Which Video Card(s) for my new Core I7

A couple of days ago I ordered my Core I7 920 along with ASUS P6T, Corsair Dominator 3GB 1600mhz, and Noctua NH-U12P SE1366. :banana:

Unfortunately I'm still hesitant on deciding which video card(s) I want to get. I've narrowed down my choices to 4870X2 or 2 GTX 260(216sp of coarse), but there might be the 55nm 270 coming soon.

My question is, which video cards(s) would you guys recommend me getting to go with my new parts?

My budget is going to be around the $500 range.

-Ninj0

HI EVERYONE! (new to the forum)

 

I'd go with the 2 GTX 260's if I were you. But that is the nVidia fanboy in me talking. Cause the 4870x2 obviously pwns.

 

zotac amp 260 or the mega 280 gtx amo i have haha ;-)

 

ok the HD4870 obvs

 

It's kind of a toss-up, no? I mean, it is shown that two GTX 260s in SLI tend to beat the HD 4870 X2, most of the time, but not with much of a margin - nonetheless, they perform better!

However, in this case, I would take the cost of each into account. On Newegg, you can get the cheapest HD 4870 X2 for $489.99 (free shipping). One GTX 260 (the 216-shader upgrade) costs $259.99 on Newegg (the cheapest, along with a free copy of Far Cry 2). Two GTX 260s will cost more for sure, and many people who are into SLI/CrossFireX tend to spend even more money on cooling solutions and a more powerful PSU (which you seem to already have).

To me, the cost isn't worth the marginal benefit. However, SLI does tend to perform better than CrossFireX. The advantages of having an HD 4870 X2 are saving money, having just one video card, and not needing as much cooling (I set my fan speed to 50% and never exceed 65 degrees Celsius while playing GPU-intensive games).

- PR-0927

 

I went for the Evga GTX260's and if they release the 270 within the next 90 days then i'll do the step up program. Only reason I went with Nvidia is because of a bad experience with ATI in the past.

These cards are rock solid on this board and temps ain't too bad.

 

Man you guys are fast at responding! Sorry took my a while to reply I've been in class all day

So far I'm leaning more toward the 260's. EVGA gives you protection with the step-up program. My experience with Nvidia, they've had good drivers (havnt really kept up on the ati drivers lately), and solid cards. I can also get a free $50 game with it(at the moment).

In the past i had a ATi 9800pro 128 and i would have occasional problems with ATi, for example, the AGP bus was OFF and every time i switched it to 8x then restarted it would still read off. Though thats a chipset related issue, it was caused by ATi drivers(from what I've read).

ATi has stepped up there game A LOT since those times too. It's still going to be a while before i have enough money to actually make a decision on which to get, but I'm about 60% sure about getting the 260's. ATi's Beast is a great deal and I could have the opportunity for quad-fire >

My decision might change after ATi releases the new driver, 8.12; on the 10th I think. We'll see what happens though.

Oh, PR-0927, so far, hows your experience/performance with your lovely beast of a card they call, "4870x2"?

Thanks for your guys' help, I appreciate it a lot.

 

Triple SLI Geforce 280 GTX ... j/k. I'd go with the 260's ... but I'm biased as you can tell from my system info

 

My experience has been awesome. I can play Crysis and Crysis Warhead at the highest settings (no AA, but 16xAF) at 1920x1200 at 30-35 FPS and 25-30 FPS on average, respectively (Crysis Warhead doesn't have the 64-bit .exe yet, so it runs slower for me, but it really isn't noticeable). At 1920x1200, and on "Very High" and "Enthusiast" settings, respectively, the HD 4870 X2 performs better than the GTX 280, the majority of the time (look at reviews). Not sure about the two GTX 260s though - I'd assume they'd perform well, especially as Crysis and Crysis Warhead are optimized for nVidia cards.

I can play any game maxed out. Far Cry 2 with everything at the absolute maximum (even 8xAA) at 1920x1200 gives me an average of somewhere between 40-60 FPs (50, LOL?).

There are drawbacks however. Until I put the fan speed to automatically be at 50% (default in the newest drivers now), my temperatures were getting to 80 degrees Celsius...idling. But, two GTX 260s will have a similar heat issue, I am sure. Oh, and installing it was a major pain. The thing is 27 centimeters, and I had to unplug lots of connections I had stupidly connected before my video card arrived, and then connect them all over again. Again, I feel that installing two GTX 260s won't be a cake walk either.

CrossFireX support is less than SLI, but I haven't had any issue yet. Any game I play that is too old to have good CrossFireX support runs maxed out at high FPS on just one of the GPUs - something which is very nice.

