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3.0GHZ QUAD + 4870X2 REVIEW

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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Graphics card Master

Hello all hope u are fine :)  well got my new rig and i wanted to post a review of how this performs.
before i start let me thank 4745454b,emp,Zorg,aevm,jaydeejohn,TheGreatGr​apeApe,pauldh,nukemaster and other useres who helped when i wanted to buy my new PC.

Lets start :) 


System specification:
CPU:Intel Core2Quad Q6600 G0 stepping @ 3.0GHZ
RAM: OCZ 4GB DDR2 800 RAM (With 4-4-4-15 timings)
VGA:SAPPHIRE HD 4870X2
MOTHERBOARD:ASUS MAXIMUS FORMULA
HDD:SEAGATE BARRACUDA 500GB 7200RPM 32MB
PSU: OCZ MODXSTREAM 900W
CASE:THERMALTAKE ARMOR FULL TOWER SILVER ALUMINIUM + 25cm FAN
CPU COOLING:THERMALTAKE V1
OPTICAL DRIVE: PIONEER DVD RW
MOUSE:RAZER DIAMONDBACK 3G
KEYBOARD:LOGITECH G15
SPEAKER:LOGITECH X530
HEADSET:CREATIVE FATALITY
MONITOR:LG W2284F with 1680x1050 resolution
VGA Driver:CATALYST 8.8
OS: Windows XP 32bit SP2

Well before i start to post the benchmarks let me tell you something about OC,with the default BIOS of motherboard,i couldnt OC my CPU at all,it was unstable so i installed the latest BIOS and managed to get it to 3.0GHZ.

So lets start :) 

3DMARK 06
Resolution is 1280x1024 and the score is 16963.


Super PI
I tested SuperPI 1M and the score is 18s


WORLD IN CONFLICT
I set everything at highest quality with 4xAA and 16xAF and tested using the games benchmark tool.

Average:46, Min:20,Max:99



MASS EFFECT:
Again everythig was set at highest settings possible.
I played a mission which had a good combination of outdoors and indoors and the minimum FPS was 46 and average FPS was between 60-80



HL2:EP2
Same for this too,everything maxed out.
I played the first mission(not all of it)and my min FPS was 65 and average FPS was 130-140.




COD4:ModernWarfare.
Still the same settings like games above.
I played the first mission and my min FPS was 50(which was exactly at the end of the mission) and in indoors i got 180-220 FPS and outdorrs it was about 130-140.


Crysis
I use a Config called "Cuban Ultima Doom Sword's CCC Tweak v1.3" which lets you enable "UltraHigh" Quality on XP which i think is the best config out there and it has alot of options.

I tested with 2 configurations,in both configuarations everything is set at UltraHigh but in the first one i used 0xAA and in the second one i used 8xAA and i played the first mission.

1_0xAA:
Well something strange happens in the game,i play with 45-50 FPS on average for some minutes and then it comes down to 25 or like that and again it rises to 45 FPS and its like this but it is very playable and i enjoyed it alot :) 
and the min FPS was 18






2_8xAA:
I was amazed how it ran excellent with 8xAA but again i had the FPS issue too but not that much, the average FPS was 25-35 and the min FPS was 14


I really didnt notice a difference betwen 0xAA and 8xAA


My last computer which i gave it to my sister has an Intel Core2Duo E6600,Nvidia 8800GTX and 4GB RAM,now moving from that to this rig,i noticed alot of differences,my FPS are much higher and i have a very smooth gaming and a QuadCore really helps especially in games like WIC,Supreme Commander and......

So i hope you enjoy reading this little review :) 
and thanks again to all who helped me :) 

More about : 0ghz quad 4870x2 review

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Graphics card Master

thanks :)  yeah it may go higher but 3.0GHZ is fast enough for me :) 
I used 1.35 voltage for CPU and 2.1 for RAM.
And CPU temp is 25c at idle (The core temps are between 35-38) and at full load the CPU temp is 39c(Core temps are between 48-55)
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Annisman said:
Good job mate, gotta love the X2 eh ?


thats what you said about the GX2 lol, give it time ahaha

P.S

Nice review, I'm going to do a Tri-sli 280 GTX review see how well the strongest VGA setup does...lets hope it scales in a lot of games now...sigh

Maziar said:
thanks :)  yeah it may go higher but 3.0GHZ is fast enough for me :) 
I used 1.35 voltage for CPU and 2.1 for RAM.
And CPU temp is 25c at idle (The core temps are between 35-38) and at full load the CPU temp is 39c(Core temps are between 48-55)



there's some CPU settings you have to disable, cant remember off the top of my head
Graphics card Master

thanks :)  yeah i love the X2 :D  and as i said 3.0GHZ Quad is pretty fast for me but i am sure i can squeeze more out of it:) 

To rangers,i disable those settings too like C1E.....

