Anyone Have 4870x2 ? hows wow with it

[XtremeDream]

Does anyone have the ati 4870x2 and if so, how well does WoW play with it..... also do you multibox with it.........Please help me, and if you know someone who has it please ask them for me...Im about to make a purchase for two 4870x2 in crossfire but if it has major problems with WoW...ill then go with two gtx280's in SLI................

THANKS.

[XtremeDream]

please someone help me, this can potentially save me hundreds of bucks

[XtremeDream]

anyone?

[algol]

Dude, stop bumping yourself every 10 minutes.

[XtremeDream]

Dude, stop bumping yourself every 10 minutes.wow im new to these forums..... this is how people treat people on here? im not impressed...sorry for bumping myself, thats my fault...but you coulda been a little more polite....sheesh

[Harem]

wow im new to these forums..... this is how people treat people on here? im not impressed...sorry for bumping myself, thats my fault...but you coulda been a little more polite....sheesh lol
I think it was just impatience at your impatience :)

if you've lurked at all you know its a pretty good community. Still surprises me how well people who cannot use the search function are treated

Performance Improvments ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=17891')

He has a 280 and has trouble in dalaran - but thats apparently because he has 4 gig of ram while trying to multi-instance on one box. 280 in sli should perform better than 4870x2 but not if the video isn't the bottleneck.

If you could give us more about your system I'm sure folks would volunteer input on the best dollar spent for performance on your rig.

[Coltimar]

Dude, stop bumping yourself every 10 minutes.wow im new to these forums..... this is how people treat people on here? im not impressed...sorry for bumping myself, thats my fault...but you coulda been a little more polite....sheeshThis is a great community of very helpful people. You will find, however, that we tend to have little patience with people who don't try to help themselves first.

edit: I searched for 4870 and got 8 pages of hits and the first two posts I read each answered your question :/

[Yo-Yo Freak]

Dude, stop bumping yourself every 10 minutes.wow im new to these forums..... this is how people treat people on here? im not impressed...sorry for bumping myself, thats my fault...but you coulda been a little more polite....sheeshwe don't mean to be rude, its just that there tend to be a lot of people that don't do there research before posting, causing a lot of people on here to be kind of rude to to members. we don't mean to be its just when you see somebody asking a question that could have been answered by 5 min of reading it gets very annoying.

as for your original question. from what i have read (i don't personally have any experience with either card) both are just fine for WoW. as for SLI/XFire, i haven't been able to find any hard evidence on weather or not wow acualy takes advantage of either of them. some people say it does and other swear it doesn't. the only real advantage as of right now that comes from XFire/SLI is being able to combine the resolution maximum of the cards alowing for multiple high resolution monitors running out of one card. but with either of those cards as long as you have enough RAM you will be fine boxing on one computer, 4G minimum 8G HIGHLY recomended. if you could post some specs on the rest of your computer it would help us give better info too.

hope this helps some. ^_^

~YYF

[XtremeDream]

Dude, stop bumping yourself every 10 minutes.wow im new to these forums..... this is how people treat people on here? im not impressed...sorry for bumping myself, thats my fault...but you coulda been a little more polite....sheeshThis is a great community of very helpful people. You will find, however, that we tend to have little patience with people who don't try to help themselves first.

edit: I searched for 4870 and got 8 pages of hits and the first two posts I read each answered your question :/
Ok, let me first start off by saying that I searched every page in the search forum before posting. The results I came up with were not positive for the 4870x2, however the reason why I insisted in posting this is because all those posts are a month old, some a few weeks ago.... Now if within that time frame a fix has been made, or if someone has been getting POSITIVE results with these video cards, then that would be great and I would like some feedback on solutions. Please do not assume I did not do my part, the results I found were "dated", and as for for these forums being very supportive, that is very good to hear.........but I did do some "lurking" and did found people being rude to each other ( which happens in most forums anway) but my own "personal" experience as a nooby was not the greatest........anyway, moving along............ I am sorry if I somehow ticked on anyones nerves, that is not my intention...my intention actually is saving myself from getitng video cards that will not be used for my purpose, which is multiboxing 5 warlocks

Computer Specs I am going to get:
intel core i7 920
Ram: 12 gb ddr3
Gpu: as the topic says - 4870x2 in crossfireX ( two of them )
Solid state drive in Raid 0 with a read time of over 250 mb per sec.
SOundcard X-fi latest edition.
Vista 64 bit os Premium edition.

