2 x 4870 in Crossfire OR 4870X2?

[MarcLister]

Thinking about putting a new PC together sometime when I can get some dosh to pay for it. Currently I have a Dell 20 inch monitor running at 1680x1050 but I would be getting a 24 inch 1920x1200 monitor either with the new PC soon after and would game with COD4 and perhaps also Bioshock, Crysis etc and whatever games I might like but don't know much about due to not having a PC capable of running them atm.

So would I be better off with 2 4870s in Crossfire or one 4870X2? I'm guessing a PC with a 4870X2 would be a little cooler, not needing quite so much juice and probably easier to fit a third party cooler to a 4870X2 than to fit two to two 4870s in Crossfire?

Any comments on which option would be best for me would be most welcome.

[staffsMike]

There are no aftermarket coolers for X2's apart from water cooled which is the only way I would consider buying one given the fact it runs near 100 degrees.

At that resolution both setups are a bit pointless to be honest. One HD4870 will handle 1920 x 1200 no problem. You might feel the need in a year of two for a bit of a boost.. then pick up a second card cheap or upgrade to the latest and greatest single card.

[Hicks12]

I cant comment personally but to be honest id go for the 4870X2 because it is cheaper(i think it is,havent checked yet). Crysis i doubt scales well for ati because past tests on 3870 etc in crossfire show little if any use of it, only nvidia gains here(wonder how that happened....) but for other games the 4870x2 is best. In general the X2 will be better than the 4870 CF because of the 1gb of memory but then your monitor would be limiting its advantage over say the gtx 280 as the other card is sitting idle most of the time. If your planning on fitting a 3rd party cooler id say get the X2 because it would work out c heaper as you need only 1 cooler. But it is your choice at the end of the day.

Hoped this helped a little lol.

edit: damn mike beat me to it and how did i overlook those facts >.<(shouldnt be here went drinking LOL).

[Zhaoman]

X2 is better than two 4870s. In both power consumption and performance. Cooling is a big issue although two 4870s would be quite a furnace as well. As mentioned above, the 4870 would handle everything you throw at it, and it overclocks very well. After market coolers are starting to pop up for it now so I'd go with a single 4870 for now. Get a second card or a better next generation card when you need it imo.

[MarcLister]

There are no aftermarket coolers for X2's apart from water cooled which is the only way I would consider buying one given the fact it runs near 100 degrees.

At that resolution both setups are a bit pointless to be honest. One HD4870 will handle 1920 x 1200 no problem. You might feel the need in a year of two for a bit of a boost.. then pick up a second card cheap or upgrade to the latest and greatest single card.

Ouch! 100 degrees?

I cant comment personally but to be honest id go for the 4870X2 because it is cheaper(i think it is,havent checked yet). Crysis i doubt scales well for ati because past tests on 3870 etc in crossfire show little if any use of it, only nvidia gains here(wonder how that happened....) but for other games the 4870x2 is best. In general the X2 will be better than the 4870 CF because of the 1gb of memory but then your monitor would be limiting its advantage over say the gtx 280 as the other card is sitting idle most of the time. If your planning on fitting a 3rd party cooler id say get the X2 because it would work out c heaper as you need only 1 cooler. But it is your choice at the end of the day.

Hoped this helped a little lol.

edit: damn mike beat me to it and how did i overlook those facts >.<(shouldnt be here went drinking LOL).

It did yes. Thanks.

X2 is better than two 4870s. In both power consumption and performance. Cooling is a big issue although two 4870s would be quite a furnace as well. As mentioned above, the 4870 would handle everything you throw at it, and it overclocks very well. After market coolers are starting to pop up for it now so I'd go with a single 4870 for now. Get a second card or a better next generation card when you need it imo.

A single 4870 would suffice for 1920x1200 gaming?

Btw once I get this new PC I wouldn't want to faff around with it. Once I buy it that's it. No buying a new card to go Crossfire etc. So it'd be a single 4870 or a 4870X2 and just leave it in there.

[SSK]

i would say save your money and go for a single 4870...has enough power under its hood to manage games at that res...tho i cant comment about crysis

[staffsMike]

Go for the single card then. No faffing.. NO FAFFING!? Honestly.. what is the world coming to?

Hoenstly though there will be very little noticable performance difference at that resolution and you can save cooking your motherboard too

If you want an aftermarket cooler the Arctic cooling accelero is a good one to go for, especially if you have room to strap a 120mm to it.

[MarcLister]

Go for the single card then. No faffing.. NO FAFFING!? Honestly.. what is the world coming to?

Hoenstly though there will be very little noticable performance difference at that resolution and you can save cooking your motherboard too

Oh but I've always liked the taste of baked mobo. Seriously though how would the motherboard be cooked? And could I prevent that? Like some cooler for the chip?

If you want an aftermarket cooler the Arctic cooling accelero is a good one to go for, especially if you have room to strap a 120mm to it.

Brings me back to a single card then. What 120mm fan would you recommend and why? Brother has just bought a new PC with an Antec 900 case, Tuniq tower and has used the slower and quieter Sharkoon 120mm fan. Would like something fairly quiet but still able to move some air.

[staffsMike]

A yate loon, undervolted to 7v will shift enough air and is silent.

A scythe slipstream 800 or 1200rpm will do the same job

The motherboard chipset heating up is something I guess will happen since the old 9800GX2 heated them quite badly and the X2 runs even hotter.

[MarcLister]

A yate loon, undervolted to 7v will shift enough air and is silent.

A scythe slipstream 800 or 1200rpm will do the same job

The motherboard chipset heating up is something I guess will happen since the old 9800GX2 heated them quite badly and the X2 runs even hotter.

Read about the Yate Loons. Will check them out further. How do I undervolt them though?

What are the new graphics cards doing to the mobo chipset? Heating them from the hot air exhausted from the cards?

And would something from http://quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/product...hbridgecooling help?

[staffsMike]

no just a fan pointing at the northbridge will be fine im sure. It just the general heat the big dual gpu cards put out even with their extracting fans.

The single HD4870 will be no trouble in that respect.

[MarcLister]

no just a fan pointing at the northbridge will be fine im sure. It just the general heat the big dual gpu cards put out even with their extracting fans.

The single HD4870 will be no trouble in that respect.

When you say fan pointed at Northbridge do you mean a normal case fan or a fan specially mounted facing the mobo?

Sorry for all the questions, there'll be a few more threads before I make any order I'm sure. I'd rather ask questions now and be aware of issues rather than find out on the day and invent new swear words.

[staffsMike]

A fan specifically pointing at the chipset. You can get specif fan brackets or just float them with string.

But again stick with the single HD4870 and you won't need to bother yourself with stuff like that.

[MarcLister]

Ah K. Thanks for that.

[MarcLister]

@staffsMike - Just realised you never mentioned how I could undervolt a Yate Loon to 7v. Some kind of fan controller or something?

[staffsMike]

You should be able to do it via the bios, but if not then yeah a &#163;3 zalman fanmate will do the job.