Maziar said:
thanks :)  yeah i love the X2 :D  and as i said 3.0GHZ Quad is pretty fast for me but i am sure i can squeeze more out of it:) 


AH !! BUY THAT 4870x2 !!! All that you needed was a little yell. Nice rig and have fun !!
Graphics card Master

to radium69:
No i changed the voltage of CPU and RAM and disabled the necessary features

to Nica Guy:
thanks :)  only for 3DMARK i used 1280x1024 because its standard for testing,all others are done with 1680x1050 resolution.

to radnor:
thanks :) 

Maziar said:
thanks :)  yeah i love the X2 :D  and as i said 3.0GHZ Quad is pretty fast for me but i am sure i can squeeze more out of it:) 

To rangers,i disable those settings too like C1E.....



Have you checked to see if your overclock is stable with C1E enabled?

I used to follow all the overclock guides and disable C1E. After reading a post from Jack(was the ape of the cpu section), I had a change of heart.

My last system, an e6600 at 3.2 and was stable with c1e enabled.

My new system is a Q9550 and is stable at 3.8 with C1E enabled.

If you can run with it enabled you save power and idle cooler.

Wow sweet system!
But 32bit Os and 4gb ram plus 2gb from the VGA card? Doesn't 32 bit only support 4gb of memory max?

And btw do you think that your type of CPU coOler would fit on an 680i board?
Graphics card Master

thanks 3dball and greatgrape ape :) 
well its really cool inside,one fan is in front of case, 2 on the back,one is on top and one is the big 25cm fan and ofcoure the V1 CPU cooler :) 

To No1sFanboy,thanks may try it but i kinda never let my system to be idle :D 
Graphics card Master

RME said:
Wow sweet system!
But 32bit Os and 4gb ram plus 2gb from the VGA card? Doesn't 32 bit only support 4gb of memory max?

And btw do you think that your type of CPU coOler would fit on an 680i board?


thanks:) 
I had XP 64 in my last rig and it really have some problems like Driver issues and some game problems(I had 4GB RAM) and i moved to XP 32bit and i didnt see any differences.and XP 32bit supports 3.2GB of RAM.

Also for your question,u can ask it in the MOBO section :) 
Graphics card Master

Also the graphics card will actually only eat 1 GB address space, not 2, because it's mirroring that for each VPU, and with Vista it'll more efficiently mange that than XP for the big cards (XP's more efficient for the small cards).

Had he been using it for some specific GPGPU apps, then there is the possibility of 2GB being used.
Graphics card Expert

Yes, very nice system. I guess for myself I will stick with my current 8800GTX ANS3 SLI setup until Nvidia can hit another video card release out of the park and make it worthwhile to upgrade again since I am married to Nvidia with my 780i mobo.

Setups like ours will last longer than we usually let them... ;) 
Graphics card Master

JAYDEEJOHN said:
Ive seen where ATI has focused alot with their drivers for the x2s on Vista 64. XP should only get better.

I hope so :)  maybe Catalyst 8.9 will do :) 
Graphics card Expert

I saw somewhere a leaked? graph of future drivers, showing a few directions, 1 being has something to do with the idle speeds, other abilities etc. Rumor has it the 8.9s are aimed somewhat at performance, less so with bug fixing. Hard to remember where or exact wording but look for it, as well as an announcement of some kind regarding the idle/gddr5 issues from AMD. Supposedly, the cards cant idle down due to the GDDR5, tho Id like Apes opinion on that first. Because we see the high idle on the 4850s as well. Guess well know this week
Graphics card Master


Could someone please clarify about the RAM address space please.
Does the RAM shown on the 3dm page in the first post include the 1gb of the card so that its actually 2. 072system RAM and 1gb of the cards RAM = the 3.072 ?

Thanks Mactronix :) 

I don't think the 3dmark screenshot is reporting it correctly. I thought 3dmark shows system ram not including the gpu. There is no way he can net out 3072 with onboard devices and the 4870x2 using 1 gig of address space.