Thank you all ....and hopefully no misunderstandings

[XtremeDream]

oh and i plan on using two monitors ...one 1920x1200 res main monitor...and the other 4 characters on the other 1920x1200 monitor....24inches if that helps understand what i am trying to achieve.

Trying to multibox, and get high res and graphics sliders at the same time...
I want the game to look nice while i multibox basically over 2 monitors

[XtremeDream]

oh and i plan on using two monitors ...one 1920x1200 res main monitor...and the other 4 characters on the other 1920x1200 monitor....24inches if that helps understand what i am trying to achieve.

Trying to multibox, and get high res and graphics sliders at the same time...
I want the game to look nice while i multibox basically over 2 monitorsooops....sorry forgot to add that the psu and mobo....
PSU is 1200 watt multigpu supported and Intel® X-58 Motherboard- Socket 1366 Core i7 Ready, Dual Triple Channel DDR3 Memory

[XtremeDream]

actions ive done so far....called amd ( there customer phone support seems non existent)
I emailed blizzard tech support.... I emailed about 10 other people, including multiple people from youtube who have these cards....... and visited other forums...and looked on google probably over 10 times

[Harem]

I would get a 10k drive for your OS and other software. The SSD is best used as read-only type device. This is just bang for the buck advice - not saying you can't, just that you'd be better served that way.

In that setup you have there i don't see there being much of a difference between the 4870x2 and the 280 (especially in xfire/sli) The only thing I can add I just did.

[XtremeDream]

I would get a 10k drive for your OS and other software. The SSD is best used as read-only type device. This is just bang for the buck advice - not saying you can't, just that you'd be better served that way.

In that setup you have there i don't see there being much of a difference between the 4870x2 and the 280 (especially in xfire/sli) The only thing I can add I just did.Thank you for your reply, and i "RESPECT" your opinion but I really don't need advice on what to spend my money on, and getting the bang out of my buck..No offense intended, I personally just want to mess around with these Solid state drives because of their speeds...and their write times or not too bad...thanks though..... Can you tell me however why do you think these card will be no different from sli? speculation? or hard facts? thanks

[algol]

A 4870x2 is (more or less) just a pair of 4870s on the same card using Crossfire. Therefore the difference between it and a pair of 4870s in Crossfire is VERY minimal.

[XtremeDream]

A 4870x2 is (more or less) just a pair of 4870s on the same card using Crossfire. Therefore the difference between it and a pair of 4870s in Crossfire is VERY minimal.Thank you for the reply, I "RESPECT" you information, but I must ask.....How does this answer my question?

I am also aware that these cards are basically 2 4870s in one...... one card is 2 gb of gddr5...i am aware of this...but two of them is 4gb of Vmem............anyway.....thanks for the reply, but i am afraid it doesnt help....once again if i have offended you or anyone, it is NOT "intentional" - just saying it in advanced just incase someone gets emotional :)

[XtremeDream]

?( 8| :?:

[Tsunami]

at this time there is no performance gain from 2 video cards in sli/xfire and 3 video cards in sli/xfire. so you will not see any performance increase in running 2x 4870x2 in xfire. unless you rendering a movie frames on your computer or working designing some extremely complex 3d cad models, I don't see any benefit from owning two of these outragous video cards. the programs that we use today are not optimized to use the set up you are talking about.

another problem you will have is sli/xfire only work for one 3d program at a time. so you will need to use 2heads2go to run both monitors in 3800x1200 mod to display all 5 instances.

[algol]

Can you tell me however why do you think these card will be no different from sli? speculation? or hard facts? thanks

It directly answers this question. Provided you know that Crossfire and SLI are trademarks referring to more or less the same technique.

Your posts are becoming a little confusing. I find that plain English tends to be the most effective. The caps and quotes and such might give people the wrong idea about your attitude towards them, making them less inclined to be helpful.


Tsu...I'm not sure that the Matrox adapter will accomplish that? You would still be running several clients at once, making it so you can't use multi-GPU mode (xfire/SLI). At least that's the way I understand it. It would however help if you wanted a single 3d app to span two monitors (or three using the triplehead adapter).

