a single 4870 X2 is on par with a 260 SLI... So a 280 SLI should be noticeably up ahead :?

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/hardware/grafikkarten/2008/test_ati_radeon_hd_4870_x2/23/#abschnitt_performancerating

Probably somewhere inbetween single 280 and sli. :)
It did beat SLI in some reviews and in some games though. For most people, I believe that the 4780X2 is a single card solution and people don't care about chip count so much. How the cards perform matters to most, not how they get there. There are differences in the architecture between the 280 and the X2 besides how many GPU's there are. Streaming processors, memory bus etc. All the different things contributes to the cards performance and its kinda pointless to argue the amount of chips due to this. The X2 performs better at higher resolution not only due to several GPU's, but also because it has more texture memory and uses streaming processors for some AA filters where needed etc. The GPU's are only a part of the cards architecture.

Upgrading from SLI 280 to a single 4780X2 wouldn't be a major upgrade IMO. If I were you and were looking for an upgrade in this class, I would consider swapping a dual card solution with a dual card solution, not by GPU count. :)

But what about supporting triplehead? This card seems to pull ahead in the high resolutions and triplehead is certainly that. My interest is definitely piqued, especially since I have a CF board.

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EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 3.5GB | 3 X LG Flatron 24EA53VQ in Nvidia Surround | Optoma HD20

It supports triplehead, but only 3840x1024 with crossfire(without is pointless on this card):


http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/support/compatibility/resolutions/

Again, this card won't work with my DFI board.

I am really tempted to replace that board outright, as it's flaming ridiculous that a high-end mobo doesn't work with a high-end GPU. :x

I know there is a beta BIOS that supposedly fixes the issue - reports of it's success are mixed, however.

There are so many board that dont work with the Highend GPU's. In my live of gaming hardware i have broken about 8 motherboards just because of an highend gpu. But youre motherboard is a really highend... and that just s*cks. Buy a GigaByte board... best supporting boards there are! ;)

I'd rather not have a mobo that makes my eyes want to bleed when I'm working on it. :lol:

I might end up swapping my X48 into my HTPC and sticking the Asus Maximus Formula in my gaming rig. That, amazingly, has no issues with the X2 cards.

But frankly, right now I don't have the time or the inclination to take two of my systems down at the same time.

What DFI mobo is that? Is there a way to tell what mobos do and don't work? I may be building a rig with a 4870 X2 for a friend.