Anyone Have 4870x2 ? hows wow with it

[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.