Not having to spend more money and using just one slot on the motherboard was a huge deal for me. Not sure why, but SLI and CrossFireX aren't something I'll be going for a long while, but multi-GPU cards are fine by me. SLI is supposed to scale very well under the X58 chipset, so maybe it's more worth it now (not to me, yet, though).

Oh, and the HD 4870 X2 is the first ATi card I've owned (aside from the Xbox 360's GPU), and I'm very satisfied. I'm no fanboy (I own a GeForce 6800 GT, an 8600M GT, and an 8600 GTS), and always buy whatever is the best, but right now I'm very happy ATi managed to kick some serious ass - good competition benefits us customers much, and I like to see the underdog win. Drivers seem to have done more than nVidia drivers (beta nVidia drivers are released ridiculously frequently, but WHQL ones are less commonplace, while ATi releases a driver every month). That being said, I can't help but shake the feeling that ATi could unleash even more power from my card with better drivers - I get the feeling nVidia drivers are using the potential of the card more.

- PR-0927

 

one of my mates has 2 4870's and hes had a few problems running crossfire with some games however thats only due to the fact that crossfire and sli are prone to problems like that. the only game that you would really need crossfire/sli for would be crysis, id personally go for nvidia given that ive had some overheating problems with past ati cards.

 

I should have mentioned that my cards came with a free copy of farcry2 and a free advanced serial for 3Dmark Vantage when you register your card on the Evga site. So around $70 of free goodies.

 

What resolution? Unless you play above 1920x1200, I doubt you will see much improvement via SLi or Crossfire.

 

I'd bought an Intel Core i7 920 and ASUS P6T Deluxe when they first went on sale but I already had an extra video card and other parts so I just went with that. So yeah I just slapped an unused XFX 8800GTS 640MB on it and some DDR3 I had.

Anyway, I say 2x GTX 260 Core216 in SLI mode simply because this was something we could not do until these X58 boards came out. Crossfire on an Intel chipset is nothing new.

Why clime to the top of a mountain? Because its there!

Why go with SLI GTX260 on X58? Because now you can!

 

@Foes

The monitor that I'm using at the moment is a LCD 20'' LG and I play at 1680x1050.
Soon I hope to get a new monitor, an Acer 21.5'' that can go up to 1920x1080 natively.

 

I would agree on the dual GTX260 maxcore in SLI.

Keep in mind, new 55nm chips are RIGHT around the corner for the 260/280.

 

kRze makes a good point:

Dual GeForce GTX 260 to be Officially Named GeForce GTX 295

http://www.techpowerup.com/77766/Dual_GeForce_GTX_260_to_be_Officially_Named_GeForce_GTX_295.html

 

Any word on the new 260 55n? Januari seems tempting I was going to get a gtx 260 this month. But if the new 55n version come out in januari I could wait that long. If nvidia announces it's going to take longer than a month, I'm just going to get a gtx 260. But does anyone know what the performance gain's are going to be with 55n?? I'm mean is it really worth the wait. Or are the gains big enough to wait for?

 

Ok guys, sry for the long break between posts, but i think I've come to a conclusion on which video card(s) to get. As of right now I've decided on getting the Radeon 4870x2. I don't think its worth another 50$ or so for 5 more fps in Far Cry 2 to go with Sli. Since I have a P6T mobo, I think it would be wise going with 4870x2 because of the similar performance between that and 260's sli.

If i were to go SLI then wanted to upgrade i would have to get 1 or 2 OTHER cards instead of tri sli. With 4870x2 I can just pop another beast in there and I got 4 gpus. And as of right now I don't think ATi is going to come out with another generation of cards anytime soon, but I could be wrong.

Thats just what I'm thinking of at the moment. If you guys have any suggestions/thoughts for or against this choice please let me know. My decision is far from being final.

(I'm probably just being too picky in what I invest my money in, lol)

 

So I finally put in that parts; CPU, RAM, MOBO, HeatSink. Finally got it all in my antec 900 and its up and runnin with XP atm. After installing updates and what not I went messing around and overclocked it and I was just curious on how my temps look. I think there amazing campiared to my Core 2 Duo with stock HSF and OC to 2.7ghz.

I have a Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 heatsink on it with push pull fans on it. My temps idle are around 35c and Load(playing FC2 for a while) it gets up to the lower 50C. I'm just wondering if thats normal or what. Those temps are at 3.2 ghz (no turbo)

Also PC Probe and HWMonitor give me reading of the Vcore to go up to 2.06v but its only there for a second then goes back down to the 1.26v that i have it at. You guys think that is a glitch in the program or what?

-ninj0

 

Nice overclock there. I'm very damn jealous
Edit: What's this O/C palm thing I keep seeing in specs?

So now you're just waiting for the cards? I'd go for SLi setup. Unless you wanna wait for the dual GPU nVidia card which -imo- will outperform the 4870X2.
If there's anything I have against ATi it's their drivers