4850 X2 cards are very cheap at the moment !

[Zak33]

I always thought they were too much dough for Jo Blow from Idaho to buy....

but not any more!

1 gig 4850 X2 card = £149 inc vat!
2 gig 4850 X2 card= £178 inc vat.

and these bad boys come with 4 DVI outputs too

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-S...-4x-DVI-I-HDTV

cracking value
512mb memory architecture and 1600 cores

[Terbinator]

The 1GB ones have been that price for some time, but the drop in the 2GB one should make this attractive for someone in for a new card around that price range.

[shadowmaster]

The 2GB version is the one to get

[PeterStoba]

Pixmania had them at less than this months ago.

Back up now but...

Scan have a good offer, 1GB x2, 19" monitor and dvi cable for £206

[Terbinator]

Scan have a good offer, 1GB x2, 19" monitor and dvi cable for £206

That is good!!!

[chaotic_russ]

i was going to get one of the HIS 3870x2's from scan so i can tri-fire , not so sure now lol

[djglenn]

I would have bought one only for the fact that people says they are noisey as hell.

Damn shame, as it seems to be a cracker reference performance.

[Terbinator]

i was going to get one of the HIS 3870x2's from scan so i can tri-fire , not so sure now lol

a single 4870 would blow a 3870X2 away i think.

[shadowmaster]

a single 4870 would blow a 3870X2 away i think.

The 1GB version would most likely. The 3870X2 from what I could gather on some games would be quite competitive with the 4870 512MB.

I would not go tri fire though, better off selling the 3870X2 on ebay for about £70/£80. And getting a 4870 1GB or a 4850X2/4870X2.

[nightkhaos]

The 1GB version would most likely. The 3870X2 from what I could gather on some games would be quite competitive with the 4870 512MB.

I would not go tri fire though, better off selling the 3870X2 on ebay for about £70/£80. And getting a 4870 1GB or a 4850X2/4870X2.

Agreed. Tri-Fire is that good at the moment. All the benchmarks I've seen see a linear increase with two cards, but only an extra 20 to 30% gain for a third card.

[chaotic_russ]

a single 4870 would blow a 3870X2 away i think.

well not so in my case , i have 2x 3870's in crossfire and it matches my 4870 . the 4870 stutters in games but the 3870's dont , very odd

[Zak33]

well not so in my case , i have 2x 3870's in crossfire and it matches my 4870 . the 4870 stutters in games but the 3870's dont , very odd

that's bandwidth for you.

two cards, two lots of memory achitecture... xfire has it's place for MINIMUM frame rates, but might be beaten in MAXIMUM frame rates by ewer cars with higher clocks.

Nowt wrong with good minimum frame rates either.. keeps you alive in big firefights.

[shadowmaster]

well not so in my case , i have 2x 3870's in crossfire and it matches my 4870 . the 4870 stutters in games but the 3870's dont , very odd

IIRC my 3870X2 used to match my brothers 4870 512mb in most games reasonably well. However with some of the newer games (Fallout 3, etc) it was a bit slower and if you add AA it would not handle it that well.

Then again if someone wanted to upgrade from a 3870X2, I would not reccommend going to a 4870 512MB as I dont think you will notice much of a gain, better off going to something like a 4870 1gb, 4890, or a 4850X2/4870X2.

In regard to how noisy these cards are, I have heard somewhere that Sapphire have updated the bios on these cards so they are a bit quieter.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Personally I would go for an HD4890 1gb as these can be had for well under £150 delivered. Most can have the core overclocked to 900mhz+ easily too!!

[maxwilson]

Im slightly tempted by getting one of these as ARMA II is killing my Pc

How much difference is there between the 1gb and 2GB? im guessing its not enough to warrant the price? I play at 1280x768 so im guessing that it wouldn't make to much difference.

Ideally I would like a 2nd 4870 but alas my PSU cannot take it, So if i was to upgrade im thinking this the best option £70-£80? ( sell my 4870 on ebay)

Thanks guys.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Im slightly tempted by getting one of these as ARMA II is killing my Pc

How much difference is there between the 1gb and 2GB? im guessing its not enough to warrant the price? I play at 1280x768 so im guessing that it wouldn't make to much difference.

Ideally I would like a 2nd 4870 but alas my PSU cannot take it, So if i was to upgrade im thinking this the best option £70-£80? ( sell my 4870 on ebay)

Thanks guys.

The difference between the 1gb and 2gb versions is quite big from what I have read. The overclocked HD4890 SKUs are 20% to 30% faster than an HD4870 1gb.