I wish I had listened to Kyle....

unrealsword said:
Well of course you're on water :). I'm still on air and the stock heatsink is shit.
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It's actually not that bad. Temps w/ stock heat sink at load on the 4870x2 usually stayed around 79-83c in crysis and maybe 67-75 with the fan up to 38%. I would say at 38% the fan is still tolerable actually. Of course now that I'm on water it's noiseless.
 
Jeffredo said:
Amen to that. I have an SLI board that will never house anything but the strongest single (and single GPU) card I can afford. Would rather play my games that be frustrated or bugged by an unnecessary hardware or driver issue.
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What are these driver issues you speak of? I actually have a dual gpu card, running 8.11 drivers and don't have any driver issues thus far. :confused: Card performs great, and easily without question destroys my previous GTX260. It's like this..you want the best card out there...get the 4870x2. If you want the best mid-range / bang for your buck card, get the GTX260. If you want a good budget card, get the 4850 or 9800gtx.

I would say that for a dual gpu scenario, ATI wins hands down with the 4870x2, as it's on one PCB. 4870x2 is ideal for watercooling again, because it's on one PCB, and you just need one block. With two GTX280s, you'd need to buy two blocks, and of course, your going to get a lot more heat at load than a 4870x2.
 
I too sold 2 4870-512's and dumped Crossfire for the minimum framerate/stutter/freezing/erratic whatever you want to call it issue.

Went to a single 260 and am happy with that waiting for 40nm.


I think the 1Gb versions of the 4870 don't suffer from it for some reason. 4870-512 Crossfire was the worst experience of my computer life to date. Horrible.
 
I had a hd4850 and my min framerate sucked ass compared to my 8800gt.Now that I have a 9800gtx I am a very happy
 
tejas said:
Suffice to say thankfully I have sold the buggy and lack of driver profiles ATI crossfire setup for a solid GTX 260 (216) and the difference is inspiring with excellent minimum frame rates.
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Actually, if memory serves, didn't Kyle recommend sticking to the 192 units as the 216 units just didn't offer a good enough p2p ratio compared to the 192's? :rolleyes:

Just wondering! :p

And it took you all 60-something posts until someone noticed / mentioned the inaccurate spelling of illiterate? :( So saddening!
 
tis true Kyle did recommend the 192 GTX 260 but I managed to get a good deal on an XFX GTX 260 (216) Black edition so I went for it!

Wrangler understands how awful 4870 512MB Crossfire was! With the GTX 260 the only games I cannot max out properly is Crysis and of course the wonderfully optimized GTA4! I game at 1920x1200 btw.

Why the hell did ATI release the 4870 as 512MB because the way I see it, that was a travesty. :confused: I purchased my 4870 CF setup at launch and thus neither the 4870X2 nor the 4870 1GB existed. As far as I am concerned ATI sold dud POS cards until the 4870X2 and 1GB versions arrived. :eek:

Thus this all trickles back to why I started this thread... If I had listened at that time and either gone for a GTX 260 (192) or GTX 280 I would have been good... nevermind eh? :)
 
what about gtx260 core 216 in SLI. Don't they outperform the 4870x2 for around the same price. I was looking to get two of them for my i7 build.
 
Bman123 said:
I had a hd4850 and my min framerate sucked ass compared to my 8800gt.Now that I have a 9800gtx I am a very happy
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What games and what res? By that logic a 9600GT would be as good at minimum frame rates as an HD4850. I do not buy it. Maybe you had specific games that were NV friendly?
 
mikecoscia said:
what about gtx260 core 216 in SLI. Don't they outperform the 4870x2 for around the same price. I was looking to get two of them for my i7 build.
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That's what many (who probably bought an X2) are reluctant to say. I would go with nothing else for price/performance with an X58 chipset. I had 192 GTX 260 SLI for $300 total and they were outstanding... If it weren't for nvidia chipsets, I'd still have it. Not ready to go i7 yet...
 
mikecoscia said:
what about gtx260 core 216 in SLI. Don't they outperform the 4870x2 for around the same price. I was looking to get two of them for my i7 build.
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Two 1GB HD 4850s outperform the GTX 280 for around the same price, two HD 4830s outperform the GTX 260 for around the same price. I guess that is also what many (who probably bought a GTX200) are reluctant to say :D
 
tejas said:
I just wanted to say that I am now a massive Hard OCP fan... I have been misled in the past by such "beacons" as Anandtech and Techreport with their reporting of only average frame rates and canned benchmarks....