[Tsunami]

at this time when you run your video cards in sli or xfire mode only one output is used. e.g. your two video cards may have 4 dvi outputs but only one of them will work. this was a big limitation for people wishing to use multiply monitors, but is a sacrifice you make when linking the two cards. Now nvidea and ati have come out with a patch that allows you to use a second output to run 2d progams. so you can have a 3d game on one monitor and surf the internet on the other. But you cannot output two 3d programs to 2 different monitors. If you want to do that, that don't run the video cards in sli/xfire.

since sli/xfire only allows you to use 1 dvi port, what you do is add all your monitors resolutions together and have that as your screen resolution. e.g. 2x 24" monitors @ 1900x1200= 3800x1200 resolution coming from that one dvi port. than the 2heads2go splits that signal up to the two monitors.

But for the OP, i really don't see any performance benefit you will get between running 2x 4870's or 1x 4870x2, or 2x 4870x2's. there are no programs on your computer that need or will benefit from that much video card horsepower, there is nothing on your computer that is optimized to run with 4 gpu's. If you did have that kind of computing need you would not be posting here, you would already know the answer. My brother owns a digital studio and a has a render farm, he bought one computer setup from toyota america that they used to design their cars.(over 100k new) and has 2 computers with the equivalant of 8 quadcore's rendering one frame of film, takes several hours to process that one frame and it takes 24 frames for 1 second of film. takes a month to render a 30 second commercial. he multiboxes on a single computer with two 260's and 3 monitors. so if there was any performance to be gained from another video setup i'm sure he would use it.

So I can tell you without a doubt that if your intentions are to multibox with the system you described, with only 2 monitors, you will not need 2 4870x2. One is more than enough. Now if you want to use 3 monitors than you will need 2 video cards not in sli or xfire. wow is not a complex program, it is designed to run on a dial up connection, so the video is kept as simple as possible.

[XtremeDream]

at this time when you run your video cards in sli or xfire mode only one output is used. e.g. your two video cards may have 4 dvi outputs but only one of them will work. this was a big limitation for people wishing to use multiply monitors, but is a sacrifice you make when linking the two cards. Now nvidea and ati have come out with a patch that allows you to use a second output to run 2d progams. so you can have a 3d game on one monitor and surf the internet on the other. But you cannot output two 3d programs to 2 different monitors. If you want to do that, that don't run the video cards in sli/xfire.

since sli/xfire only allows you to use 1 dvi port, what you do is add all your monitors resolutions together and have that as your screen resolution. e.g. 2x 24" monitors @ 1900x1200= 3800x1200 resolution coming from that one dvi port. than the 2heads2go splits that signal up to the two monitors.

But for the OP, i really don't see any performance benefit you will get between running 2x 4870's or 1x 4870x2, or 2x 4870x2's. there are no programs on your computer that need or will benefit from that much video card horsepower, there is nothing on your computer that is optimized to run with 4 gpu's. If you did have that kind of computing need you would not be posting here, you would already know the answer. My brother owns a digital studio and a has a render farm, he bought one computer setup from toyota america that they used to design their cars.(over 100k new) and has 2 computers with the equivalant of 8 quadcore's rendering one frame of film, takes several hours to process that one frame and it takes 24 frames for 1 second of film. takes a month to render a 30 second commercial. he multiboxes on a single computer with two 260's and 3 monitors. so if there was any performance to be gained from another video setup i'm sure he would use it.

So I can tell you without a doubt that if your intentions are to multibox with the system you described, with only 2 monitors, you will not need 2 4870x2. One is more than enough. Now if you want to use 3 monitors than you will need 2 video cards not in sli or xfire. wow is not a complex program, it is designed to run on a dial up connection, so the video is kept as simple as possible.wow, you are very intelligent. Thank you very much. I have a question..........is there a way to disable crossfire mode if I still get these cards? thanks

[Clanked]

My reply to another post found here. ('https://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=157962&highlight=#post157962')

Video Card: Ok, here is where I really hope you heed my advice. The 4870x2 is cool and all, but it scales horribly. If you look at these benchmarks ('http://techreport.com/articles.x/15293/8') you will see that 2x 4870x2 cards actually perform no better than 2x 4870 cards, or a single 4870x2 for that matter. So thats an extra $489.99 for ZERO benefit it you run them crossfire. Since you are looking to go multi(3+) monitor output, I suggest going with TWO 4870 cards. This way you can enable crossfire when you want to play games on one screen, and get the same performance as your 4870x2 card. Then when you want to multibox you can disable crossfire, and run on all three monitors. I strongly recommend going with 2x 4870's. ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161236') $200 each. Thats $400 for both cards. Save $89.99 and gain up to 4 monitor output while maintaining the EXACT same performance as both a single and dual 4870x2's.

