Another 4770 XFire vs 4890 thread

[bonanzaguy]

But with a twist! Basically, I've had my eye on the 4890 Atomic from sapphire for the last few weeks. Then I saw Tom's review about the 4770's in XFire. After lots of time with my friend google, the 4770 seems to beat a stock 4890 in some cases, as well as being cheaper and use less power. The problem, of course, comes from non-scaling from crossfire as well as their 512MB of RAM to the 4890's 1GB.

But it seems that XFX (and I imagine more will follow) is preparing a 1GB version of the 4770 which will probably have a custom cooler.
http://www.nordichardware.com/news,9186.html

So...

1GB 4770 in XFire vs 4890 Atomic clocked at 1GHz. Which would you go with? How do you think they'll stack up performance-wise?
I will be running at 1680x1050.

 

[cangelini]

At that resolution, I'd go with the 4770s at 512MB. A 1GB card is going to cost more. Two of them will double that delta. I think you're still looking at a great value with the 512MB boards.

 

[EXT64]

I'd say a single 4890 because it will be fast in all games (not just Crossfire optimized games) and down the road you can add a second for even more speed.

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

the 4890 is superior because:

1) Costs very close to 2 4770s 512mb and likely less than 2 4770s 1GB

2) Can be crossfired later

3) More consistent performance

4) No crossfire related bugs, freezes, or crashes

5) The performance of 2 4770s is not noticeably better than a 4890

6) A 4890 may outperform 2 4770s when not used with an i7

Just get the 4890.

 

[bonanzaguy]

Thanks Raven. Mostly I was hung up on the price. Since I'm looking at the Atomic 4890 I'm guessing that is going to go for around $300, which puts it quite a bit above the 4770s. But since I'm lazy and would rather only deal with one card and have the money to do it (not to mention the other cons you listed), I think I'll get the 4890 once they release it.

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

I'm almost certain the Atomic is going to retail for $259-$269 and not much more from what I have heard. Charging too much for a special version of a video card is BFG's game not Sapphire.

 

[fjc1998]

the atomic does have vapor-x technology (it runs 5 degrees cooler)