1GB 4850x2 question

[xxcoop42xx]

next month im looking to tri-fire with 4850's and i was wondering about this 4850x2, its 1GB but does that mean that each of the gpu's are actually 512mb? i have a XFX 512MB 4850 right now and i dont want to buy a higher memory/priced card and have the 4850X2 dumb down to 512MB. here's the card im looking at now unless xfx releases a 4850X2 within the next month:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102813

like i said is it a total of 1GB? (512 per gpu). thanks for any help.

 

[theAnimal]

Yes, it's 2 x 512.

 

[xxcoop42xx]

ok thanks

 

[Euphoria_MK]

One question:

on the hd4850 X2 1GB it is 2 x 512MB so does GTA IV uses the whole 1GB of memory to load the textures? Or does it detect only 512MB of video ram?

Thanks!

 

[hsetir]

It'd detect 1gb. Any sli- compatiable game would use 1gb.

 

[Euphoria_MK]

Awesome! Thank you

I just found out that I'll receive the card tomorrow instead of today....

I just really hope that it will fit in my case.... I have a mid tower.

 

[Euphoria_MK]

It'd detect 1gb. Any sli- compatiable game would use 1gb.

Ok I just installed the HD4850 x2 1GB and it works awesome! Left4Dead, Fallout 3, Prince of Persia everything maxed at 8xAA 16xAniso and its kickin ass

My one question is although I can run GTA IV at 1080p now at 60FPS the Game Only detects 512MB of video ram and not 1GB, so the Texture setting is set at medium and not at max.
Is there anything I can do to fix this?

Thanks!

BTW I do get the ATI Crossfire Enabled Icon when I run GTA IV.... I am not sure if there is a patch I need to run or change some config file inorder to see the full 1GB of full Video RAM

 

[coozie7]

@ euphoria_MK: X2 cards are two cards on one, so the game will see two seprate 512Mb cards not one with 1Gb. See the FAQ at the top of the front page for more detail.

 

[L1qu1d]

yes, thats not the 4850 X2 with 2 gigs of ram, its the 1 with 1 gig of ram.

If the card was 2 gigs it means 1 per GPU, and 1 gig 512 per GPU

So that card will be bottlenecked for Textures, AA and High resolution, so the game GTA limits how much you can actually enable. I wouldn't worry about it, last I tried GTA 4 on PC, before it was patched it wouldn't let me max out textures either and I had 3 280 GTXs.

Just enjoy the game

 

[hsetir]

Just in case of GTA IV, there is some small user made patch which lets you set the graphic settings without constraints. Google "gta iv no restriction patch". Becaues GTA IV doesn't support sli, it's detecting 512mb. My mistake that I thought it supports sli. But with that patch, you can set textures to high and see if there is considerable performance hit or not.

 

[Dekasav]

I think people put too much emphasis on always running max settings. Personally, everything's been beautiful since FEAR.

 

[L1qu1d]

i wouldn't make a difference anyways right u'd still be using 1 gig or w.e ur main card Vram amount

 

[Euphoria_MK]

Yeah I guess I figured that out about the crossfire..... hd4850 x2 512MB is not equal to 1GB of total VRAM.... hmmm

I am not sure if I should return this card and get a 1GB VRAM version....
I mean all the other games run super fast , but I might be bottlenecked if loading textures especially at 1080p

I hate that retailers and Sapphire it self do not offer explanation on crossfire and SLI... So I guess they expect a normal person to know this details about how VRAM is used when in Cross fire or SLI... I am a little mad about it....

 

[killerb255]

You would need the 4850 x2 2 GB version to have 1 GB of VRAM minimum.

 

[Euphoria_MK]

Damn is an awesome card! I've been playing for a while The only thing that ticks me off is that I dont have 1GB per GPU. I play at 1900x1080 so I would need that for loading high res textures.

I am getting a hd4800 1gb which I will cross fire in the future when prices drop, but I'll keep this little guy for four more days and do some bad ass gaming

I am amazed of how smooth Crysis runs at 1900x1080 and 0xAA 8xAniso.

One thing, about sound of fans, when card is idle, that is when not playing games, fan usage is 2% so it's supper quiet.

Fan goes over to 35% - 40% when playing for a longer time, and then the noise increases.
You dont really notice it that much if you are not paying attention and you are all in the game, but if you start paying attention to the fan noise you can hear it.

Great card for the price, the 2GB version is a bit too expenisve for me, so I'll go for hd4870 first and probably crossfire it in future.


For all those people that say crossfire does not work in games, so far I've successfuly tested and gamed in:
Left4Dead, Fallout 3, GTA IV, Crysis Wars and Crysis Warhead, UT 3, Prince of Persia, DMC 4, Mirrors Edge, and they all work.
I am using Catalyst 9.2 drivers on Vista 64bit

Cheers!

 

[L1qu1d]

GTA 4 doesn't support Sli or Crossfire.

No1 is saying that Crossfire isn't supported, we're saying that the drivers cause problems with scaling in some games.

9.2 drivers actually perform worse than 9.1.

Remember we're mostly talking about quad fire for scaling. Ati still has some potential under the hood and so does Nvidia, its just that ATI has had some bad luck lately.

 

[Euphoria_MK]

GTA 4 doesn't support Sli or Crossfire.

No1 is saying that Crossfire isn't supported, we're saying that the drivers cause problems with scaling in some games.

Crossfire is supported in GTA IV, it's just this game is badly ported and is mostly CPU depended.

Look at some of the GTA IV forums, there are posting from the developers.

Yes Catalyst 9.2 gives a few frames less than 9.1 but it resolves some other isuess. ATI said that 9.3 will have performance back up.

I've been with Nvidia for the last 8 years or so, but I am quite surprised how far has ATI gotten with it's drivers.
I am not sure about other people's bugs but my PC is playing perfectly fine.

Cheers

 

[L1qu1d]

Actually I'm pretty sure that it doesn't support sli, it made no difference me going from 1 280 to 2 or 3.....Its only CPU dependent.

the game needs alot of Vram, and since adding multiple cards doesn't add Vram, they prob won't implement it.

 

[Euphoria_MK]

Crossfire is supported. Here read this: http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=260&threadid=109213

It's funny but it seems like you like to contradict me on no matter what

Here read the docs from Rockstar directly:

http://www.rockstargames.com/support/gta4pc/docs/GTAIV%20Graphics%20Settings.doc

 

[L1qu1d]

Well its a trend

thats weird, it must've been updated, I had a pirated version at the time, so that might have played a role since it was updated.
It feels like I bought it for no reason after since i just play it on my ps3.