I have made serious errors in buying rubbish video hardware because of this.I recently bought a 4870 512Mb Crossfire setup and sure enough as Kyle's reviews show, the min framerate sucks ass... I will now only use your site as advice for GPU buying.

Suffice to say thankfully I have sold the buggy and lack of driver profiles ATI crossfire setup for a solid GTX 260 (216) and the difference is inspiring with excellent minimum frame rates.

By the way Anandtech's Derek Wilson had a huge go at ATI's shoddy drivers and lack of care to liaise with any game devs. This is a subject I wholeheartedly agree on with him as a unhappy ex- owner of 4870 Crossfire. What are the opinions of the Kyle and Brent on this subject?

At the end of the day I blame myself for not listening to the sense put forth in your reviews:(

But at least I learnt the errors of my ways eventually! :)

Great site and please keep up the good work!
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LOL....How much you got paid for this?
 
tejas said:
tis true Kyle did recommend the 192 GTX 260 but I managed to get a good deal on an XFX GTX 260 (216) Black edition so I went for it!

Wrangler understands how awful 4870 512MB Crossfire was! With the GTX 260 the only games I cannot max out properly is Crysis and of course the wonderfully optimized GTA4! I game at 1920x1200 btw.

Why the hell did ATI release the 4870 as 512MB because the way I see it, that was a travesty. :confused: I purchased my 4870 CF setup at launch and thus neither the 4870X2 nor the 4870 1GB existed. As far as I am concerned ATI sold dud POS cards until the 4870X2 and 1GB versions arrived. :eek:

Thus this all trickles back to why I started this thread... If I had listened at that time and either gone for a GTX 260 (192) or GTX 280 I would have been good... nevermind eh? :)
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My Crossfired HD4870s have been perfect since release. I've had zero issues and I've only had to update my drivers twice. I used the original hotfix Catalyst 8.6 drivers, then moved to 8.10 and 8.11. Never had an issue with installations either. In fact I've never had an issue with any of my Crossfire setups. X1950 Pros, HD3870s and now my HD4870s.

I don't blame drivers or PEBKAC for a majority of issues. I think some hardware is just very finicky at times so they just don't always play nice together.

My old BFG 6800GT OC was the most unstable card I've ever owned. I had it in a system with an Athlon XP 2500+ Barton @ 2.3GHz with an Abit NF7-S v2. With the 68.xx drivers it was fine. Anything beyond that though and it was HORRID regardless whether I was stock speeds or overclocked and I needed later drivers for newer games at the time. So one would assume that it was craptacular drivers especially since this same system was perfectly 100% stable with my older Radeon 9700 Pro.

However, I discovered that just wasn't the case. Loaned that 6800GT OC to a friend and his system was rock solid stable using an nForce 3. Ended up giving that 6800GT OC away to a co-workers son and it's been nothing but 100% solid for him as well.

So again sometimes I just think some hardware just doesn't work together at times no matter what. It's just a luck of the draw.
 
alg7_munif said:
Two 1GB HD 4850s outperform the GTX 280 for around the same price, two HD 4830s outperform the GTX 260 for around the same price. I guess that is also what many (who probably bought a GTX200) are reluctant to say :D
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Right up until you run a high enough settings/res to need more than 512MB of Vram.:rolleyes:
 
HD 4870 Xfire has worked out really well for me, its a real powerhouse which is capable of supporting 2560x1600 on a lot of modern games. The price it cost on release was incredible in comparison to the nvidia offering, even after Nvidia slashed their prices it was still a superiour offering (at least in the UK market)

Anyway if your strategy is to only listen to 1 review site, whether it be hardocp or not, it's a bad one. [H]ardocp have plenty of their own failings their reviews maybe highly accurate for a narrow segment of their audience but they're of practically no use if you lay outside that thin band of people.
 
Another fanboy flaming bait, nothing new here.

as for the 4870 512Mb CF vs 260s SLI "issue" - i do NOT remember a single net review crowing the 4870 CF option, the price/performance crown went always to the 4850 CF for up to 1920x1200 and the 4870X2 for 30" owners. The (quite true) argument is that 4850 CF can handle any game at 1920x1200, some with a lower detail, but nevertheless playable,and that NO (single PCB) CARD can do a better job at 2560x1600 than the 4870X2.

