Quadfire TWO 4870x2? Requirements? Bottlenecks?

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ragingazn628

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 5, 2011
Messages
207
Hi guys,

if you haven't heard...

http://www.overclock.net/online-dea...ontek-4870x2-104-23-a-13.html#post13171133for 100 bucks... yup

Anyways I was wondering if my system is able to handle at least one of these let alone crossfire? Will I need a new PSU if I want to Crossfire these? I bet the CPU is bottlenecking it as hell overclocked at 3.2Ghz?

System Specs:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.2 GHz
Motherboard: XFX 680i LT SLI (MB-N680- ILT9)
Video Card: (2x SLI) XFX GTS 250 512MB (GS250XYDFU) w/ Spire Slimod 282 Cooler
PSU: OCZ 750W Fatal1ty Series Modular
Case: NZXT Phantom Full Tower(black)
Drives: DVD Burner w/ Lightscribe
CPU Cooler: Titan Hati CPU Cooler w/ 2 fans
RAM: OCZ SLI-Ready Dual Channel DDR2 800 4GB 2 x 2GB
 
You should be ok but im not sure about the psu, But the 4xxx series did not scale well and you will mostlikely not see much of a gain.
 
Personally, I wouldn't even bother with the 4870X2. You'd be better off putting the money towards a more up-to-date and energy efficient gpu.
 
mannyman said:
But the 4xxx series did not scale well and you will mostlikely not see much of a gain.
Click to expand...

4xxx series scales just fine.

That is an interesting deal for the price. I got both of my cards around the time the 5870 was coming out, but I was able to get both of mine for less than the cost of a single 5870 at the time. They work so well I plan to continue using them for quite some time.

Really AMD is on their game when it comes to crossfire support. Now that they have crossfire profiles available separate from the drivers, it is rare for an issue to go unaddressed for long.

Power consumption is no joke however.

powerkaw.jpg


That was during Bad Company 2. That game has almost perfect crossfire utilization all the way up to 4 GPUs. Max power draw was 1173 during Furmark. I use a somewhat old Antec Quattro 1000w.
 
GotNoRice said:
4xxx series scales just fine.

That is an interesting deal for the price. I got both of my cards around the time the 5870 was coming out, but I was able to get both of mine for less than the cost of a single 5870 at the time. They work so well I plan to continue using them for quite some time.

Really AMD is on their game when it comes to crossfire support. Now that they have crossfire profiles available separate from the drivers, it is rare for an issue to go unaddressed for long.

Power consumption is no joke however.

powerkaw.jpg


That was during Bad Company 2. That game has almost perfect crossfire utilization all the way up to 4 GPUs. Max power draw was 1173 during Furmark. I use a somewhat old Antec Quattro 1000w.
Click to expand...

Thanks I believe I've seen this picture before also ;p - How long do you think this card will last me? I mean according to http://www.overclock.net/graphics-cards-general/502403-graphics-card-ranking-5th-time-last.html it's still top 13?
 
ragingazn628 said:
Thanks I believe I've seen this picture before also ;p - How long do you think this card will last me? I mean according to http://www.overclock.net/graphics-cards-general/502403-graphics-card-ranking-5th-time-last.html it's still top 13?
Click to expand...

How long will it last you?

In terms of performance, it should still have plenty of life left in it. The big factors are going to be that it only supports DirectX 10.1 instead of 11 and potential crossfire issues in future games. As far as only having DX10.1 support, most DX11 games will run directly on DX10.1 hardware via the DX10.1 down-level compatibility path. DX11 was designed so that it is pretty trivial for a game to have backward compatibility with DX10 and 10.1 hardware, only losing select DX11 specific features such as Tessellation, but otherwise the game should run fine. As far as crossfire compatibility, only time will tell. I have a friend that is still running dual X1900XTX cards and even though those cards are now stuck on the legacy driver (based on Catalyst 10.2), apparently it still works great with most games. As of late last year they were still pumping out hotfixes specifically for the 4870x2 (when an issue came up where it was needed) and the Crossfire application profiles are still relevant to these cards. If you are the kind of person who plays the very latest games the day they come out, you could conceivably find yourself with an early crossfire issue, waiting for a profile update.

In terms of the physical life of the card, your biggest enemy is going to be heat, which when combined with a stock heatsink that tends to collect dust in a bad way, is absolutely going to require cleaning on at least a semi-regular basis. The fan blows air though both individual GPU heat-sinks within the fan shroud before the air exits the case. That means the air going through the 2nd heatsink has already been pre-heated by the first heatsink. This only serves to exacerbate the heat issue as dust begins to collect on the first heatsink and restricts overall airflow. To make matters even worse, you can't simply pop-off the fan shroud and dust the heatsinks. Removing the fan shroud requires removing the heatsinks from both GPUs at the same time (by unscrewing the mounting plates on the back). So every time you remove the shroud to dust out the heatsinks you also have to re-apply thermal paste to the GPUs as well as the RAM and the VRMs (which are also cooled via the stock cooler). The ram might require replacement thermal pads as there is a gap too large to simply use thermal paste if the existing pads have deteriorated.

It IS a bit of a pain in the ass, and a majority of the owners of these cards simply neglect cleaning them, or try to pretend that a few squirts with compressed air through the fan or exhaust without removing the shroud is enough (it isn't). As a result you will find many posts here either complaining about temperatures or claiming the card failed due to heat. I clean mine out every 3 months or so and I don't have any temperature issues. I expect my cards to last a while.
 
They are all out of stock.
Your cpu is too slow.
Your psu is too weak.

