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4x Radeon HD 4670 or 1x Radeon HD 4870
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29. January 2009 @ 14:32 |
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Hi its nearly my birthday (good for me) and I can't decide whether to get a Radeon HD 4870 or 3 more 4670's. I have the MSI K9A2 motherboard with support for 4 way crossfire but I have doubts about whether 4 cards will actually fit as I have a PCI Wi-Fi card which won't allow the heatsink of the graphics card (me thinks) also the bottom PCI-E is really low and I'm not confident that a card will fit because of the bottom of my case. The other thing I'm pondering is how good will the 4 be against a 4870. Here in the UK the 3 cards cost £200 about the same as a 4870. The card I currently have is the MSI R4670-2D512/D3 and the 4870 I want is the XFX HD-487A-YDFC. finally I may at a later date wish to crossfire the 4870. does any one have 4x crossfire? is it good? is the 4870 the most simply kickass? please tell me! Oh I forgot my monitor only goes up to 1440x900 so thats the resolution I will be running the card(s) at
I could put something funny here but I cant be arsed. Now GO AWAY! This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 29. January 2009 @ 14:37
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29. January 2009 @ 15:05 |
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-Probably should have checked this first but I was right I can only have 2 4670's the one above my Wi-Fi card simply won't go in and the one on the bottom has nowhere to draw air from making a hole in the bottom of my case might work........
anywho is a 4870 worth the extra cash or is it worth making a hole for a third 4670 or just rather boringly should I get 2 4670's
I could put something funny here but I cant be arsed. Now GO AWAY!
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AfterDawn Addict
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30. January 2009 @ 10:14 |
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Quad crossfire does not have very good support, and as far as I'm aware, isn't even supported on the 4670s, I think you can only use two of those. Two HD4670s are about equal to one HD4870 at best, but in many cases, are still only as fast as one HD4670, and for that reason, the single card is better.
If you're using 1440x900, you don't really need either though. Such a low resolution is more suited to a cheaper card like an HD4850.
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30. January 2009 @ 19:39 |
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Each card you add in CF/SLI gives your proportionally less performance. Especially when you go past 2 GPU's. 4 GPU's won't give you twice the performance of 2 GPUs.
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30. January 2009 @ 21:34 |
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That's not strictly true. There's nothing to stop four GPUs scaling at 400% performance of the single card. This is the case for Stalker:Clear Sky with the 4870s, but the chance of it happening is rare.
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31. January 2009 @ 06:39 |
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Thanks I think I'm gonna buy an XFX 4850 the version with the cooling slot because I've seen the single cards have cooling problems. The £77 difference from the 4870 can pay for RAID :-)
I could put something funny here but I cant be arsed. Now GO AWAY!
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31. January 2009 @ 10:43 |
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They don't actually have cooling problems, people just THINK the high temperatures are an issue, or have crappy cases, but whatever, you aren't losing out by using an XFX card, they're excellent.
Also, 4870s aren't £77 more than 4850s. You can get a 4870 for £180 if you look hard enough.
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31. January 2009 @ 11:34 |
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I've just found a Sapphire 4870 for £175 think I'm gonna get that and a new PSU (mine has no 6 pins and the card needs 2) good old Ebuyer. RAID can wait :-)
I could put something funny here but I cant be arsed. Now GO AWAY!
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AfterDawn Addict
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31. January 2009 @ 12:22 |
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The Force3D one? No idea how good they are, but no harm in trying one out I suppose.
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1. February 2009 @ 06:09 |
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I don't think so... its this one here
I could put something funny here but I cant be arsed. Now GO AWAY!
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AfterDawn Addict
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1. February 2009 @ 11:08 |
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Oh yes, I see it now. £175 for that card is good.
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dragnandy
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1. February 2009 @ 15:24 |
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Originally posted by keith1993:
I've just found a Sapphire 4870 for £175 think I'm gonna get that and a new PSU (mine has no 6 pins and the card needs 2) good old Ebuyer. RAID can wait :-)
is the sapphire 4870 the 512mb version? if it is, then i would just forewarn you that SOME of them have problems in which you would need to flash your bios. the problem with some of the sapphire's 4870 512mb is that they would freeze in-game with a pixelated image or make your screen turn black. again, this only happens to some, and are otherwise very good cards. i havent heard of any reports where this has happened to any other HD4870 brand or the Sapphire 1gb versions.
