Help me make a final decision on a GPU please!

[psycho_terror]

just to get back to your original post, where have you been shopping? i know UK prices aren't great, but you only have yourself to blame if you aren't looking in the right places.

 

Sapphire 4890 2Gb VaporX

[IVIYTH0S]

Thats lack of Skill LOL Mine clocked just fine.

 

 

 

Think twice on the 4870x2 Crossfire scaling is not always what it should be. Driver wise they are fine its just the crossfire support in games that is the problem. No user definable profiles

Oh hush , I'll go for another stab at overclocking it but it sure couldn't handle the max OC's allowed by CCC which I tried quickly just for laughs which turned out to be highly unstable.

 

...except that the 295 is a MUCH faster card in a HUGE number of games even when Crossfire does work properly. When it doesn't...it's a bloodbath.

 

 

I'd buy a 295 over the 4870X2 any day if the prices were within $75 or so.

They need to use those games in reviews, they always use games that have good crossfire profiles. I just looked at one conducted on the 10th and other than Crysis at low res, the 4870x2 and 295 were too close in performance to have me overlooking the price hike.

I wouldn't call it a blood bath (except for Dead Space which even has 9800gtx's scoring higher than 4870s). The fact that you still have a 4870x2, proves that the 295 is overpriced. Considering that you'd buy a 295 if the price was only $75ish over the 4870x2 is sad because the prices shouldn't even be that far apart, let alone the difference they actually are. It's even sadder that the 285 is still the price it is.

Edited August 15, 2009 by IVIYTH0S

[Waco]

I wouldn't call it a blood bath (except for Dead Space which even has 9800gtx's scoring higher than 4870s). The fact that you still have a 4870x2, proves that the 295 is overpriced. Considering that you'd buy a 295 if the price was only $75ish over the 4870x2 is sad because the prices shouldn't even be that far apart, let alone the difference they actually are. It's even sadder that the 285 is still the price it is.

You need to go re-read those graphs.

 

As for me still owning a 4870X2...what's your point? I'm happy enough with it but that doesn't mean the 295 isn't a pretty large amount better.

[IVIYTH0S]

You need to go re-read those graphs.

 

As for me still owning a 4870X2...what's your point? I'm happy enough with it but that doesn't mean the 295 isn't a pretty large amount better.

but how large an amount do you mean, I'm not seeing it. (and still not talking about Dead Space). Point me out the one's you mean and I'll gladly agree with you. If you showed me more cases like Dead Space I'd call it a blood bath

Edited August 15, 2009 by IVIYTH0S

[Waco]

but how large an amount do you mean, I'm not seeing it. (and still not talking about Dead Space). Point me out the one's you mean and I'll gladly agree with you. If you showed me more cases like Dead Space I'd call it a blood bath

Did you not look at the review ccokeman posted?

 

The 4870X2 gets destroyed in damn near every game. The power consumption is outrageous as well.

Edited August 15, 2009 by Waco

[IVIYTH0S]

Did you not look at the review ccokeman posted?

 

The 4870X2 gets destroyed in damn near every game. The power consumption is outrageous as well.

Oh yes, there's no doubt in my mind that the 4870x2 is a power hog (the temps it puts out is proof alone)

 

again it's beaten, and other than dead space, not destroyed.

 

From our review (Jan 8th)

Far Cry 2 1920x1200 (3.6%)

Crysis Warhead 1920x1200(23.1%)

Left 4 Dead 1920x1200(15.6%)

Bioshock 1920x1200(9.0%)

Call of Duty World at War 1920x1200(25.3%)

Dead Space 1920x1200(119.3%)

Fallout 3 1920x1200(5.0%)

 

From Bit-tech's review (Aug 10th)

Call of Duty World at War 1920x1200(9.4%)

Call of Duty World at War 2560x1600(23.4%)

Crysis 1920x1200(23.1%)

Crysis 2560x1600(17.6%)

Fallout 3 1920x1200(-0.4%)

Fallout 3 2650x1600(1.4%)

Far Cry 2 1920x1200(10.6%)

Far Cry 2 2560x1600(32.2%)

Stalker Clear Sky 1920x1200(-11%)

Stalker Clear Sky 2650x1600(-6.9%)

 

a quick look at Newegg andthe cheapest 295 is $499 and the cheapest 4870x2 is $369

 

35.2% price difference. Man that was alot of work. In my personal case I got my 4870x2 for 265 so that's an 88.3% price difference from a 295. I'm not saying my personal case should be included buy I sold my second 4870x2 off for like 250 so I'm guessing that's an easy catch to get one sub $270, I'm guessing maybe sub 450 for the 295 but that's entirely a guesstimation.

