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2 4870X2 or 2 280's?

T

theseeker

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Apr 27, 2005
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I am about to build a new system with the I7 Extreme and the ASUS Rampage II MB.
I have been using nvidia since the 6000 VC's and I currently have two 8800 GTX's in SLI.
I am strongly considering two ATI 4870X2's in this build. I will be using a 30" Dell or Samsung for the display so max eye eye candy at 25X16 is a must
Looking for opinions and advice.
 
I was under the impression that there was essentially no performance gain using 3-way SLI.
Is there an improvement using 4-way crossfire over a regular 4870x2?
 
I would go with 2x gtx280's since I have tried both setups and the dual gtx 280's worked for me well.
 
From what I've read, I'd go with 2x 280s if I was building that class system today. You'll get higher min frame rates with the 280s. You'd get higher max frame rate with the 4870x2s. Higher min frame rate is much more important to me. You might also consider [H]ards now a little old article where they reviewed the two:

HardOCP Radeon 4800 & GeForce 200 Series Value Guide said:
Now we come to the granddaddy of them all, the GTX 280 SLI at $780 and the Radeon HD 4870 X2 at $1100. That is a rather huge price difference, and in some games we saw no real world gameplay experience differences at all. One of these games was Grid where we found 16X AA playable on the GTX 280 SLI and 12X CFAA playable on the 4870 X2 CrossFireX. These settings look identical in-game, especially at 2560x1600. Therefore it is logical to buy the cheaper configuration here, the GTX 280 SLI.
Click to expand...

Oh, and last I checked the GTX 280s can be had around 350-360$AR, so the "fair" comparision would be 3x 280 vs 2x 4870x2.

Whatever you choose, enjoy your build!
 
vengence said:
Oh, and last I checked the GTX 280s can be had around 350-360$AR, so the "fair" comparision would be 3x 280 vs 2x 4870x2.

Whatever you choose, enjoy your build!
Click to expand...

That article you quoted is outdated as far as pricing goes. You can find a 4870X2 for $450 to $480 AR so you can't exactly get 3 GTXs for the price of 2 X2s.
 
If it were me I'd go with the two GTX 280s. While the 2 4870X2s might be technically more powerful, and see higher frames in some games, the main games that really matter for this like crysis, and warhead, which actually need two of these big daddies to run at super high res, and high settings tend to support SLi a little better. But if you only play GRID, or COD 4, or Assasins Creed the 4870s are way stronger.


I guess it comes down to the games you play.
 
Johnny78 said:
That article you quoted is outdated as far as pricing goes. You can find a 4870X2 for $450 to $480 AR so you can't exactly get 3 GTXs for the price of 2 X2s.
Click to expand...

2x 280s @ 350 = 700$
3x 280s @ 350 = 1050$

2x 4870s @ 480 = 960.

Difference between 2x 280s and 2x 4870x2 = 260$
Difference between 3x 280s and 2x 4870x2 = 90$

To me at least, it makes more sense to compare 2x4870x2 to 3x 280s.
 
not sure what games you will be running, but I saw no differences in game play or "eye candy" when I ran a single x2 vs quad fire 2 x x2's....well other than massive fan noise and butt load of heat haha

dumped the 2nd x2, and never looked back

oh and if they had a dfi SLi matx mobo, I would have gone 2 280's...so 2 x 280's is my vote
 
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