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1. February 2009 @ 15:25 |
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It's happened with the X2 aswell, I've not heard of it with the 1GB. It seems like a random issue. Either way, I have a Sapphire 4870X2 arriving this week to play with, so if I experience it I'll let you know.
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2. February 2009 @ 05:39 |
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I'd say get a good solid single card, multi cards are not that great and generally lead to heat build up, so its best to get one great card, IMO.
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Lets renegotiate them.
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18. March 2009 @ 11:38 |
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-I'd forgotten about this thread.
I got a single XFX HD4850 512MB so I can cheaply (by comparison) double up in the future.
My mate got a Sapphire 1GB 4870 simply to outdo me and it performs similarly on most games (on a Nvidia chipset Intel socket mobo (if it makes any difference)) (no way worth the extra £60+) also mine is shorter and less of a pain to get in although it needs taking out before swapping memory and sits on the heatpipe to my southbridge meaning after doing anything inside my case needs shoving back in place.
I could put something funny here but I cant be arsed. Now GO AWAY!
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AfterDawn Addict
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18. March 2009 @ 14:26 |
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Too much of a CPU bottleneck if he has the same CPU as you, the 6000+ is a pretty low-end CPU to be paired with a 4870. At high detail levels with a good CPU, trust me, the HD4870 is worth the extra money. Also, nvidia chipsets - not nice. There's no compatibility issue, they're just not good chipsets.
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18. March 2009 @ 15:01 |
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The bottleneck makes sense as he has a 2.2GHz core 2 duo @2.4 or something (I don't pay much attention to Intelness).
I tried to tell him maybe it was worth getting a new CPU before a new graphics card but he wouldn't listen....
and he has now refused to get an AMD quad/mobo and has ordered a pretty slow Intel core 2 quad (should be Phenom II X4!!!) and an Intel board.
we'll see what the results are (I'm getting a told you so ready....)
personally I'm waiting for some faster AM3 quads to come out.
I could put something funny here but I cant be arsed. Now GO AWAY!
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AfterDawn Addict
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18. March 2009 @ 15:10 |
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Lol, there are a hell of lot more Core 2 Quads that are faster than Phenom IIs than the other way around.
Phenom 93,94,95,96,9800 series - below any Core 2 Quad
Phenom 9950 ~ Core 2 Quad Q6600/Q8200
Phenom II 920 ~ Core 2 Quad Q8300
Phenom II 940 ~ Core 2 Quad Q9400
Core 2 Quad Q9550, Q9650, QX9770, Core i7 920, 940, 965 - all above any Phenom
It's been a long time since AMD have been top dog for CPUs.
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18. March 2009 @ 15:33 |
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I was gonna argue AMD were cheaper but there not.....
I could put something funny here but I cant be arsed. Now GO AWAY!
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AfterDawn Addict
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18. March 2009 @ 17:39 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
Lol, there are a hell of lot more Core 2 Quads that are faster than Phenom IIs than the other way around.
Phenom 93,94,95,96,9800 series - below any Core 2 Quad
Phenom 9950 ~ Core 2 Quad Q6600/Q8200
Phenom II 920 ~ Core 2 Quad Q8300
Phenom II 940 ~ Core 2 Quad Q9400
Core 2 Quad Q9550, Q9650, QX9770, Core i7 920, 940, 965 - all above any Phenom
It's been a long time since AMD have been top dog for CPUs.
The intel stuff is about 100$ and you can not gauge CPUs on speed alone, you have to look at what its over all specs are thus why the AMD cpus beat out everything intel had up till the arrival of the C2D then their CPUs finally showen a 10-30% boost in performance with the normal CPU speed gap between the brands.
Originally posted by keith1993:
I was gonna argue AMD were cheaper but there not.....
The intel stuff is still about 100$ more.
==================================================================
I just picked up a 70$ 3870 512 DDR 4 Sapphire card and its as good if not a tad better at SM3 than my 400$ last year EVGA 8800 640MBDDR3 0-o
I got the ATI card for my uncle.
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Lets renegotiate them.
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19. March 2009 @ 07:43 |
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The reason I have compared those processors like that is because they are even on price and similar on performance (though the intels are still ahead), sometimes it's in favour of the Core 2 Duos. The AMDs go cheaper, as they go right down to the bottom end, but the ones down there are so slow that even a dual core will beat the quads at video editing tasks!