 

I can see that 295 does have some good wins but I still wish there were more Physx games reviewed or Nvidia worshippers like Dead Space to show that the 295 is really worth the 35%+ price increase.

Some times even though the percentage difference in performance is high the frames are only a few apart and in the Dead Space example, the 4870x2 is well beyond smooth framerates

Edited August 16, 2009 by IVIYTH0S

[Puck]

The 295 is clearly a faster card in most cases, as it should be costing so much more. Tri-fire does scale nicely though with todays processors, even though full quad crossfireX still has its issues without using extreme cooling on the proc(and was useless on last gen hardware, just like tri/quad SLI). This is not a fault of the technology so much as it is being CPU bound. Today a 4870X2+4870 is a killer mix if you have the processor to handle it(4ghz i7+) and can be had for pretty much the same price as one 295 .

 

With your budget though, you won't do much better then a single 4870X2.

[IVIYTH0S]

The 295 is clearly a faster card in most cases, as it should be costing so much more. Tri-fire does scale nicely though with todays processors, even though full quad crossfireX still has its issues without using extreme cooling on the proc(and was useless on last gen hardware, just like tri/quad SLI). This is not a fault of the technology so much as it is being CPU bound. Today a 4870X2+4870 is a killer mix if you have the processor to handle it(4ghz i7+) and can be had for pretty much the same price as one 295 .

 

With your budget though, you won't do much better then a single 4870X2.

I never was arguing that the 295 was weaker than the 4870x2, I'm just saying that it shouldn't STILL be worth $500, since it doesn't deliver that flatout percentage across the board. What it comes down to is developers better start programming their games to take advantage of both ATI and NVIDIA equally. there shouldn't be performance spikes like Dead Space or Stalker Clear Sky where we know a piece of hardware is out right better than the other but a weaker card out performs it.

[SenitaL]

wow this thread has blossomed into something beautiful Okay im going to get a 4870x2 and im also going to get an EK FC-4870x2 Waterblock for it as i Totally forgot i have a Thermaltake Bigwater 745 system in one of my draws which hasn't been used in yonks. So im going to hook everything up together, any thoughts on that? does anyone have experience with OC'ing a watercooled 4870x2? any idea what temp's and how far of an OC we are looking at? Finally, id like to send out a general request = If anyone here on OCC is selling Their HD4870x2, send a message my way - seeing as we're all in the club i thought id see if one of you is willing to part with yours before i go out and spend dooziez on a new one (the money id save can get me the waterblock ) Thanks again guys and gals!

[scr4wl]

again it's beaten, and other than dead space, not destroyed.

 

You may need to rethink your definition of destroyed.

 

I'd say the 4870 X2 lost by a little bit in Farcry and Fallout. Other then that it was "Destroyed".

 

Look at the numbers on top of the bar graphs. If it is beaten by more then 10FPS it isn't a close call.

 

In Crysis the difference is only 7FPS, but in terms of GPU's that's like 70FPS (This part is only trueish)

[Waco]

You may need to rethink your definition of destroyed.

 

I'd say the 4870 X2 lost by a little bit in Farcry and Fallout. Other then that it was "Destroyed".

 

Look at the numbers on top of the bar graphs. If it is beaten by more then 10FPS it isn't a close call.

 

In Crysis the difference is only 7FPS, but in terms of GPU's that's like 70FPS (This part is only trueish)

When the average increase is something on the order of 20%+ I call it "destroyed." Computer parts are always diminishing returns...getting 20%+ better performance (and far more consistent performance) is worth a 20-30% increase in price combined with a HUGE decrease in power consumption.

[SenitaL]

wow this thread has blossomed into something beautiful Okay im going to get a 4870x2 and im also going to get an EK FC-4870x2 Waterblock for it as i Totally forgot i have a Thermaltake Bigwater 745 system in one of my draws which hasn't been used in yonks. So im going to hook everything up together, any thoughts on that? does anyone have experience with OC'ing a watercooled 4870x2? any idea what temp's and how far of an OC we are looking at? Finally, id like to send out a general request = If anyone here on OCC is selling Their HD4870x2, send a message my way - seeing as we're all in the club i thought id see if one of you is willing to part with yours before i go out and spend dooziez on a new one (the money id save can get me the waterblock ) Thanks again guys and gals!

 

Erm,. bump? on my last post?