Comparable card(s) for 4870X2's in CF

T

Trillock

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 13, 2006
Messages
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I have run my two cards now for two years with no problems, but, I am thinking of changing to a more modern card or cards be it SLi or CF.

Mainly because I would like the card(s) to be comparable in performance, but less power hungry, and less hot.

Summer or winter time I have to set the cards to run around 70- 80% to keep temps in the 40-50C range.......the top card runs about 10degs higher than the bottom card, when playing games, so the PC tends to be a bit noisy since it stands on a cabinet beside me.
I turn them down when just in 'ordinary' mode and not playing games.

These are C&C series, Crysis, BF2 + Mods's and BF2142 and a few others.

I don't mind Red or Green cards (always used Nvidia until my new build in Nov 08 when to me the 4870X2's were the dogs doodahs and ended up buying two of them....why ? because at the time I could....:D)

I know you chaps in here have the best advice going, so am looking forwards to some ideas.....thanks.
 
HD5970 or GTX580 would give similar performance. GTX580 is better, nominally :)

Though since AMD's HD6900 series is launching within a few weeks time (wek of Dex 13th, it seems), I'd recommend waiting a wee bit... :p
 
Many thanks for the advice.........there is no panic to replace cards.
We have been 'married' for a couple of years now..........:D

But they do run hot playing games, and loud with the fans turned up.
Surfing etc I wind them down to about 40% and they are not that audible over all the case fans.
 
Hey guys I got a question. I currently run a 8800gt that is super lagging behind in my opinion so I find a good deal on a 4890 in Great Condition. A friend of mine doesnt game much & wants to trade my 8800gt & 50 bucks for his 4890.

Is a 4890 still a killer card or will it be worthless for me to do so. im basicly getting the card for 50 bucks. I knw its a huge leap over my current 8800gt but is it still viable for todays gaming. I know its not dx11
 
Trillock said:
Many thanks for the advice.........there is no panic to replace cards.
We have been 'married' for a couple of years now..........:D

But they do run hot playing games, and loud with the fans turned up.
Surfing etc I wind them down to about 40% and they are not that audible over all the case fans.
Click to expand...

then I would wait a bit. see what the 6900 series brings. another option is a pair of 6870. cool and quiet. the 580GTX is also an option (they have greatly improved the noise issue) but is priced a little high right now for what it brings. if nothing else it should drop the 580GTX price down somewhat.

also what res are you playing at? system specs? and do you plan to go trimonitor?
 
You know that the rv770 core can handle temps up to 105C and not damage it. Leave the fans on auto settings. I've ran my card for years like this, it goes to 90C if it wants. It's perfectly safe for it. You don't need to keep it at 40-50C. If it's ACTUALLY too hot then the auto setting will adjust the fans accordingly....

If you still want to upgrade like the others said, I'd wait for the 6900s and the rest of the 500s to come out.
 
iviyth0s said:
You know that the rv770 core can handle temps up to 105C and not damage it. Leave the fans on auto settings. I've ran my card for years like this, it goes to 90C if it wants. It's perfectly safe for it. You don't need to keep it at 40-50C. If it's ACTUALLY too hot then the auto setting will adjust the fans accordingly....

If you still want to upgrade like the others said, I'd wait for the 6900s and the rest of the 500s to come out.
Click to expand...

yeah, I'd still rather have it run cooler, though :p It jsut seems better for the card's longevity, even if it's jsut a percieved effect. :D
 
I have tried to leave them on auto settings, but going by my 'GPU Monitor' gadgets, one for each card, which are displayed on my L/H 22" monitor, the temps rise up to some 80C+ and I start to get some artifacts on the game on the R/H 24" monitor.
So I prefer to put up with the noise and keep the temps down to 40-50C. and hope to help prolong their lives, as I don't want to have to be forced to buy a new card(s) because they die on me....:D
Especially as the top card is bang up against the bottom card, so the top card will suffer more with heat.

I was just wondering what I could replace them with that didn't get as hot and use less power.

A pair of 6870's would run to about £400 or one GTX580 for about the same price, which is a lot cheaper than the £700 I paid for these two 4870's, and I might even get some money back by selling these 4870's, assuming someone would want to buy them....

I don't plan on running 3 monitors, as there is no space on my desktop......two max.

Specs are in my sig below.

I will wait and see what cards are on offer then in a couple of months..........thanks again for all your input.
 
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Trillock said:
I have tried to leave them on auto settings, but going by my 'GPU Monitor' gadgets, one for each card, which are displayed on my L/H 22" monitor, the temps rise up to some 80C+ and I start to get some artifacts on the game on the R/H 24" monitor.
So I prefer to put up with the noise and keep the temps down to 40-50C. and hope to help prolong their lives, as I don't want to have to be forced to buy a new card(s) because they die on me....:D
Especially as the top card is bang up against the bottom card, so the top card will suffer more with heat.

I was just wondering what I could replace them with that didn't get as hot and use less power.

A pair of 6870's would run to about £400 or one GTX580 for about the same price, which is a lot cheaper than the £700 I paid for these two 4870's, and I might even get some money back by selling these 4870's, assuming someone would want to buy them....

I don't plan on running 3 monitors, as there is no space on my desktop......two max.

Specs are in my sig below.

I will wait and see what cards are on offer then in a couple of months..........thanks again for all your input.
Click to expand...
Lol prolong the life that you're actively trying to replace....makes perfect sense.

If you're getting artifacts at that temp....you're card(s) are defective. What is the maker of them?
See if you can figure out which card is the one artifacting and maybe RMA it if it's still in warranty (if XFX or Visiontek)
 
Like I say I like to keep them down in temps to help prolong their life........can't see a problem with that.
1. I don't want to be forced into buying a new card if they both pack up before I am ready.
2. When the time comes I want to be able to sell them and honestly say that they are fully working.

