4830 in xfire vs 4870

Keep the E7400 and oc it just as much..

I dont think it's necessary to crossfire 2 low end cards when they would probably perform just the same as a 1gb Toxic Sapphire 4870 or get the Sapphire 4870 512mb, depending on your monitor.

Whats the size of the monitor

500gb - dont get seagate barracuda,

get Western digital "Black" prefferbaly.

Thats an overkill psu. way to much for a simple card.

Find something in the 550w-650w range of Corsair/PC Power Cooling/OCZ.

Corsair should be fine, im sure its CL is 4-4-4-12.. always try and get 4gb if you can, you should be able to since your lowering the psu.

Look for G.skills PI Black 2x2gb or corsairs/OCZ in the DDR2 800mhz range, ask a person or spec. the memory for a CL"Cas Latency" of 4-4-4-12 / 5-4-4-12 / 5-5-5-15.

oh, and can't get 1 gb 4870. too expensive here.

Im up with fullmetall.
it might be better to change your psu to a 550-650w.
4-6gigs ram.
4870 512mb is a nice card and even nicer if that price cut arrives and the card is lowered to $150. With the money thats left, you can buy a nice cooler.

yes

If you can, Switch to the E5200, which can oc just as much as a e8400 then, look into the 4870 512.

Now your motherboard you want or have, is it crossfire compatible? or 1 single pci-e slot. if it is, look into the GTS 250 which is a little faster than the 4850 1gb card.

Okay so thats a P45 Asus board right.

Thats open for crossfire. So you can get a 4870 512mb for it, make sure you have a good resolution monitor like you said, 22".

650w will power this 1 card but, if you plan to xfire later on, then you will need to get a 750w pc power or a 750tx corsair.

Re-post, your getting 2x4830's right.

Well if you can't upgrade later on then, yea, it should be more performance than a single 4870 1gb.

650w should power it no problem.

Higher in synthetics? Yea. Higher in games? Maybe. Best choice? No.

Id go with a single 4870. This will eliminate Crossfire problems such as lack of support/compatability. And crossfire wont necessarily let you crank games up higher, they will just run smoother with possible higher FPS. Youre still going to be limited to to 512mb, and if crossfire isnt supported period (which is often isnt) youre going to be left with a single average card. Which is why I susgest a single 4870 with 1GB, such as the Sapphire model under $200 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102801

I just droped crossfired 4850's for a single GTX 285, and im telling you that it was worth it.

Too bad nothing I play supported CF worth a damn. Anyways this isnt my thread, back to the OP topic.

Multiple games. Past and present, enabling crossfire showed very little to zero increase in performance.

I made a chart that I believe is a good indication of GPU and gaming performance. I'll use the 9800GTX/GTX+/GTS250 and 4850 as the base value of 1.0 - with higher values being better performance. This is with SLi/Xfire enabled games.

1 8800GT/9800GT or 4830 = .8
2x 8800GT/9800GT SLi or 4830 Xfire = 1.4
1 9800GX2 = 1.45
1 9800GTX/GTX+/GTX250 or 4850 = 1
2x 9800GTX/GTX+/GTX250 SLi or 4850 Xfire = 1.8
1 GTX260 192core = 1.25
1 GTX260 216core = 1.3
1 4870 512mb = 1.25
1 4870 1GB = 1.3
1 GTX280 = 1.45
1 GTX285 = 1.5

@spathotan: As i mentioned, 1 gb 4870 is very expensive (280-300€) here. And I cant buy from internet.