[XtremeDream]

My reply to another post found here. ('https://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=157962&highlight=#post157962')

Video Card: Ok, here is where I really hope you heed my advice. The 4870x2 is cool and all, but it scales horribly. If you look at these benchmarks ('http://techreport.com/articles.x/15293/8') you will see that 2x 4870x2 cards actually perform no better than 2x 4870 cards, or a single 4870x2 for that matter. So thats an extra $489.99 for ZERO benefit it you run them crossfire. Since you are looking to go multi(3+) monitor output, I suggest going with TWO 4870 cards. This way you can enable crossfire when you want to play games on one screen, and get the same performance as your 4870x2 card. Then when you want to multibox you can disable crossfire, and run on all three monitors. I strongly recommend going with 2x 4870's. ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161236') $200 each. Thats $400 for both cards. Save $89.99 and gain up to 4 monitor output while maintaining the EXACT same performance as both a single and dual 4870x2's.Well i can still change my order................... is it possible to disable SLI if i get TWO gtx280's ? thanks in advanced

[Tsunami]

My reply to another post found here. ('https://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=157962&highlight=#post157962')

Video Card: Ok, here is where I really hope you heed my advice. The 4870x2 is cool and all, but it scales horribly. If you look at these benchmarks ('http://techreport.com/articles.x/15293/8') you will see that 2x 4870x2 cards actually perform no better than 2x 4870 cards, or a single 4870x2 for that matter. So thats an extra $489.99 for ZERO benefit it you run them crossfire. Since you are looking to go multi(3+) monitor output, I suggest going with TWO 4870 cards. This way you can enable crossfire when you want to play games on one screen, and get the same performance as your 4870x2 card. Then when you want to multibox you can disable crossfire, and run on all three monitors. I strongly recommend going with 2x 4870's. ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161236') $200 each. Thats $400 for both cards. Save $89.99 and gain up to 4 monitor output while maintaining the EXACT same performance as both a single and dual 4870x2's.
I agree with clanked. It is hard to argue with test data. In fact 1 9800gtx+ ($150) is almost as fast as 2 4870's in sli mode. it all depends on the program you are running and if the program is optimized to use multiply gpu's. In most cases the program does not respond much better to the extra gpu. plus nvida will be switching to a 55nm chip next year, which will be much faster(cooler and require less power) than the current crop of gpu's

[Tsunami]

sli/xfire is just a little piece of plastic that connects the two video cards. takes about 20 seconds to disable

[XtremeDream]

I think I just found the most ULTIMATE question of all that will solve all my problems...since tommorow i will be FINALIZING my order.

This is the Question: What kind of computer specs would I need to be able to run 5 world of warcraft accounts on one computer, and on two monitors....one monitor for 1 character, and the other monitor to hold the 4 other characters, and to beable to swap them via keyclone?

Start with the:
CPU
PSU
GPU
RAM
HDD
and just about anything else you can add................. remember I want to get the best graphics and fps as possible while 5 boxing.................thanks and tomorrow i can consider making the rig you guys tell me to get what i want out of multiboxing

[XtremeDream]

I think I just found the most ULTIMATE question of all that will solve all my problems...since tommorow i will be FINALIZING my order.

This is the Question: What kind of computer specs would I need to be able to run 5 world of warcraft accounts on one computer, and on two monitors....one monitor for 1 character, and the other monitor to hold the 4 other characters, and to beable to swap them via keyclone?

Start with the:
CPU
PSU
GPU
RAM
HDD
and just about anything else you can add................. remember I want to get the best graphics and fps as possible while 5 boxing.................thanks and tomorrow i can consider making the rig you guys tell me to get what i want out of multiboxingplease dont be modest...set it up to be the perfect multiboxing rig possible with todays current hardware

1920x1200 monitors and max graphics and settings, while multiboxxing my 5 warlocks

[Tsunami]

I think I just found the most ULTIMATE question of all that will solve all my problems...since tommorow i will be FINALIZING my order.

