4870x2 Died, New Card Choices?

S

soulesschild

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Feb 18, 2007
Messages
6,176
My beloved XFX 4870x2 crapped out and now I'm waiting on an RMA. Went out and bought the HIS IceQ Turbo from Amazon,

http://www.amazon.com/HIS-Radeon-25...0HQ6/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1312269361&sr=8-6

Anyone have any tips or anything about the card? Better card recommendations from the system in the sig? Shame I can't wait until the 7xxx series as not having any sort of display sucks, and since i have a 30", can't play games without a beefy-ish card. Not sure on anything from the Green Team, haven't followed them much. What's the word there?

I'm probably going to sell the 4870x2 with it's waterblock to try and recoup some of the cost :( Not sure if anyone will even want it anymore though.....so if anyone on the [H] wants an XFX 4870x2 with a DD waterblock LMK :)
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Also, it's 2GB useable VRAM will be a major benefit over the 2x1GB on your ol HD4870X2 :), especially at your res. Even in simpler gfx games, I can top 1.2-1.4GB VRAM useage on my GTX580 (no way of measuring AMD GPU VRAM useage, so far, afaik).
 
at 1600p 1 6950 is NOT faster then a 4870x2. you need 2 gpu's at that res and a 4870x2 pumps out great frames. i had 2 4870x2's and did some testing, at that res 1 6950 will give you half the frames of the 4870x2 usually. of course you cant run as high AA without impacting the performance on the 4870x2 compared to the 6950, but at 1600p res you will notice less frames with 1 core. you NEED 2 gpus at that res. i conducted my own tests @ 2560x1440 on my dell u2711

i would get 2 6950s in CFX for that monitor. only cards from the green team id consider is the EVGA 560 Ti 2gb, or 580 3gb. i dont think the EVGA 460 2gb would be able to process that res well. you would need to SLI here aswell.
 
Seriously? 1 6950 isn't faster than a 4870x2 but you will suggest a 560ti? Maybe your thinking a 6750. From the green teem a 580 would probably be the way to go or the 6950/6970
 
Last edited:
Um yea, the 4870x2 still stomps all but the top tier of the current generation cards from both sides of the fence.

I have been in the same boat, my gaming rig went out in a nuclear fashion, looking at the current crop of stuff I have been thinking of just making do with my old ass laptop as it still plays WoW and minecraft like a champ.
 
jbjmed said:
Seriously? 1 6950 isn't faster than a 4870x2 but you will suggest a 550ti? Maybe your thinking a 6750. From the green teem a 580 would probably be the way to go or the 6950/6970
Click to expand...

i never mentioned the 550ti.
 
The 4870x2 stomps or keeps up with anything that isn't a dual GPU or crossfirex/sli.
 
you wont find an apples to apples benchmark as the 4000 series is very old now. the 6000 series is being benched on current gen games, which you wont find benchmarks for the 4000 series on. would have to find someone to do the benches that have both cards. i didnt take any screenshots when i did it, was mostly for my own information
 
If you want to watercool that HIS 6950 IceQ, Heatkiller and EK blocks for the 6870 fit it.

I would suggest picking up another 6950 or 6970 to go with the one you just bought.
 
soulesschild said:
Should I go to dual 6970 or just get another 6950?
Click to expand...

Did you try the 6950 yet?

I don't know what these guys are talking about. I clearly remember a 5870 being very close to the 4870x2 's performance at launch and the 5870 getting faster with newer driver in the next few months. A 6950 is faster than a 5870, so how is a 4870x2 faster thean a 6950?

Notice in these benchmarks that the 5870 gained 4 fps more when the 6950 came out vs the release chart , it would be quite a bit faster than a 4870x2 now.
and the 6950 is faster than the 5870.

4870x2 vs 5870 (this is when the 5870 was first released.)
20094.png


6950 vs 5870
34625.png


And here is a 6990 review showing the 6950 CLEARLY beating a 4870x2. This review was just a few months back.
35787.png


AND here is some MINIMUM framerates, the 4870x2 really sucks here!!!!!!!The 6950 is killing it.
35790.png
 
Last edited:
happymedium said:
Notice in these benchmarks that the 5870 gained 4 fps more by the time the 6950 came out vs the release chart , it would be quite a bit faster than a 4870x2 now.
Click to expand...

You're implying that the 4870x2 has not seen any significant gains in performance during that time compared to the 5870. The 5870 has certainly seen some driver improvements that were hardware specific but many of the driver improvements apply to older hardware as well. Additionally, the 4870x2 benefits from all of the crossfire improvements that have taken place in recent years, especially the improvements that have come since AMD really got on their game and started releasing their Crossfire/Catalyst profiles separate. You'll notice how the 4870x2 still outperforms the 5870 in the benchmarks you posted.

