Soubriquet
Member
- Feb 6, 2005
- 78
- 0
- 66
The points have been made, but I just want to focus on the choices and add my voice about the 4870x2 Achilles heel(s) which need AMD/ATIs attention.
As a 3870x2 user I can vouch that there is no 3rd party air cooling solution for these yet and doesn't look like anyone is interested either, no reply from Arctic Cooling. Cooling this card has been risky due to fan control issues and the stock HSF makes a noise whatever software you have to run the fan. If 4870x2 is anything like that I am steering clear of ATI X2 for the foreseeable, it has not got an acceptable standard of support for cooling IMHO, its the bare minimum and its not good enough.
The only cooler option for 3870x2 is a water block but water blocks are very expensive if you have an air cooling rig (X-Clio Twin Engine case) and so need pump and radiatorsas well. Considering the 3870x2 performance is patchy @x2 it doesn't warrant that level of investment. Apart from the fact that most bench applications like 3D Mark etc see it as 512Mb when it is 512Mb x2 (ie software support not there), according to recent reviews certain games I like run at frame rates equivalent to a single 3870 eg ETQW and Bioshock, which are market leading titles.
I paid a fair bit more for the x2 card and I am not very happy about that so my choice has to be to avoid the X2 period. Either a 4870 which mostly beats the 3870x2 anyway or a 280 but not 4870x2. IMHO it is a half assed solution and I am an ATI fanboy.
As a 3870x2 user I can vouch that there is no 3rd party air cooling solution for these yet and doesn't look like anyone is interested either, no reply from Arctic Cooling. Cooling this card has been risky due to fan control issues and the stock HSF makes a noise whatever software you have to run the fan. If 4870x2 is anything like that I am steering clear of ATI X2 for the foreseeable, it has not got an acceptable standard of support for cooling IMHO, its the bare minimum and its not good enough.
The only cooler option for 3870x2 is a water block but water blocks are very expensive if you have an air cooling rig (X-Clio Twin Engine case) and so need pump and radiatorsas well. Considering the 3870x2 performance is patchy @x2 it doesn't warrant that level of investment. Apart from the fact that most bench applications like 3D Mark etc see it as 512Mb when it is 512Mb x2 (ie software support not there), according to recent reviews certain games I like run at frame rates equivalent to a single 3870 eg ETQW and Bioshock, which are market leading titles.
I paid a fair bit more for the x2 card and I am not very happy about that so my choice has to be to avoid the X2 period. Either a 4870 which mostly beats the 3870x2 anyway or a 280 but not 4870x2. IMHO it is a half assed solution and I am an ATI fanboy.