Some may already have read the thread where I had problems with my new 4870x2 card:

4870x2 Issues


After a long time of trying to fix it with different drivers, a format, settings, hotfixes for drivers,.. I've tested the card in my old pc which gave exactly the same artifacts.
As a result I would think that either my card is broken, or the whole series is incompatible with wow (which I doube because noone else seems to report these issues).

Now I'm within 7 days of purchase so I can get my money back and get a new card, or just get it replaced with warrantee.
I wanted to ask the community what would be most optimal for boxing, and what the pro's & cons would be.

My setup:
i7 920 Nehalem
6 GB Triple channel 1066 mhz ddr3 ocz ram
900 w psu
gigabyte ex-58 ud5 mobo
2x 1 tb spinpoints in raid0
2x 750 gb spinpoints not in raid (yet)

I run 2 monitors (2x 24" @ 1920x1200) when boxing

I run 3 clients on this PC. 1 client in maximized window 1920x1200 on the first monitor. 2 other cilents on 960x1200 windowed on the 2nd monitor (vertical split)

Options
1. get a new 4870x2 under warrantee
2. get my money back & buy 2x 4870 (so 2 single gpu cards)
--> will 2 cards use more power?
--> is it easy to switch between Crossfire mode and non crossfire mode? (for when I want to play FPS games at a LAN-party or so)
--> Is it advised to get 2 single gpu's for multiboxing? Does it work 'properly' to connect my main screen (and therefor main wow char) the 1 of the cards, and the 2 others (2nd monitor) to the 2nd card when they are not in crossfireX? Is there any benchmarks of the gains of this versus both monitors on a single 4870?
3. get my money back & buy a total different card (gtx280, 295, ... ?)
4. get a single 4870 (or another equally priced card) and 6gb more ddr3 ram

From what I've read option 2 is my way to go, but I really have no clue of what kind of performance gains you get with having 1 monitor per card versus 2 monitors on a single card.

I can't force anyone to reply on this, but if you wish to help, please do so before next Tuesday because my send-card-back-get-money-back ends then :P

thanks in advance