The minimums are meaningless unless you are able to look at the FPS in graph form (as HardOCP does it). Quantifying minimum FPS as a single value doesn't tell you if it got that low once or on a regular basis during the benchmark run. In my experience crossfire will "pause" briefly as it engages when initial synchronization occurs, which is enough to produce a low minimum-FPS value during a benchmark run but that is not representative of actual gameplay.

I think the fact that the 6950 beat the 4870x2 by less than 4fps is pretty impressive, considering that the gains almost certainly came from the extra VRAM on the 6950.
 
GotNoRice said:
You're implying that the 4870x2 has not seen any significant gains in performance during that time compared to the 5870. The 5870 has certainly seen some driver improvements that were hardware specific but many of the driver improvements apply to older hardware as well. Additionally, the 4870x2 benefits from all of the crossfire improvements that have taken place in recent years, especially the improvements that have come since AMD really got on their game and started releasing their Crossfire/Catalyst profiles separate. You'll notice how the 4870x2 still outperforms the 5870 in the benchmarks you posted.

The minimums are meaningless unless you are able to look at the FPS in graph form (as HardOCP does it). Quantifying minimum FPS as a single value doesn't tell you if it got that low once or on a regular basis during the benchmark run. In my experience crossfire will "pause" briefly as it engages when initial synchronization occurs, which is enough to produce a low minimum-FPS value during a benchmark run but that is not representative of actual gameplay.

I think the fact that the 6950 beat the 4870x2 by less than 4fps is pretty impressive, considering that the gains almost certainly came from the extra VRAM on the 6950.
Click to expand...

I agree, look at the third chart, the 4870x2 did see a 4 fps gain with new drivers from just a few months ago. IT STILL ONLY TIED THE 5870 and LOST TO THE 6950.

If you were to look at a Hardocp chart you would see the awefull crossfire stuttering of the 4870x2 and the minimums would still be bad.

With the extra ram at the op's resolution, not to mention the 6950 will overclock much better than the space heater 4870x2, the 6950 is quieter, gives off less heat, uses less power and is at least 7% faster, while most definitly giving better minimums and smoother gameplay because of the crossfire overhead of the 4870x2.

So the 4870 x2 is NOT better than the 6950!

Notice all the BLUE spikes for the 4870x2's minimum frames?
1220401263YWkYFM5W6c_7_3.gif

.
 
Last edited:
didnt the 4870x2 have horrible scaling in crysis? id try to find a different game to compare to like bc2 or something thats coded a bit better then cysis. ive seen perfect scaling in bc2
 
baldrik said:
Dual 6970s would obviously be better, but not everyone's budget can accomodate this. If I had it to do over again, I would definitely spring for the 6970.
Click to expand...

I thought that too but I figured since the 7000 series are coming, I'd just wait it out and upgrade to the 7990 or equivalent, else just pick up another 6950 as the only games I'm interested in are Diablo 3, Starcraft 2 and swtor

Haven't had a chance yet to push the cards as I've had long work days but hopefully tonight I can give it a whirl :)
 
happymedium said:
Notice all the BLUE spikes for the 4870x2's minimum frames?
1220401263YWkYFM5W6c_7_3.gif
Click to expand...

Ignoring the fact that you linked 3 year old benchmarks (crossfire has improved quite a bit in that time), I see the single-GPU GTX280 in that graph producing just as many if not more framerate dips compared to the 4870x2.

audirs said:
didnt the 4870x2 have horrible scaling in crysis? id try to find a different game to compare to like bc2 or something thats coded a bit better then cysis. ive seen perfect scaling in bc2
Click to expand...

These results certainly are interesting, considering that the 4870x2 is faster than a 5870:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-6950-6970-review/22
 
Get something cheap. I got a 480 gtx soc for $225 a few months back. Waiting on the next round of gpus. Runs every game fine anyway.
 
GotNoRice said:
Ignoring the fact that you linked 3 year old benchmarks (crossfire has improved quite a bit in that time), I see the single-GPU GTX280 in that graph producing just as many if not more framerate dips compared to the 4870x2.



These results certainly are interesting, considering that the 4870x2 is faster than a 5870:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-6950-6970-review/22
Click to expand...

yea and the best part of that is, the results are for 1920x1200. at 1600p, i can assure you the dual GPU cards are going to pull much further away from the single core 6950
 
soulesschild said:
I thought that too but I figured since the 7000 series are coming, I'd just wait it out and upgrade to the 7990 or equivalent, else just pick up another 6950 as the only games I'm interested in are Diablo 3, Starcraft 2 and swtor

Haven't had a chance yet to push the cards as I've had long work days but hopefully tonight I can give it a whirl :)
Click to expand...

*I* don't have a single game that my single 6950 2gb can't run at max 1920x1080, so I would wait. YMMV.
 
So you guys still think a 4870x2 is faster than a 6950 2gb at the op's resolution?

ridiculous! see what the op says when he fires up the single 6950 card.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top