This is the Question: What kind of computer specs would I need to be able to run 5 world of warcraft accounts on one computer, and on two monitors....one monitor for 1 character, and the other monitor to hold the 4 other characters, and to beable to swap them via keyclone?

Start with the:
CPU
PSU
GPU
RAM
HDD
and just about anything else you can add................. remember I want to get the best graphics and fps as possible while 5 boxing.................thanks and tomorrow i can consider making the rig you guys tell me to get what i want out of multiboxingplease dont be modest...set it up to be the perfect multiboxing rig possible with todays current hardware

1920x1200 monitors and max graphics and settings, while multiboxxing my 5 warlocks

core i7, over clocked to 3.8ghz.( you can do this yourself)
800+watt psu
2x ati4870s
9-12 gb of ddr3 tri channel ram
any 2 velociraptor's in raid0, 750gb-1tb data drive.
2x hp-w2408 24" monitors. (these have a great stand)

[XtremeDream]

I think I just found the most ULTIMATE question of all that will solve all my problems...since tommorow i will be FINALIZING my order.

This is the Question: What kind of computer specs would I need to be able to run 5 world of warcraft accounts on one computer, and on two monitors....one monitor for 1 character, and the other monitor to hold the 4 other characters, and to beable to swap them via keyclone?

Start with the:
CPU
PSU
GPU
RAM
HDD
and just about anything else you can add................. remember I want to get the best graphics and fps as possible while 5 boxing.................thanks and tomorrow i can consider making the rig you guys tell me to get what i want out of multiboxingplease dont be modest...set it up to be the perfect multiboxing rig possible with todays current hardware

1920x1200 monitors and max graphics and settings, while multiboxxing my 5 warlocks

core i7, over clocked to 3.8ghz.( you can do this yourself)
800+watt psu
2x ati4870s
9-12 gb of ddr3 tri channel ram
any 2 velociraptor's in raid0, 750gb-1tb data drive.
2x hp-w2408 24" monitors. (these have a great stand)ok I am going to do what you said, but just one last question im still confused about...................... Can Crossfire be disabled if I have 2 4870x2 ? or is the whole setup native to crossfire........like can i go into a option in the computer and disable crossfireX with two 4870x2 ? or is crossfire always going to be stuck if i were to get two 4870x2..................or are you saying that two 4870x2 is just plain overkill and a waste of money, but its is possible to disable crossfire? Thanks in advanced

[XtremeDream]

I think I just found the most ULTIMATE question of all that will solve all my problems...since tommorow i will be FINALIZING my order.

This is the Question: What kind of computer specs would I need to be able to run 5 world of warcraft accounts on one computer, and on two monitors....one monitor for 1 character, and the other monitor to hold the 4 other characters, and to beable to swap them via keyclone?

Start with the:
CPU
PSU
GPU
RAM
HDD
and just about anything else you can add................. remember I want to get the best graphics and fps as possible while 5 boxing.................thanks and tomorrow i can consider making the rig you guys tell me to get what i want out of multiboxingplease dont be modest...set it up to be the perfect multiboxing rig possible with todays current hardware

1920x1200 monitors and max graphics and settings, while multiboxxing my 5 warlocks

core i7, over clocked to 3.8ghz.( you can do this yourself)
800+watt psu
2x ati4870s
9-12 gb of ddr3 tri channel ram
any 2 velociraptor's in raid0, 750gb-1tb data drive.
2x hp-w2408 24" monitors. (these have a great stand)ok I am going to do what you said, but just one last question im still confused about...................... Can Crossfire be disabled if I have 2 4870x2 ? or is the whole setup native to crossfire........like can i go into a option in the computer and disable crossfireX with two 4870x2 ? or is crossfire always going to be stuck if i were to get two 4870x2..................or are you saying that two 4870x2 is just plain overkill and a waste of money, but its is possible to disable crossfire? Thanks in advancedplease help or else ill just keep my same order with the 4870x2............

