4850x2, 4850cf, 4870 1gb

[dugan]

im building an i7 gaming rig and i was wondering what would be the best to get, I was planning to upgrade to crossfire/sli in the future, so i would like to know what would be the best plan for right now.

I know the core i7 is very good at multi gpus, but would i see a huge performance increase from the 4850cf to the 4870 1gb, i can not find any good information on the 2 of those against eachother.

I have also read that the 4870 1gb is really a hit or miss depending on what game you are playing and how much vram it uses. but wouldnt that be similar to a hit or miss depending on if the game uses crossfirex or not as well?

anyways my gpu budget is around 300 give or take 50, and the screen res is 1900x1200

 

[dagger]

Yes, 4850cf and 4850x2 will make a huge difference over 4870, 1gb or 512mb. 1gb vram doesn't make a difference until extreme until extreme resolutions, far larger than just 1920x1200.

 

[FrozenGpu]

Well, the pro of the 4850 in CF are that it is a much more powerful combo than just a single 4870 1gb. The downside is that not every game makes use of CF or SLI, but it is coming to the point that more and more newer games actually do use that technology and it's only really older games that might not use both cards.

The 4870 1 gb is not a hit or a miss whoever said that was probably on crack, as you can check w/ anandtech.com, tomshardware.com, hardocp.com, or any other site out there really.

The 4870 1 gb would be less complex, and you can find some great ones for about $290-ish.

 

[dagger]

Well, the pro of the 4850 in CF are that it is a much more powerful combo than just a single 4870 1gb. The downside is that not every game makes use of CF or SLI, but it is coming to the point that more and more newer games actually do use that technology and it's only really older games that might not use both cards.

The 4870 1 gb is not a hit or a miss whoever said that was probably on crack, as you can check w/ anandtech.com, tomshardware.com, hardocp.com, or any other site out there really.

The 4870 1 gb would be less complex, and you can find some great ones for about $290-ish.

All new games scale with dual gpu. The ones that do not are so old they max out with hundreds of fps on single gpu so it doesn't matter anyway. Try to think of a recent graphics intensive game that does not scale at all with dual gpu. If you can't, that's because it doesn't exist.

4870 for $290 is a bad deal. If 4850x2 is too expensive, there's 9800gx2 for $275. Blows away a 4870 for less money. No excuses.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=13
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=14
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=15
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=16
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=17
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=18
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=19

 

[FrozenGpu]

9800gx2 uhh no...

First of all go with [2] 4850's in crossfire it's much more powerful, and will cost the same.

Not too mention, that 2 G92 cores are not better and even worse in terms of "future-proofing"...

[we all know future proofing is impossible, but what is possible is getting the bets bang for your buck so that way, you have more time to use your hardware then if for example you went w/ something that ahd less bang for your buck]

...than 2 4850's ...so yeah do the smart thing invest in something that is worth your money, read up on tomshardware.com when they did the article on this month's best Graphics cards to buy, 2 4850's is given a higher recommendation than even the 4870x2, the most powerful card on the planet!

reason is b/c of price for $300 you cna get 2 4850's, so yeah don;t go w/ the 9800gx2 it had a nice comeback but it's not worth it.