I game at 1680x1050. Acer X223Wbd 22". Honestly, I've been super busy with work and school lately and I RARELY have time for games. But, I haven't played anything yet that the 4890 hasn't sliced through like butter. I haven't even overclocked it yet. I think that's the first time I've ever had a card I haven't had the itch to crank up. I went from an overclocked 4850 512MB 700/1150 to the 4890 1GB and it was a pretty big difference. I was actually surprised at how noticeable it was considering they're they same core and same shader count.
False. I had my fan speed set high, and plenty of people whose cards failed did the same (and some even had aftermarket cooling). - PR-0927
My X2 is still clockin away. Kept telling people to get the tri fan from asus but no one would belive me. Never had this card above 70c, and thats with the AC off. I would upgrade from a 4870 to a 4870 x2, but if you can keep the single 4870 and add a x2 for tri fire, that would be a better deal. And bargin out a high resolution display so you can crank. 5 series are good cards but unless your DX11ing it, or eyefinity you can save a few coin on the 4 series, they arent out the door yet.
My temperatures idling, IF I put the fan speed at 80% hit around 41-45 degrees Celsius. The problems started when the card started hitting 105-110 degrees Celsius under load. I cleaned it out multiple times, which helped temporarily. Then the temperatures insisted upon climbing again anyways. Kept cleaning it out. Replaced the thermal paste too. These solutions would fix the problem for a short amount of time. Eventually I started getting CRAZY colors and patterns on my screen and lots of crashing. This has happened to several people. In fact, I started a thread about it here, and people pointed out what was going on and how they were forced to RMA their cards. I had to RMA mine as well. I believe the VRAM is poorly cooled on it. At the same time (made before I made my own thread), the other large thread with complaints grew in size as more people complained about heat/needing to RMA. Plenty of articles have mentioned the Radeon HD 4870 X2's HORRIBLE heat issues. Look at almost any benchmark of heat in GPUs, and this card is almost always within the top three (including modern cards). Searching Google for similar issues will reveal a plethora of complaints - there are, without a doubt, definitely problems with the Radeon HD 4870 X2. - PR-0927
So, you say I'm wrong by saying heat wasn't the problem. Then you say your card was hitting 105-110C, and you're telling me your card failures weren't heat related?
My bad, my quotations weren't clear enough. I was specifically referring to this part of your post: - PR-0927
I am so glad i went with a EK waterblock for my card. It never went past 45c after it was installed. Only thing bothered me with the x2 was that my (2) cards were lousy overclockers.
I would upgrade your processor before you upgrade your GPU. At least upgrade to an Athlon II x4 or Phenom II x2. Your HD 4870 should be able to handle 1080p moderately until you can upgrade to a GTX 460 or HD 5850.
4870x2 is a great card... when it works. I game at 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 and I use 4xAA/16xAF for 90% of my games. Older games are great like CSS, TF2, COD2, all games like this run with 8XAA no problem. Crank up the AA in games like MW2 and the games fps more or less halves. I think its poor crossfire support with certain games. But when the game works this card does fly. Only the thing is most of us 4870x2 owners, like me, are stuck with 10.5 drivers as anything newer breaks crossfire for every game. The 2nd GPU will not clock up to 3d clocks whilst the 1st will and the game will become very choppy unless you disable Cat A.I meaning crossfire is broken. My advice, stay away from multiple cards and go for one single powerful card.
Dude get an hd 5850 or hd5830, ut i recomend hd5850, what's the point of upgrading to something older? i don't get this, just grab a new card, it will be more future proof then an older one, plus the driver support for new cards is much better then for the older ones..so i really don't understand why is it so hard to decide..newer=better.
I suggest you first try gameing with your current card and if it's not up to par then upgrade. However, I do think a 4870 should run all current games on high settings just fine.
Hello spleended, i have the same video card as yours (difference brand tho), also on a 22" screen (16x10 instead of HD1080,) and i at first was planning to upgrade to CF setup as well. But seeing now what's on the market (like HD58X0 and GTX260's) and like you i don't care much about DX11 either at the moment. But at some point, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, itching wanting to just try those games you have been seeing and hearing about for year(s) but still haven't really tried it with your own setup. I'm planning to make my upgrade to GTX260. Partially because CF performance gain aren't guaranteed, however issues with CF and ATI drivers are guaranteed, at some point, with another "What's New (& broken)" monthly driver release. Not to say that i'm hating ATI, but i just wish they put as much work in their software as they do with their hardware, or even better: good hardware with great software (wishfull thinking :bang.
A GTX260 is a wasted effort for an "upgrade" over a 4870. The performance difference is hardly any and its actually slower in some games than a 4870.
my mistake. I saw the frequency and assumed it was a Phenom 1. Why not clock that thing higher? I'm sure it will hit 3.6 with ease.
working on 3.7Ghz 24/7 stable,but on 19" monitor no need for that... Anyway,i may just wait and get moar money for the 5850 and be safe in the future.. I thought upgrading to 4870x2 cuz of the powa it has,but now i hate it listening to you guys... uke2:
I wouldn't be so fast to judge. I had a 4870x2 for a while and I did hate the heat that it was producing. I never let it hit anything above 80 on GPU0 by cranking up the fan or trying to keep the ambient temps low. Everyone should already know that you air temps are directly proportional to your ambient temps so if you are generating heat from ram and CPU your ambients would be pretty hot. I have a HAF932 and I had a side panel off with a portable fan blowing on a card to keep the air moving through it. 4870x2 is a monster card in some games! from time to time my X3 720BE at 3.2 would be a bottle neck for this card at 1080p. But even though the card is 2Gbees its not shared so its actually only 2 1Gig 4870's in crossfire. With the recent Catalyst XF has gotten a lot better since I had the card so I bet the performance is much better now days then it was back in Cat9. In final words, I would say get this card ONLY IF you are prepared to cool it well. Water is best but it can be done with air as well.