[Tsunami]

two 4870x2's is overkill and a waste of money and you will not get any performance increase from using 2 of these.

one 4870x2 is the same as 2x 4870's(speaking of performance). not sure how the 4870x2 handles running the 2 gpu's on one card, with regards to xfire tech. but if given the choice between one 4870x2 or 2x 4870's than I would go with the 2x 4870's. the 4870x2 is a huge video card, (3lbs and 12 inches long)I think it is an accident waiting to happen. also if one of your 4870's goes bad you still have one card to use, if anything goes on the 4870x2 than you got nothing.

sli/crossfire is just a plastic connector that links the two video cards together. snaps in place in about 10 seconds, change your software settings and your done. If you plan to multibox than you will not get much benefit from using xfire. if you plan to use only 2 monitors than you can do it with just one 260/280 or 4850/4870. if you plan to use a 3 monitor setup than you will need 2 video cards, but don't link them together in sli/xfire mode unless you want to use the matrox 3heads2go. the 3heads2go with 3 monitors is pretty cool and gives almost 180 degree vision for a more realistic gaming experience.

[algol]

Multiple GPUs scale really, really well. Unfortunately they exist in such a small percent of systems that developers would be bloody stupid to put the kind of additional effort into exploiting it well that it would take to show its full power. Therefore, the bad scaling. On the plus side, single GPUs are becoming more threaded at the same time which increases the incentive to implement somewhat parallel algorithms and incidentally benefits multiple-GPU users.

But this is all about running ONE session of a game in 3D mode. Multiboxing WoW means running several in windowed mode. If SLI/Xfire is uncommon to start with, how much more uncommon must be trying to do it on a multi-GPU system? There's no way it's an efficient choice of developer time for them to cater to that setup.

[Tsunami]

the 4870x2 is a gee whiz look what I can do video card. It gets ATI name in video card reviews and is a tool to sell their other cards. I don't think that this setup, 2 gpu's on one card will be anything more than a marketing tool. there are too many things that can go wrong and make that $500 card worthless. It requires a lot of power, gets really hot and takes up a lot of space in your box and is prone to snapping off at the pci connection if not handled with care. having two separate cards that give the same performance is a much safer setup. If one of the cards goes bad, that you only lose $200+. you can still use your system and replacement costs are going to much lower.

I can think of no reason to buy the 4870x2, there are other options that give the same performance for the same or less money and give you better protection if something breaks.

hope for the best but plan for the worst.

[XtremeDream]

the 4870x2 is a gee whiz look what I can do video card. It gets ATI name in video card reviews and is a tool to sell their other cards. I don't think that this setup, 2 gpu's on one card will be anything more than a marketing tool. there are too many things that can go wrong and make that $500 card worthless. It requires a lot of power, gets really hot and takes up a lot of space in your box and is prone to snapping off at the pci connection if not handled with care. having two separate cards that give the same performance is a much safer setup. If one of the cards goes bad, that you only lose $200+. you can still use your system and replacement costs are going to much lower.

I can think of no reason to buy the 4870x2, there are other options that give the same performance for the same or less money and give you better protection if something breaks.

hope for the best but plan for the worst.Ok, well what do you think of going with two gtx280s ? is that still overkill? if i had to go with the top of the line, what would you choose, two GTX280's ? or two ati 4870x2 ?

[Tsunami]

the 280 and the 4870 are about the same, there is not a clear winner between the two. you would have to check on a benchmark tests to see which one is faster for the games you play. But the 4870 is the card I would buy, It has the ddr5 ram and uses 55nm tech, while the 280 is still using 65nm tech. this only means that the 4870 will run a little cooler and use a little less power than the 280.

you can't go wrong with either card. both are great and will handle everything you can throw at them.

get either two nvida 280's or two ati 4870's (w/ 1 gb ram) don't get any of the 4870x2 or the nvida equivalent. don't go with 2 gpu's on one card when you can get two gpu's on two cards for less money and the same performance.

[XtremeDream]

the 280 and the 4870 are about the same, there is not a clear winner between the two. you would have to check on a benchmark tests to see which one is faster for the games you play. But the 4870 is the card I would buy, It has the ddr5 ram and uses 55nm tech, while the 280 is still using 65nm tech. this only means that the 4870 will run a little cooler and use a little less power than the 280.

you can't go wrong with either card. both are great and will handle everything you can throw at them.ok so i am gona switch and get tommorow ( actually today-still havent slept)....... two gtx280s are you sure I will beable to multibox with these with my 5 warlocks? Main warlock on main monitor...and other 4 warlocks on other monitor? this is my final quesion before sleep ..i hope reason ill choose the gtx 280 is because im more familiar with nvidia.............but are u sure that the gtx 280 will do the job ?

[XtremeDream]

and will i beable to get max graphics also with this two gtx280 in WoW? and can i use both video cards while NOT in sli .....one for monitor 1 and the other gtx280 for monitor 2? or does it not work like that?

