4870X2 (512MB) -gaming performance for 2012 -worth building?

[Guest]

Hello Forum Members!

A friend gave me 2 x 4870 512mb reference cards for free. They are barley used and looks newer then my GTX680 =)

Would you guys recommend I build a system to support these cards or single cards for today’s games. (WoW, SC2, D3, GW2) -med-high-ultra settings.

This would be used as a secondary machine (possible hooked up to the TV). I have another Main Rig.

I have 3 screen choices:

1024x728 LCD 17inch monitor
1920x1200 LCD 24inch monitor
1920x1080 46inch TV

Judging by the GPU Hierarchy Chart -xfired they are close to AMD 6970 or GTX570 (which i think can run pretty demanding games at the given resolution choices).

Would you guys recommend using one or two cards?
Which screen choice?
Would you even build a system for this? (What would be the cheapest possible solution build to maximum the cards potential? (I would not need OS/GPU/Monitor)


Excited to hear your thoughts!

 

[17seconds]

AMD has dropped driver support for the 4000 series and before. You will likely have problems running any new games that come out. If you go with a Crossfire setup, those problems will only be worse as Crossfire specifically relies upon game profiles to run adequately. If the games you want to play are currently supported with Crossfire profiles, then you should be fine, but don't expect much for the future.

 

[Deemo13]

I would recommend getting something like an i3-2100 or similar, as it would be cheap, but is still a very fast chip. You could also use a 965BE, but the i3 is faster.

You could possibly make it into a media center PC and use it on the 46" TV, Just add a Blu-Ray drive and you're set.

You could plug it into the 25" monitor in crossfire and get respectable performance, but you already have a gaming computer.

You could keep it as a spare just in case something on your current computer dies. Or give it to a friend or sell it or whatever.

Crossfire solutions generally produce more heat though and use more power, so if you are paying your own bill then you might want to keep that in mind. Also sometimes there are driver issues and instability along with microstuttering, but its not like its ever a huge problem.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371059

Something like that should be able to run 2 4870's in CF.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply guys.

What kinda of benchmarks do you think I can get with one card? two cards? lets say for WoW and SC2.

So from both your opinions its worth building a system?

Should I start a new thread on "HomeBuilt" Systems? I live in Canada and shop physically at canadacomputers.ca

Any complete builds?

 

[Mousemonkey]

Thanks for the reply guys.

What kinda of benchmarks do you think I can get with one card? two cards? lets say for WoW and SC2.

So from both your opinions its worth building a system?

Should I start a new thread on "HomeBuilt" Systems? I live in Canada and shop physically at canadacomputers.ca

Any complete builds?

That would get more views that a build thread here.

 

[Guest]

Thanks MouseMonkey! I will move make a new thread!

 

[Deemo13]

If you post a link to it here I'll suggest a build.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey