Divorcing...

T

TigerLord

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
1,085
I'd seriously, really thinking of switching to ATI. I used to have AMD/ATI products, then the dual cores came out and the 8800GTX, it was so awesome I went with that. My latest upgrade was a 790i and a GX2. Big mistake.

I love my 790i, rock stable and amazing overclock capabilities, but the GX2 is a piece of shit, and the new 200 series is just overpriced for what it does.

Say I do go to the dark side, can I crossfire on aa nvidia board?
 
You can't crossfire on Nvidia boards, but the good news is, that Intel's chipsets are rock solid, too.

And if you really do want to get rid of it, it's not like there won't be somebody that won't pick up your 790i and GX2. You may even be able to sell your GX2 for ~$350 which is pretty close to the amount of 2x4850's.
 
My 790i is rock solid atm at 3.6ghz and ive also invested in blocks for it... so its not only fast and rock solid, its watercooled... I wouldn't throw it out now.

Guess next upgrade we'll see :D
 
In the current product mix you can get a GTX 260 and its pretty much on par performance wise with the 4870 both for the same price, $300. The GTX 280 is getting to the $500 and will probably fall below that level fairly soon, around the time of the release of the 4870x2 or soon after.

The huge performance vs. price advantage of the 4800 had literally disappeared overnight. Now AMD will probably respond with some price cutting of its own, but it will be a little slower and I don't see the 4870 going down more than $50 any time soon.

Bottom line, with you go and get the best price on a 260, there's a thread about the MSI GTX 260 for $260 after rebate or a 4870 which are all still around $300, you're going to end up getting about the almost same performance for the almost the same price.
 
Leaving behind an nvidia chipset is like dieing and going to heaven in my opinion. 99% of my driver issues for vista x64 are from nforce drivers. Infact there hasnt been a new x64 driver for nforce 4 board since about a month after vista's release. It is really rediculous.. the only other manfacturer to have worse is creative. Infact yesterday I maxed out my ram and I had to remove my xfi card because it started Poping horrible during audio with 4gb installed.

So, do yourself a favor. Get a nice x48 gigabyte board and crossfire away.. or wait til august for the 4870x2. It is gona be a beast.
 
i have 6GB with an Audigy 2, no problems in vista x64 ultimate.....might want to look elsewhere for your problem
 
Yeah, I recently got a 780i motherboard myself as well, should have waited longer, I assumed that the 280 GTX was going to be a wonder card, NVIDIA disappointed me yet again.

I'm going for a 4870 X2 and a Gigabyte P45 motherboard for my next upgrade. I can't wait to see how ATI's next beast is going to perform, since the current 4870 are doing nicely.
 
Don't expect AMD to be generous with a price drop of there own in response to Nvidias. With the current financial struggles they are having & quite a few quarters of loses in a roll, they can't afford a large price cut on any of there products. I see there products going down in value overtime rather than a price cut occurring. We can all hope but from a business stand point, I don't see it happening. They need profit & badly.
 
DarkLegacy said:
Don't expect AMD to be generous with a price drop of there own in response to Nvidias. With the current financial struggles they are having & quite a few quarters of loses in a roll, they can't afford a large price cut on any of there products. I see there products going down in value overtime rather than a price cut occurring. We can all hope but from a business stand point, I don't see it happening. They need profit & badly.
Click to expand...

You can take all that negative spin out and the result is the same. AMD/ATi don't need to drop prices, they brought in the low price point so they don't need to respond. If anything nVidia is still under pressure with no way to respond to the 4850 that stomps all over the 9600GT. I'd say a further cut down 260 or more price drops are almost certain for nVidia while ATi can sit back and let add-in board partners offer better cooling solutions and pack-in games and not touch their prices. And then you can count on cheap 3870s as well, putting more pressue on nVidia.

nVidia made some bad business decisions this round, but as usual they will be back. Everyone always rushes to call one company dead or in trouble (not specifically saying this is what you were driving at DarkLegacy, just making a generalization). I remember when these boards were packed with people declaring Intel out of business in a matter of months, then we spent the last few months pronouncing AMD/ATi dead, and now nVidia? Either company could blow it completely tomorrow and someone would buy them up and keep those brands and products alive, they are far too valuable of names to just let disappear.
 
with the GTX price drops I would go that route. about the same performance (close to it anyways) and you still have your upgrade options
 
Ive been using nvidia board sinces the 680i and I was semi happy with it, but the 790i really, really shines. I do passionately hate my GX2, it's one big POS.

I CANNOT WAIT to ditch it. I guess I'll get a 280GTX to go along my 30" that I just ordered, but I need to upgrade my 850W Antec Quattropower too... 1200W I suppose for dual 280TX?

Totally nuts...
 
the 260 is a much better deal. and you can SLI so why pay the extra for the 280 (unless they have had a hell of a price drop), I would not look at a 280 for more then 450 and that is being nice.

and 850 watts is fine, johnguru has three 280 sli on a BFG PSU.
 
