upgrade for my 9800GX2

[Diakatarnis]

Hai im new so be gentle

I have quad Sli setup of 2x 9800GX2's, but i hardly ever run them in sli as i get crackley sound or bsod's or loads of other stuff, oh and 3 monitors wont work in sli

Any ways, im selling my old parts and was looking to get a inbetweener card whilst i wait for the DX11 cards to be realeased.

I'm after somthing with more grunt than the 9800GX2 and as i only use 1 most of the time, somthing that is faster than just 1 i guess althoguh if its close to the speed of quad that would be nice

Anyways, so far i have been pointed towards the 4870X2 or 2x 4890 cards in crossfire.


Anyone have thoughts? i dont mind not using 3 monitors, as long as i cna use at least 2

Diak

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The HD4850X2 2gb should be a bit faster than a single 9800GX2 but has four outputs:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-S...DVI-I-x-4-HDMI

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?sap-4850x2

A review comparing both the HD4850X2 2gb and the 9800GX2:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/645/1

There is also this HD4870X2 which has multiple outputs:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...ml?NOV-4870GL#

It is meant to be this card:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/...deluxe_review/

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...0433&Itemid=40

Basically it seems both the Palit and Gainward cards are the same AFAIK.

[scaryjim]

Lordy that Novatech card's big-ass! Also, I assume as a standard 4870X2 it'll only support 2 outputs simultaneously, despite having all 4 types of connector...

One big advantage of the 4850 X2 is that you can uncouple the cores, so it can effectively be used as 2 4850s powering 4 monitors, all with independant resolutions / refresh rates etc. Or, obviously, you can recouple them to run 2 monitors with a huge increase in performance. If you're literally just looking for a stop-gap the 1GB version is under £150 at Scan - I'm not sure whether the 2GB version would make *enough* difference to be worth the extra £30...?

[cptwhite_uk]

Avoid 1Gb 4850x2 from what I've read. 2Gb for the extra £30 is better bang per buck.

[Pob255]

Well it all depends on what you use your pc for and the rest of your specs
Unless you're running a new i9 cpu and x58 motherboard then you have an Sli motherboard which means you cannot use 2 ati cards in crossfire.

[Voxination]

As s stop gap waiting for DX11 cards, then don't go into ridiculous money, a single 4890/4870 or a GTX260/275 will do fine and should be just above the power of a single 9800GX2.

[sammorris]

Depending on what OS you use, you will have to physically unplug the extra monitors for the second GPU to activate, which will obviously render the 4850X2 slower than a 9800GX2. An HD4870X2 with another smaller card not used in crossfire might be a wise idea.