4870 Crossfire vs 4870X2

[Shadout]

This isnt about their actual performance! Since we obviously don't know yet.

I'm interesting in knowing ups and downs of going crossfire vs X2 (beside it takes 1 PCI-E slot instead of 2...).

Seems like it will be easier to find good third party cooler solutions for 2 crossfire boards, than one X2 (judging from the 3800 series).

What else separates the two options, what makes one preferable over the other and vice versa?

 

[Jakalwarrior]

Less slots = cheaper motherboard and available to more people.

 

[xBanzai89]

For one I think the 4870X2 is going to be cheaper than a 4870 crossfire setup anyway. If it proves to be a popular card, you will see plenty of coolers for it.

 

[Eldragon]

The big advantage of crossfire 4870s would be you can get them in early July instead of August (rumored release of 4870x2). However we have no clue what the actual availability of either of these cards will be.

I'm probably going to go crossfire 4870s simply because I don't want to wait until Aug/Sept to get the 4870x2. And I would like to go Triple monitor and put some use to my extra LCD screens.

Standard Disclaimer: This all of course depends on actual reviews, and not rumors.

 

[rennyf77]

i don't know if the x2's will carry gddr5 like the 4870's supposedly will when they launch. if the x2's only use gddr4, 4870's in cf should be faster.

 

[xBanzai89]

The 4870 X2 will carry GDDR5. They will lose all their bandwidth otherwise, causing a downfall in performance and the clocks won't be nearly as high.

 

[kadozer]

Looking forward to see what 4870X2 can bring as I would rather pay less than I would for a 280. My biggest concern for AMD is their drivers have been unimpressive with the 3870X2. I'm not getting caught in the whole 'wait till next driver in a month' mistake again.

 

[dzigi]

Considering 3870X2 cooling dificulties I've just gone through I will go with 2 4870s. Plenty of power to run games I play at 1920X1200 resolution.

 

[unleashed]

What else separates the two options, what makes one preferable over the other and vice versa?

As I mentioned before, there's a lot of talk that the microstuttering issue affecting the multi-GPU set-ups has been fixed, since the communication on the 4870x2 will be done in memory instead of the bridge chip as in the 3870x2.
While the crossfired 4870's will still probably have the same rendering problems

 

[sethk]

i don't know if the x2's will carry gddr5 like the 4870's supposedly will when they launch. if the x2's only use gddr4, 4870's in cf should be faster.

ATI will not release GDDR4 cards now. It will either be 3 or 5.

 

[Nenu]

As long as the x2 cards can run at the same clock speeds as the individual 4870's, the x2 part should be faster.
Arbitration between 2 separate cards occurs through a PCI-e interface, the PCI-e bus and another PCI-e interface.
This adds latency and limits data transfers to the max speed of the PCI-e bus.

A x2 card will have more direct communication between the GPU's so should get more out of the card for the same clockspeed as a crossfire setup.
This can also give a smoother looking experience.

 

[redman223]

I wonder how much of a difference GDDR5 will make? I hope a big one, but we will see in the next few days I hope.

 

[semisonic9]

I'm also curious, since it looks like the 1gb version of the 4870 won't be out until later, whether I can put a 512mb and a 1gb model in a crossfire configuration without any problems, and whether or not there will be a bottleneck.

I know I want to start with either a 4870x2 or a 4870 1gb (that I may crossfire later), but both cards keep being pushed back. I was thinking these cards would be out in late May. Now that it's late-June/ early-July, and possibly even as late as September, it's really starting to cramp my style. Hopefully someone will at least review these cards soon, so I can make some decisions here.

~S