I'd sell it and buy 2 5850's for 300$ at newegg. Your cpu will still be the bottleneck but not nearly as bad 2 4870x2's.
 
please - his cpu is fine for 4870x2 quad fire ~ and for $200 you get all the gpu power you will need until the next-gen consoles (not including Wii 2). Only cons are: no DX11 (not that dx11 is being used much in games), they run hot, loud, and draw quite some power.
 
goldboy said:
please - his cpu is fine for 4870x2 quad fire ~ and for $200 you get all the gpu power you will need until the next-gen consoles (not including Wii 2). Only cons are: no DX11 (not that dx11 is being used much in games), they run hot, loud, and draw quite some power.
Click to expand...

A q6600 @ 3.2 is fine for 2 4870x2's. I don't think so! He is probrobly bottlenecking 1 4870x2.
 
The CPU may actually be a bit of a bottleneck, but not to a huge extent.

At least with the 4 GPUs, the OP will be able to turn most settings up without having problems on the GPU-side, even if he isn't getting full fps due to the CPU.

I would say at most he will get 70-80% out of those video cards with the existing CPU @ 3.2GHz.
 
am i missing something? why are posters still talking about quad crossfire when op has an nvidia 680i board?
 
It scales ...when it works. The drivers for the 4870X2 pretty much suck now so you'll have to play around with old drivers to get all GPUs working correctly. This is why I ended up selling mine , having to use old drivers to get proper Crossfire support just pissed me off.
 
rennyf77 is right, the OP has an NVIDIA, an OLD NVIDIA SLI board, not compatible with Crossfire.

OP, you need a different mobo to do what you want it to. Unless you go SLI or stick with one 4870X2, no Crossfire for you.

/thread ;)
 
I plan on upgrading to i5/7 SB - which MOBO should I use for the best Overclocking and Crossfire with these babies?
 
Godmachine said:
The drivers for the 4870X2 pretty much suck now so you'll have to play around with old drivers to get all GPUs working correctly. This is why I ended up selling mine , having to use old drivers to get proper Crossfire support just pissed me off.
Click to expand...

That's pure BS. There is ZERO reason to use anything other than the very newest drivers with these cards. I use 11.3 with the latest CAP and have no issues whatsoever in any game that I play.

Instead of just throwing out generalized and unsubstantiated claims maybe you could give us some examples? Which drivers did you try that "pretty much suck now"? There were a few sets of drivers, namely 10.6-10.8 that broke crossfire with these cards. People solved the issue by sticking with 10.5a or earlier, but AMD addressed these issues directly with multiple separate hotfix drivers (10.8b, 10.9a, etc) and that hotfix has since been integrated into the main driver. There have not been any major driver issues since then. Even during the few month period while people were stuck using the 10.5a drivers, people could still install the latest CAP on top of that, getting most of the benefit of a driver update anyway. But sounds more like you were pretty eager to throw in the towel rather than even try to figure out what was going on.
 
HohnyF said:
Cheap 460 SLI, 6850 Crossfire would beat 4870x2 Quad Crossfire into a pulp.

Maybe not at some open desk bench setup, and maybe not in all games, but in a real world I'd take those 2 over this 1kW setup w/o thinking.

Or a single GTX 580 over those SLI/Xfire.

--
Updated List of Video Card GPU Voodoopower Ratings!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

It really is true, for the little bit you spend extra compared to something like what OP is considering, you can avoid the power, noise, heat, and scaling concerns, and you can get DX11. I'd go with something like 460 SLI instead, so much friendlier.
 
You'll need a kw of juice and good cooling coz those puppies are space heaters
 
Holy shit, I must need a new PSU then. My overclocked 295's run at ~90% on all 4 cores on my 5 year old PC power and cooling 750...
 
saedrin said:
Holy shit, I must need a new PSU then. My overclocked 295's run at ~90% on all 4 cores on my 5 year old PC power and cooling 750...
Click to expand...

That shouldn't be possible, but I guess it is. Run Furmark or OCCT, let us know if your rig shuts off. I bet it will.

ragingazn628 said:
Where can I get these for 100 dollars each like I did for the 4870x2?
Click to expand...

You probably won't, but you'll spend the same amount on 4870X2 QuadFire + new PSU, so put the extra hundred bucks toward saving power and gaining a more reliable setup.
 
Hahaha you want to use a puny 750w PSU to power two 4870x2s? Not a good idea. Upgrade your PSU first. Although I'd say a 6950 unlocked to 6970 would perform better than the 4870x2 in most modern games.

ragingazn628 said:
Hi guys,

if you haven't heard...

http://www.overclock.net/online-dea...ontek-4870x2-104-23-a-13.html#post13171133for 100 bucks... yup

Anyways I was wondering if my system is able to handle at least one of these let alone crossfire? Will I need a new PSU if I want to Crossfire these? I bet the CPU is bottlenecking it as hell overclocked at 3.2Ghz?

System Specs:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.2 GHz
Motherboard: XFX 680i LT SLI (MB-N680- ILT9)
Video Card: (2x SLI) XFX GTS 250 512MB (GS250XYDFU) w/ Spire Slimod 282 Cooler
PSU: OCZ 750W Fatal1ty Series Modular
Case: NZXT Phantom Full Tower(black)
Drives: DVD Burner w/ Lightscribe
CPU Cooler: Titan Hati CPU Cooler w/ 2 fans
RAM: OCZ SLI-Ready Dual Channel DDR2 800 4GB 2 x 2GB
Click to expand...
 
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