You made a bit of a istake buying a 3870 in this day and age, it's been retired in favour of the 4670, which uses half the power and heat, and more importantly isn't the buggy piece of **** the 3800 series was.
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AfterDawn Addict
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19. March 2009 @ 07:54 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
The reason I have compared those processors like that is because they are even on price and similar on performance (though the intels are still ahead), sometimes it's in favour of the Core 2 Duos. The AMDs go cheaper, as they go right down to the bottom end, but the ones down there are so slow that even a dual core will beat the quads at video editing tasks!
You made a bit of a istake buying a 3870 in this day and age, it's been retired in favour of the 4670, which uses half the power and heat, and more importantly isn't the buggy piece of **** the 3800 series was.
Meh ALL of the core duo CPUs are beat out by the cheaper ADM cpus, the C2D seem to offer more for a bit more price, with the start of the phenom CPUs it seems ADM is going neck and neck( or a head behind) with Intel and the I7, it seems to come down to more what the mobo offers than just what the CPU can do
Not for 70$, it keeps up with my 8800 on 3dmark 06 benchmarks plus its not going to see much if any gaming as I got it for my uncle who wanted a basic mid range card and sues the computer about 4 tiems a week 0-o.
I have a 200$ PSU to buy so my 8800 will have to do me for a few years until a better ATI card comes along for 70 or less >>
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Lets renegotiate them.
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AfterDawn Addict
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19. March 2009 @ 07:58 |
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Not really, the AMDs are cheaper for a reason. The X2 7750 used to be a similar price to the E5200 but was pricedropped so the vastly higher power consumption and heat and slower performance in certain apps could be compensated for. They're genrally not nice processors. The Phenom IIs are the only good AMD CPUs at the moment, and given their pricing, there is no reason to buy one over a more refined Core 2 Quad. It's a shame but it's the truth.
As for the GPUs, as I say before, the HD4670 is very near the HD3870 and similarly priced, but an all-round better card. Wait it out until the next gen stuff comes along though and the HD4830 may well drop to that price, and that's a 9800GT beater.
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AfterDawn Addict
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19. March 2009 @ 08:07 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
Not really, the AMDs are cheaper for a reason. The X2 7750 used to be a similar price to the E5200 but was pricedropped so the vastly higher power consumption and heat and slower performance in certain apps could be compensated for. They're genrally not nice processors. The Phenom IIs are the only good AMD CPUs at the moment, and given their pricing, there is no reason to buy one over a more refined Core 2 Quad. It's a shame but it's the truth.
As for the GPUs, as I say before, the HD4670 is very near the HD3870 and similarly priced, but an all-round better card. Wait it out until the next gen stuff comes along though and the HD4830 may well drop to that price, and that's a 9800GT beater.
AS I said ADM was king before the C2D hit and they have not really kept up with the sheer performance, but lookign at the i7 cost you can find a solid mobo/phenom2 combo far cheaper and its within 30% or less proficiency of it. There are still combination's of ADM cpu and mobo that will save you 200-400$ at a reasonable loss of performance(generally 10-15% for every 100$ saved).
Its not a bad qaulity/cost solution but in the end you need to know your parts,other wise you'll just get a c2d extreme and think its great for 900$ :P. (and tell me WTF whats so great about them?)
Is that the DDR5 model? :P it will take another year or 2 to drop that low I think... LOL
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Lets renegotiate them.
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19. March 2009 @ 08:38 |
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The HD4830s just use GDDR3, but are currently only $100-$110, some with rebates to get them down to $85.
The HD4850s are only $130, and outpace even the 9800GTX+, but still use GDDR3.
The HD4870s are where GDDR5 begins, at $165 ($155 after MIR for two brands)
Core 2 Extreme chips have unlocked multipliers like Black editions, and you know how well the Core 2s overclock on a pre-volts basis. The unlocked multiplier removes the biggest costraint to overclocking a Core 2 - the motherboard's FSB limitations. I believe they top out at 10.5x multiplier. Since X38/X48 boards can push up to 455FSB, and P45s up to 500, I'll let you do the maths!
Ultimately AMD is the cheapest way of getting a quad core, but really, if there's any point in you having a quad core, you need to get a better one, either a Phenom II or a Core 2 Quad.
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