The make is Gigabyte, and I have had them running since Nov. 08.

When the cards are running hot, especially the top one at around 80-90C for a period I get little dots running across the screen when playing....AIX2 a BF2 mod.......problems can occur with other games. I shut down the game and ramp up the fans to around 80% restart the game and all is well no matter how long I play.
I figure the pair of them being close together are running too hot, so I don't think either one is defective, and increasing the cooling 'fixes' the problem.
Is that not reasonable ?
 
4LC4PON3 said:
Hey guys I got a question. I currently run a 8800gt that is super lagging behind in my opinion so I find a good deal on a 4890 in Great Condition. A friend of mine doesnt game much & wants to trade my 8800gt & 50 bucks for his 4890.

Is a 4890 still a killer card or will it be worthless for me to do so. im basicly getting the card for 50 bucks. I knw its a huge leap over my current 8800gt but is it still viable for todays gaming. I know its not dx11
Click to expand...

Yes it is still viable - you can throw almost everything at it with 1920x1200 and expect great performance with plenty of eye candy.
 
Yeah something is definitely wrong with one of your cards, and you arent prolonging the life, the card's life expectancy is based on it's factory safe limits...which 90C is :p.

I mean if you want to put up with the noise cool but if you can RMA it, I would
 
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iviyth0s said:
Yeah something is definitely wrong with one of your cards, and you arent prolonging the life, the card's life expectancy is based on it's factory safe limits...which 90C is :p.

I mean if you want to put up with the noise cool but if you can RMA it, I would
Click to expand...

All the while the cards work with the fans ramped up, I don't want to tempt fate by an RMA only to find that the card I might think is suspect is not, then I have more hassle paying out to get it returned.

I note that the card is safe at 90C but why run it causing that much heat, but then my PSU can pump out 1000W as specified, but I wouldn't want to load it up so that it has to ouput 1000W day in day out.......it would soon get knackered, same as if I ran my CPU all the time at its 'safe' wattage/heat limit.....:D
I reason that just because it can, it doesn't mean I should.

Anyway, I only originally asked what current card would offer the same performance as my 4870 X2 but is cooler to run when playing games.
 
Trillock said:
All the while the cards work with the fans ramped up, I don't want to tempt fate by an RMA only to find that the card I might think is suspect is not, then I have more hassle paying out to get it returned.

I note that the card is safe at 90C but why run it causing that much heat, but then my PSU can pump out 1000W as specified, but I wouldn't want to load it up so that it has to ouput 1000W day in day out.......it would soon get knackered, same as if I ran my CPU all the time at its 'safe' wattage/heat limit.....:D
I reason that just because it can, it doesn't mean I should.

Anyway, I only originally asked what current card would offer the same performance as my 4870 X2 but is cooler to run when playing games.
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Well ya I mean it's up to you whether you want to run each seperately to find the faulty on or just run it noisier.

Though running the fans at a higher speed uses more power :p , unless you were referring to upgrading to a newer more efficient setup??

5870 is a little weaker than the 4870x2 but is the closest equivalent I can think of. OC'd I'm pretty sure it would equal it (and obviously beat it when CF is poo). Two 5870s should beat two 4870x2's significantly however due to the lesser complexity of two gpu's vs four
 
4LC4PON3 said:
Hey guys I got a question. I currently run a 8800gt that is super lagging behind in my opinion so I find a good deal on a 4890 in Great Condition. A friend of mine doesnt game much & wants to trade my 8800gt & 50 bucks for his 4890.

Is a 4890 still a killer card or will it be worthless for me to do so. im basicly getting the card for 50 bucks. I knw its a huge leap over my current 8800gt but is it still viable for todays gaming. I know its not dx11
Click to expand...

For $50 I think it's a worthwhile upgrade. The 4890 is still a really good video card even if it's not as fast as the latest and greatest from AMD and Nvidia.

Trillock said:
All the while the cards work with the fans ramped up, I don't want to tempt fate by an RMA only to find that the card I might think is suspect is not, then I have more hassle paying out to get it returned.

I note that the card is safe at 90C but why run it causing that much heat, but then my PSU can pump out 1000W as specified, but I wouldn't want to load it up so that it has to ouput 1000W day in day out.......it would soon get knackered, same as if I ran my CPU all the time at its 'safe' wattage/heat limit.....:D
I reason that just because it can, it doesn't mean I should.

Anyway, I only originally asked what current card would offer the same performance as my 4870 X2 but is cooler to run when playing games.
Click to expand...

Wait for the 6970. Even one of those should blow away a 4870x2. 1920 SPs and improved shader performance on a single gpu video card. I know they should have been called the 6870s but AMD shifted the names up a bit because of marketing reasons.
 
So something to be said to hang on to my 4870 X2's for a while then...?

I just had the itch to buy a new card, but when I think about it, my cards do what I want, and the only time they struggled was with Crysis with the last battle on the aircraft carrier against the mega huge monster, and got a lot of crashes no matter what I did with the settings, but I have completed the game.

I think I just suffered from the itchy-buy-itis bug.........:D
 
Trillock said:
So something to be said to hang on to my 4870 X2's for a while then...?

I just had the itch to buy a new card, but when I think about it, my cards do what I want, and the only time they struggled was with Crysis with the last battle on the aircraft carrier against the mega huge monster, and got a lot of crashes no matter what I did with the settings, but I have completed the game.

I think I just suffered from the itchy-buy-itis bug.........:D
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Yeah you're fine :)

I think there was something wrong with the end boss of crysis, I heard alot of people get crashes on it. My old 8800GTX actually crashed a few times back when I played it.
 
I went from crossfire 4870 to 5970 and I saw a good performance increase. Partly did it to run eyefinity
 
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