Why not just wait a little more for the 4870X2?

At about the same price (1GB version = $500, 2GB is $600 I think) with the 280, it is going to shock a lot of people.

And much more space for other stuff instead of blockage.
 
Lost! said:
Why not just wait a little more for the 4870X2?
Click to expand...

I was just about to suggest the same thing. The X2 will work on your board just fine. Crossfire on a single card so your board won't care. However, GTX 260 is still a good choice for you though if can't afford an X2 or you want seperate cards for some reason.
 
I agree. If you can, wait for the 4870X2. It will probably make Nvidia lower their GTX260/280 prices, too.
 
I'm sorry but I cannot stand my GX2 anymore and really want to get rid of it.

I was thinking of getting a 260GTX now and step up to the 55nm 280GTX when it comes out hopefully within 120 days of purchase...

but before...

Are you 100% sure my 790i cannot crossfire???
 
TigerLord said:
I'm sorry but I cannot stand my GX2 anymore and really want to get rid of it.

I was thinking of getting a 260GTX now and step up to the 55nm 280GTX when it comes out hopefully within 120 days of purchase...

but before...

Are you 100% sure my 790i cannot crossfire???
Click to expand...

there is no way nvidia would let their competitor's multi gpu implementation work on their chipset.
 
True but there might have been a hack or something...

I'm really a sad puppy :(

Is there such a thing as step ups for ATI? Atm I only game at 1680x1050 one 4870 would probably suffice for my Crysis very high thrist... but the X2 is is coming.
 
TigerLord said:
I'm sorry but I cannot stand my GX2 anymore and really want to get rid of it.

I was thinking of getting a 260GTX now and step up to the 55nm 280GTX when it comes out hopefully within 120 days of purchase...

but before...

Are you 100% sure my 790i cannot crossfire???
Click to expand...

Positive, it doesn't have the chipset for it and unless some one has hacked drivers that I wouldn't trust anyway, I would touch it. You have a couple of options

1) You could wait for the 4870x2 which is rumored to be in the 500-550 range. You can only use one in the 790 board.

2) You could get 2x SLI GTX 260 which if you find the right deal should cost you around 550-600 and will probably deliver pretty much the same performance as an 4870x2. Obviously this is a guess but its pretty hard even for the biggest fanboy to say that a 4870x2 would consistently and by a large margin beat 2x SLI GTX 260

3) You could be stupid like me and load that 790 with 3 GTX 280's and bitch slap probably any game for the next 18 months. Even mighty Crysis isn't so tough with three of the puppies!

I know that Option 3 isn't probably anything thay sane people would do just threw it out there. But I think 1 and 2 are pretty decent paths.
 
TigerLord said:
True but there might have been a hack or something...

I'm really a sad puppy :(

Is there such a thing as step ups for ATI? Atm I only game at 1680x1050 one 4870 would probably suffice for my Crysis very high thrist... but the X2 is is coming.
Click to expand...

No such thing as step up for ATi brands.

What I would do in your shoes is:

1. Keep your 790i since you got your blocks on it and you're apparently happy with the chipset.
2. Suck it up for the time being and get the 4870x2 when it comes out :D

Are you selling the GX2 pretty soon or something ?
 
heatlesssun said:
3) You could be stupid like me and load that 790 with 3 GTX 280's and bitch slap probably any game for the next 18 months. Even mighty Crysis isn't so tough with three of the puppies!

I know that Option 3 isn't probably anything thay sane people would do just threw it out there. But I think 1 and 2 are pretty decent paths.
Click to expand...

Lol.

Well at least you're man and [H] enough to admit to it :D

Must be nice having your own tropical weather in your case :cool:
 
Actually at 1680x1050 there is a third option and little cheaper option. A factory or hand overclocked GTX 280. I'd wait for reviews of the 4870x2, but the GTX 280 will be a little cheaper probably than the 4870x2 and at 1680x1050 I don't see multi-GPU being the best option, unless the 4870x2 solves ALL of the issues with multi-GPU. They tend not to scale the greatest at lower resolutions, anything under 1080p.
 
FYI-I bought a 4850 for my wife's computer. I ended up installing the 4850 in my computer because I had to send my 8800GTX in to eVGA so I could set up to a 260XT. I am thrilled with the 4850- it's faster then my 8800GTX. I may just sell the 260XT when I get it and just by another 4850 and use the extra money for more memory. I have been gaming more on my Xbox 360 anyway and think I'm about done trying to keep up with hardware to PC game.
 
very high for one 4870 at 16x10 is a bit of a stretch. even 4870 cf on high at 19x12 isn't something i like to play at. i'm taking about the real settings not the hacked stuff. hopefully the new x2 will arrive early next month. i'm dying to see what two of them can do together. listen to heat's suggestions.
 
Yeah Ill probably sell my GX2 for ~300$ to my brother or else here.

It maxes out AoC and pretty much any other game but I prefer 1x PCB.

I'll wait another month and see what the 4870X2 is capable of.