The single card options for the mid-highend market are not soo simple: a 260 can offer atractive price/performance for 19x12 owners (no so sure that they are really "necessary" for 16x10 ), but remember that at launch the 4870 512MB was cheaper than the 260, today its the other way around!

The awful truth that most gamers can not face is that they wont be forever happy with the 260 core 216 or 4870 1GB at 2560x1600 and that the lean mean 4850 is enough for 16x10 and even 19x12 at lowered details: the mid-highend market is devoided of good price/performance options, the money you pay simply doesnt add that much FPS to justify the expense.

I dont know the others, but i had changed my last 3 previous videocards when there was a game launch that my current card COULDNT handle at my monitor native resolution.

OHH; and after 11.08 my 4870X2 stopped flickring and is once again capable of bluray reproduction on extended desktop mode :)
 
geok1ng said:
Another fanboy flaming bait, nothing new here.

as for the 4870 512Mb CF vs 260s SLI "issue" - i do NOT remember a single net review crowing the 4870 CF option, the price/performance crown went always to the 4850 CF for up to 1920x1200 and the 4870X2 for 30" owners. The (quite true) argument is that 4850 CF can handle any game at 1920x1200, some with a lower detail, but nevertheless playable,and that NO (single PCB) CARD can do a better job at 2560x1600 than the 4870X2.

The single card options for the mid-highend market are not soo simple: a 260 can offer atractive price/performance for 19x12 owners (no so sure that they are really "necessary" for 16x10 ), but remember that at launch the 4870 512MB was cheaper than the 260, today its the other way around!

The awful truth that most gamers can not face is that they wont be forever happy with the 260 core 216 or 4870 1GB at 2560x1600 and that the lean mean 4850 is enough for 16x10 and even 19x12 at lowered details: the mid-highend market is devoided of good price/performance options, the money you pay simply doesnt add that much FPS to justify the expense.

I dont know the others, but i had changed my last 3 previous videocards when there was a game launch that my current card COULDNT handle at my monitor native resolution.

OHH; and after 11.08 my 4870X2 stopped flickring and is once again capable of bluray reproduction on extended desktop mode :)
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Are you making a point or answering a post?
If making a point, what was it?
 
"Listen to me now and believe me later"

I used to buy cheap video cards wondering why my gaming sucked, until a HardOCP reader talked some sense into me. Now I never buy a video card that began it's life targeted to the middle of the market. Sometimes I'll wait for price to go down, or a die shrink refresh.
 
Relativist said:
"Listen to me now and believe me later"

I used to buy cheap video cards wondering why my gaming sucked, until a HardOCP reader talked some sense into me. Now I never buy a video card that began it's life targeted to the middle of the market. Sometimes I'll wait for price to go down, or a die shrink refresh.
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so do you have no decent video card now? if so while your sitting there waiting most of us are enjoying our games plus there are currently tons of good deals on video cards. I just paid $165 for a GTX260 becasue I saw no point in waiting.
 
tejas said:
At the end of the day I blame myself for not listening to the sense put forth in your reviews:(
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yeah! shame on you!! you should've listened to Kyle!!! :p


lol
such a brown noser :D
 
cannondale06 said:
so do you have no decent video card now? if so while your sitting there waiting most of us are enjoying our games plus there are currently tons of good deals on video cards. I just paid $165 for a GTX260 becasue I saw no point in waiting.
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I was waiting for the nVidia refresh to get a PCIe card, Have been to busy to spend much time gaming in the last few years. New build was done in the spring, but have been using a laptop for main computing & bought a house this summer. Anyway, now that BFG has the AGP trade in program I am going with trading in my AGP 7800 for a PCIe 9800. I figure I can use that over the next year at least. Since I haven't been gaming much I have not yet picked up more demanding games, mostly playing the BF series.
 
I'd just like to point out that nvidia's lines seem to run cooler on average than ATI's recent stuff. I played around with a 48701gb and a 260 (216) and the average temp in my box is down a few degrees for all components on the green side.
 
Slade said:
I'd just like to point out that nvidia's lines seem to run cooler on average than ATI's recent stuff. I played around with a 48701gb and a 260 (216) and the average temp in my box is down a few degrees for all components on the green side.
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Because ATI's fans run slower to keep noise at a minimum. The GTX 216 actually produces more heat, believe it or not.

Anyway, I find it funny/ironic/whatever that the OP's name is tejas and was a board member for three days before posting :p.
 
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