When I ran my e6600 with an 8800gtx(768mb) with 4 gig installed on a 32bit os 3dmark would show 3072 which is about what windows would show.

When I installed the 4870x2(1gig) with 4gig installed 3dmark and windows showed 2560.


Now with a Vista64 and 4 gig of ram installed with a 4870x2 3dmark shows 4096.

Do you think you could test at 1440x900 in fullscreen and then windowed mode? I'm interested in whether or not there's a massive performance drop from it mistakenly entering 2d mode and turning off crossfire and downclocking. I heard the 4870X2 may have fixed this issue by going based on actually gpu load like the R600 instead of this software crap with the R700.

That is a very BAD choice of OS. 32bit XP just doesn't cut it. You have total 4gb room of io addressing in 32bit os. Your 4870x2's onboard ram takes 2gb of it (for addressing purposes, no it doesn't get cut in half). Add component addressing and you have around 1.5gb usable out of the 4gb in 2x2 sticks left. Latest games are ram hogs, 1.5gb total just isn't enough even with XP using less than Vista. When you run out of ram and use large amount of page files off hdd, it'll lag down the whole system.

Also, there's a front end benchmark tool for Crysis. Don't go by feelings, get an official figure. It tends to be a bit more stressful than in-game load though.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Crysis-Benchmark-Tool-1.05-...

damn it dagger ur killing my questions before I even ask em in most cases...but yes I was just about to suggest the GPU heat tester...DAMN U!

either way I heard (don't say it Dagger!) that the X2 has an extremely high heat point and a very high idle point. Do you find this to be tru wit yours?

I didn't have time to test my X2, and its a secondary computer which has an athlon 5000+...the case cost me 20-30$ the ventilations where strapped on manually lol...so heat exchange is very minimal...I don't wanna keep that computer runnign for more than 1-2 hours LMAO!

dagger said:
That is a very BAD choice of OS. 32bit XP just doesn't cut it. You have total 4gb room of io addressing in 32bit os. Your 4870x2's onboard ram takes 2gb of it (for addressing purposes, no it doesn't get cut in half). Add component addressing and you have around 1.5gb usable out of the 4gb in 2x2 sticks left. Latest games are ram hogs, 1.5gb total just isn't enough even with XP using less than Vista. When you run out of ram and use large amount of page files off hdd, it'll lag down the whole system.

Also, there's a front end benchmark tool for Crysis. Don't go by feelings, get an official figure. It tends to be a bit more stressful than in-game load though.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Crysis-Benchmark-Tool-1.05-...


Though I agree with most of what you are saying you are dead wrong about the card using 2 gig of address space. I'm not repeating something I've read or assume; I'm speaking from experience. Still my experience was a net of 2.5 gig so still a waste of 1.5 gig of ram. Also Vista 64 has much better support than XP64 because all Vista drivers need a 64bit version or support for WHQL certification.

dagger said:
That is a very BAD choice of OS. 32bit XP just doesn't cut it. You have total 4gb room of io addressing in 32bit os. Your 4870x2's onboard ram takes 2gb of it (for addressing purposes, no it doesn't get cut in half). Add component addressing and you have around 1.5gb usable out of the 4gb in 2x2 sticks left. Latest games are ram hogs, 1.5gb total just isn't enough even with XP using less than Vista. When you run out of ram and use large amount of page files off hdd, it'll lag down the whole system.

Also, there's a front end benchmark tool for Crysis. Don't go by feelings, get an official figure. It tends to be a bit more stressful than in-game load though.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Crysis-Benchmark-Tool-1.05-...



the card only takes up 1gig of address space that leaves 2.25gig for windows which is fine. you know this already and yet you still post misleading information

rangers said:
the card only takes up 1gig of address space that leaves 2.25gig for windows which is fine. you know this already and yet you still post misleading information



Misleading LOL! Exactly the person that should be coming from LMAO!!!!


oh man thats funny hahahaha....are you serious??? really?

LOL

OMGFTW ATI RULES ALL WOOOT OMG ATISAUCE!

hahahaha

lol thank you very much, your very generous when you know your wrong.

Read your posts,

review em, and you'll then understand stupidity, if you think me trying to point out the fairness of Hardware reviews is to be shown as stupidity....well I'll let you struggle with the answer.

Anyways

Forumers you should know better than any1 :) 

If ppl don't think i'm right they can just say shut up:) 
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