Originally posted by: Howie
So there's really few reasons to go buy two 4870 to crossfire rather than a single 4870x2?
Essentially, yes; you are correct. But that's based on some unknowns and some "your machine factors." I'll elaborate:
1. X2 isn't out yet. We don't know what the initial price will be nor what the "normal price" will be once the initial price gouging dies down.
2. Related to #1, we don't know what the price of the regular 4870 will drop to (after MIRs, etc) once the X2 is out. It
might turn out to be much more financially feasible to get two 4870s and XFire them.
3. But you may need to buy another PS to run two 4870s; you would need four, six-pin PCI-E connectors to do so, but you only need two PCI-E connectors (one 8, one 6-pin) for an X2.
4. Heat output of two HD4870s will be considerably more than a single X2; though most of it will be vented out of the rear of your case, it's still something to consider. Also taking up an additional 2 PCI slots.
Personally, I think the price of the regular 4870 will drop a decent amount, but the performance of the X2 will just be staggering. There's got to be a reason to shell out the extra coin for the dual-GPU card over buying two regular 4870s besides the "Look what I've got!" value.