[XtremeDream]

so how well would this go

core i7 920 (2.66ghz) WILL NOT OVERCLOCK
TWO gtx280
12gb DDR3 RAM
ssd raid 0

? will i beable to achieve what i want?

[XtremeDream]

so how well would this go

core i7 920 (2.66ghz) WILL NOT OVERCLOCK
TWO gtx280
12gb DDR3 RAM
ssd raid 0

? will i beable to achieve what i want?

which is being able to maximize the graphical sliders while 5 boxing
1920x1200 res monitors

[Tsunami]

there are people multiboxing on two monitors that are using one 8800gt(I don't think they make this card anymore, it is that old). one 280 is enough(a 280 is almost 2x as fast as one 8800), but get two and you will have no problems for the next 2-3 years with those video cards.

now multiboxing with 5 warlocks is another thing you may want to reconsider, but that is for another thread. don't worry there is nothing better than the 280 currently on the market for what you want to do.

[Tsunami]

and will i beable to get max graphics also with this two gtx280 in WoW? and can i use both video cards while NOT in sli .....one for monitor 1 and the other gtx280 for monitor 2? or does it not work like that?

your starting to give me a headache. you do not need to run sli to play wow. each monitor will have it's own video card. sli will not be a benefit for you if you want to multibox. sli is for crysis and conflict, not wow.

any raid0 setup with 8gb+ ram will help keep your FPS up, but you may still lag a little in dalaran... put that depends also on what realm you are one, high pop realms lag a little more.

[XtremeDream]

and will i beable to get max graphics also with this two gtx280 in WoW? and can i use both video cards while NOT in sli .....one for monitor 1 and the other gtx280 for monitor 2? or does it not work like that?

your starting to give me a headache. you do not need to run sli to play wow. each monitor will have it's own video card. sli will not be a benefit for you if you want to multibox. sli is for crysis and conflict, not wow.

any raid0 setup with 8gb+ ram will help keep your FPS up, but you may still lag a little in dalaran... put that depends also on what realm you are one, high pop realms lag a little more.i know..you misunderstood me.....i know i dont need to run sli to play wow.......what i was trying to say is will i beable to MAXIMIZE the graphics sliders if i allocate one gpu to each monitor

[Multibocks]

Maximize the slider? Probably. I run 4870s, but only one 30" monitor. I have zero issues in dalaran. 4870s are so overkill, I'm not sure what the minimum would be though. If anything you want the fastest drives you can find and SSD is most likely it (which I saw in your original post). In fact I think you might go one 4870x2 and save some money for raid intel x25s(which are spendy). 2 of those in raid 0 should be insane.

[turbonapkin]

I run a 4870x2 and five clients on a 30" monitor. By default the catalyst drivers only use one core and lower gpu/graphics clockspeed in "2d mode" with windowed clients. You can fiddle with the driver to make it use both cores in windowed mode but I haven't needed, nor wanted, to do this.

Dalaran runs at 60fps on the main while the slaves are limited to 10fps in the background. To be honest, the real benefit and contributor to my high fps in Dalaran is my 2x 60GB SSDs in raid0 and core i7 with a custom affinity configuration.

The 4870x2, let alone ANY high end graphics card, is not the main contributor to enjoying a smooth gaming experience in wrath.

[EvoX]

Im extremely new to 5-boxing, so my setup is pretty unimpressive. I run 5 WoW clients on what I would consider to be a mid-range PC. I have a Core2Quad Q6600, 4GB DDR2 (PC6400), single SATA hard drive, Radeon 4850 using 2 monitors and a single keboard & mouse. I run all of them from the same WoW folder, main client on one screen and 4 clients on the extended monitor, all in Windowed mode. Keyclone is the only software I use to make it happen, and I have yet to tinker with CPU affinity. All 5 toons seem to do fine as far as framerate, in fact I think most of the time they hover around 40fps. Hope your project goes well!

[Ualaa]

I'm running:

Q6600 @3.0 ghz.
Vista Home Premium, 64-Bit.
8gb, 800mhz 4-4-4-12 Patroit Ram.
1x 4870 X2 video.
5x WoW SymLinked on a 10,000rpm Diamond Raptor.
Killer NIC, SB-Live Gamer.