I just got a QX9650 from a friend whos leaving for duty and needed the cash, it's so pretty :eek: Got it real cheap too... :D

I've got a 850w now so even I SLI 2x 260 GTW I'd need to upgrade PSU as well probably, and 1000W PSU's aren't cheap. Also, I game on a 22'' ... I wanted to get a 30'' by Xmas but none of the 30'' seem good enough, 27'' are so-so and 24'' isn't worth the upgrade imho. I plan on using my current 2x 22'' as satellites for my photography work and the 30'' in the middle for gaming or video.

260 sli is probably overkill for 22'' gaming, so I'd rather wait and buy the best single core card I can, and get a 2nd one when I buy the 30'' with the 1000W PSU.

Makes sense?
 
wolf2009 said:
y do u hate gx2 so much ?
Click to expand...

I dual monitor and need to disable/enable sli if I want to game.

The worse is the video corruption issue. I flooded the EVGA boards with this, others have the problem as well. It seems to be a conflict with the 790i/GX2. Basically its random, but whenever I play video (on any client) I have a 50% chance it'll lock up the system. Artifacts first appear over the video player's image and around the mouse cursor. As soon as I try to close any application the whole thing locks up.

Since I gamed for 100+ hours on it on Mass Effect, The Witcher, WIC, Crysis and never had a single issue with the card, it's not defective. I tried all kinds of fixes, new drivers, disabling SLI when playing video, every possible client... nothing. EVGA has given me ZERO help with the issue, even though a dozen reported the issue. I ended up trying a 8800GT, 8800GTX to make sure it wasn't the mobo (48h each...) and the issue never arose.

So I want to get rid of that POS.
 
i had gx2 and gx2 quad and the only game i had to disable multi gpu for was tf2. and i played crysis, ass creed, obliv, cod4, hl2, spi 1 & 2, etc. the problem might be elsewhere. i mean i have no doubt that it doesnt work with multi and does with single for you, but the problem might not be strictly the gx2. anyway an 850 watt psu is fine for gtx260 sli. i ran the quad sli with a muskin 650 for about 3 months.
 
I'm running 3x SLI GTX 280 and a QX9650 @ 3.83Ghz with a 1kW Galaxy. You should be fine with 2x SLI GTX 260's with that PSU assuming its a good one.

As for the 790, wow I just don't understand what the problems are. I here so much bitching and complaining and my S2E has been totally kick ass. I'm not running RAID or doing FSB overclocking so that might have a lot to do with it, but RAID is a bit overrated for desktops IMHO and you don't need FSB overclocking with a EE CPU so I don't feel like I'm missing out.
 
i have 150 raptors in raid0 about since the 790i came out and it hasn't done anything weird yet. i also have a q6600 with a mild overclock to 3.38ghz.
 
I dont have any 790i issues, its the GX2.My OC is rockstable!

I need to disable SLI to dual monitor is what I meant... haveing to renable it each time I want to game is very annoying.
 
TigerLord said:
I dont have any 790i issues, its the GX2.My OC is rockstable!

I need to disable SLI to dual monitor is what I meant... haveing to renable it each time I want to game is very annoying.
Click to expand...

Yes, this is the biggest problem with SLI by far right now. I think I remember Kyle the Editor In Chief here say that nVidia said this was a fairly straight forward driver enhancement and that was like a year ago so it must not be that easy for nVidia for whatever reason.

At least is doesn't require a reboot like it used to!:p
 
heatlesssun said:
Yes, this is the biggest problem with SLI by far right now. I think I remember Kyle the Editor In Chief here say that nVidia said this was a fairly straight forward driver enhancement and that was like a year ago so it must not be that easy for nVidia for whatever reason.
Click to expand...

Yep like monthly WHQL driver releases which Nvidia promised soon after G80 lauch. Talk is easy, making it happen another thing it seem.
 
sam0t said:
Yep like monthly WHQL driver releases which Nvidia promised soon after G80 lauch. Talk is easy, making it happen another thing it seem.
Click to expand...

When did nVidia promise monthly driver releases? I do remember them saying shortly after ATI started doing it that it was unecessary.
 
FlyinBrian said:
Leaving behind an nvidia chipset is like dieing and going to heaven in my opinion. 99% of my driver issues for vista x64 are from nforce drivers. Infact there hasnt been a new x64 driver for nforce 4 board since about a month after vista's release. It is really rediculous.. the only other manfacturer to have worse is creative. Infact yesterday I maxed out my ram and I had to remove my xfi card because it started Poping horrible during audio with 4gb installed.

So, do yourself a favor. Get a nice x48 gigabyte board and crossfire away.. or wait til august for the 4870x2. It is gona be a beast.
Click to expand...

This is good advice, intel chipsets are the best...they just seem more stable. Had a EVGA 680i and 780i and both had issues. Ever since switching to a abit ip35 pro it was smooth sailing. Eventually upgraded to an abit x38 and it's also been rock solid at a nice 3.4 OC. Stable at 3.6, but I think 3.6 is overkill.
 
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