Going into uncharted building territory

[Gustave5436]

Yes, the Biostar I45 is crossfire compatible.

If you're really going to go with two 4870s, you might want to just get a 4870X2. That would also allow 3 card crossfire (the 4870X2 + an additional 4870) but you reach a point of diminishing returns with super high-end stuff like that. What resolution do you use?

 

[bigfoot1291]

Yes, the Biostar I45 is crossfire compatible.

If you're really going to go with two 4870s, you might want to just get a 4870X2. That would also allow 3 card crossfire (the 4870X2 + an additional 4870) but you reach a point of diminishing returns with super high-end stuff like that. What resolution do you use?

My monitor's native is 1900x1200, which is usually what I run in games as well, except for Crysis lol.

And you're saying I can run the 4870x2 and a normal 4870 in crossfire? I thought they had to be the exact same but hey, like I said, I'm new to this area so if you say they will, I'll take your word for it.
Is the x2 just basically two of the regular ones packed into one?

Oh and one last question (sorry lol, i'm newbin up this place pretty bad) the board you linked me to is DDR2 1200, would I be able to put in memory lower than that (DDR 1066) and have it work, or would it be STRICTLY 1200? I noticed there wasn't much at all for 1200, but I found some real nice 1066 ones that I was going to get, so just wanted to ask.

 

[Kyonu]

Yeah, 1 X2 is basically 2 4870's in one, but all in all, the performance is around 5~15% better than 2 4870's in crossfire, and it'll run at full X16/2.0 bandwidth, instead of a motherboard which may only support the 4870's in X16/X8 or less. (The expensive ones aside the K9A2 Plat which I have are the only ones that have X16/X16 anyways.)

I had an X2, and for 50 bucks-ish~ less than dual-4870's, the performance is noticably better, and thats what matters.

Btw, one 4870's overclocking potential is insane. I didn't get a chance to play with the X2 (When I decided to try overclocking, I had already taken it back because I needed the cash. ), but if you can keep the 4870 stable, you won't need an X2. (Clocked mine stable at 889Mhz/1350Mhz, from 740Mhz/900Mhz)

 

[Gustave5436]

My monitor's native is 1900x1200, which is usually what I run in games as well, except for Crysis lol.

And you're saying I can run the 4870x2 and a normal 4870 in crossfire? I thought they had to be the exact same but hey, like I said, I'm new to this area so if you say they will, I'll take your word for it.
Is the x2 just basically two of the regular ones packed into one?

They're kind of the same, as yes, an X2 is two of the cards together. However, as I mentioned, afaik there's really a diminishing returns problem past 2 GPUs. At 1900x1200 you could probably make use of a 4870x2 but it will be overkill in many applications (i.e. not crysis, age of conan, etc.)

Oh and one last question (sorry lol, i'm newbin up this place pretty bad) the board you linked me to is DDR2 1200, would I be able to put in memory lower than that (DDR 1066) and have it work, or would it be STRICTLY 1200? I noticed there wasn't much at all for 1200, but I found some real nice 1066 ones that I was going to get, so just wanted to ask.

Up to and including. You can use plain old DDR2 800 if you want.

 

[bigfoot1291]

They're kind of the same, as yes, an X2 is two of the cards together. However, as I mentioned, afaik there's really a diminishing returns problem past 2 GPUs. At 1900x1200 you could probably make use of a 4870x2 but it will be overkill in many applications (i.e. not crysis, age of conan, etc.)

So basically, if I did a 4870x2 and normal 4870, it just wouldn't be using them at full potential? If that's the case, I may just get the x2, then wait a while and later on get a second x2, if a normal 4870 wouldn't add much additional power.
On another note, never having dealt with ATI's products before, I don't have any personal experience with their brands. Can anyone recommend a good brand that they've had good quality in the past? I was going to go with ASUS's card, since I've always liked their motherboards, but newegg was out. I'll check a couple other sites.

Up to and including. You can use plain old DDR2 800 if you want.

Awesome, great to hear. I'm probably going to go with something like this: Newegg.com - CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

 

[Nagasama]

(Clocked mine stable at 889Mhz/1350Mhz, from 740Mhz/900Mhz)

holy crap....

 

[Gustave5436]

So basically, if I did a 4870x2 and normal 4870, it just wouldn't be using them at full potential? If that's the case, I may just get the x2, then wait a while and later on get a second x2, if a normal 4870 wouldn't add much additional power.
On another note, never having dealt with ATI's products before, I don't have any personal experience with their brands. Can anyone recommend a good brand that they've had good quality in the past? I was going to go with ASUS's card, since I've always liked their motherboards, but newegg was out. I'll check a couple other sites.

No, it's that (1) it would be overkill and you wouldn't generally notice any difference and (2) the price-performance ratio gets worse and worse as price increases.

AnandTech: AMD's Radeon HD 4870 X2 - Testing the Multi-GPU Waters

In a couple applications adding a second 4870X2 is nearly a 50% increase, but in the rest there is either no benefit or only a mild benefit.[/QUOTE]

 

[Nagasama]

asus cards are expensive.
visiontek has lifetime warranty (if you care).
sapphire and a few others have 2 year, some have 1 year (diamond...4 thumbs down)

 

[Antec-User]

AHHEM... Crossfire.. Too much blue in here..

I just bought this.. Will be in tomorrow
Newegg.com - ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

 

[nismo720]

I am actually using the MSI K9a2 Platinum with a Phenom quad-core. I wouldnt go back to anything else.

Computer:
Computer Type ACPI x86-based PC
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
OS Service Pack Service Pack 1
Internet Explorer 8.0.6001.18241
DirectX DirectX 10.0
Computer Name TALCAF
User Name nismo720
SMTP E-mail Address nismo720@jmcomputersinc.com
Logon Domain talcaf
Date / Time 2008-09-24 / 23:01

Motherboard:
CPU Type QuadCore AMD Phenom 9850, 2500 MHz (12.5 x 200)
Motherboard Name MSI K9A2 Platinum (MS-7376) (2 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 4 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset AMD 790FX, AMD K10
System Memory 3328 MB (DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM)
DIMM1: Muskin 991593 (996593) 2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-18 @ 400 MHz) (4-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz)
DIMM2: Muskin 991593 (996593) 2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-18 @ 400 MHz) (4-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz)
BIOS Type AMI (06/17/08)

Display:
Video Adapter ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (512 MB)
Video Adapter ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (512 MB)
Monitor HP w2007 [20" LCD] (CNN7422HKB)
Monitor Sony SDM-S71 [17" LCD] (4024819)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter ATI Radeon HDMI @ ATI RV770 - High Definition Audio Controller
Audio Adapter Realtek ALC888/S/T @ ATI SB600 - High Definition Audio Controller


This board does support crossfire, I haven't been able to save up enough to get my additional 4850 yet myself. This was a clean simple install, pop in the board make the connections, everything worked fine in Vista right out of the box. I use this system for a little bit of everything, from web design to heavy graphics work to high-end gaming on a daily basis, I have no problems and great performance out of this setup.