I play on a 30.5" widescreen monitor.
I divided the width of my screen by four, and maintained the default ratio of 4x:3y.

So I have four slave screens across the top of my monitor. These have been reduced to 8 (Background) FPS, in Keyclone.
The slave accounts run on minimal graphic settings.

My main screen stretches from the taskbar upwards to the bottom of my slave screens.
It maintains the 4x to 3y ratio, but has maximum effects on; everything is cranked to the maximum.
It runs smoothly, ranging from 25 fps in cities to 60 fps outside. Raids and BG's are somewhere between these extremes.

When farming, I can run a dvd smoothly in the lower right of my screen and not impact my wow noticeably.

[XtremeDream]

I have made my Decision. My New System is now ordered! I got what I originally decided to get, dual 4870x2 ..........my reasons? Too much thinking is not good for your health :D 8)

[XtremeDream]

I have made my Decision. My New System is now ordered! I got what I originally decided to get, dual 4870x2 ..........my reasons? Too much thinking is not good for your health :D 8)and to end this............ i give you all a year 2009 treat to watch ...................... oh adorable humans............. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8mTuAVe-pY

[Clanked]

I have made my Decision. My New System is now ordered! I got what I originally decided to get, dual 4870x2 ..........my reasons? Too much thinking is not good for your health :D 8)

So....

You posted a thread asking for advice.
Got a ton of advice saying "Don't get the 2x4870x2"
Then went and did it anyway.

What was the point of even asking for advice if you were just going to ignore it?
Or are you just trying to brag about how much money you are spending on your computer in a round about way?

[jinx08]

I have made my Decision. My New System is now ordered! I got what I originally decided to get, dual 4870x2 ..........my reasons? Too much thinking is not good for your health :D 8)

So....

You posted a thread asking for advice.
Got a ton of advice saying "Don't get the 2x4870x2"
Then went and did it anyway.

What was the point of even asking for advice if you were just going to ignore it?
Or are you just trying to brag about how much money you are spending on your computer in a round about way?
This

I don't understand the ignorance and possibly arrogance of some people.

[pinotnoir]

Just get this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102809 and you can run 4 monitors from it. If you want to run some fps games crossfire it.

[king.pa]

Solid state drive in Raid 0 with a read time of over 250 mb per sec.Man... I need this setup ... my Raid 0 only reach 110 MB/sec (bunch of old unused disks)

[-silencer-]

core i7, over clocked to 3.8ghz.( you can do this yourself)
800+watt psu
2x ati4870s
9-12 gb of ddr3 tri channel ram
any 2 velociraptor's in raid0, 750gb-1tb data drive.
2x hp-w2408 24" monitors. (these have a great stand)
This is a good list of what I'd suggest to anyone wanting to build an i7 machine, but for our multiboxing purpose, a good SSD is missing for hosting data. Personally, I'd rather have a single Vrap (OS and games/apps) and an SSD (host WoW /data) than two Vraps in RAID0 doing all the work. At any rate, the proof has been demonstrated many times here already.. even one SSD is faster for hosting WoW's /data for fetching data in busy areas than multiple Velociraptors in RAID0.

Even better? 2 300GB velociraptors in RAID0 to host OS and games/apps, and 2 small & quick SSD's (I love Intel's now) in RAID0 to host WoW /data. Might want to pick up a PCI-express RAID controller though..

For the most part, I agree with your comments on the 4870X2. It's a total waste of money for multiboxing over two 4870 cards.
4870X2:
Doesn't scale any better than 2 4870's.
One card - it dies, no gaming.
Huge.
More expensive than two 4870's.
You won't be using more than 2 monitors without more cards.

2x 4870 cards:
Choice to run in SLI (for non-multibox gaming) or not (3-4 monitors for multiboxing).
Use 1-4 monitors.
Two cards - one dies, you still have an operational computer.
When you're gaming on one monitor, you're not burning through power.

However, all the comments about the Matrox TripleHead2Go don't apply to running multiple large monitors. Unless things have changed in the last 8 months with that product, it's limited to 3x 1280x1024 monitors, and it can't handle 2x 1920x1200 monitors (I asked Matrox about it around May 2008).

[-silencer-]

I have made my Decision. My New System is now ordered! I got what I originally decided to get, dual 4870x2 ..........my reasons? Too much thinking is not good for your health :D 8)
By your logic, at least you're extremely healthy then.