mike87

About to purchase an ATI Radeon 4870 X2 to replace my X1950 XTX.

Anybody on here have thoughts on this card (besides massive heat/power consumption)? Saw some reviews, most FPS benchmarks seemed pretty good.

Also, I realize the X2 is a dual GPU single PCB (I think) card. Would I need to run Crossfire software to realize its full potential?

Thanks in advance!

doc2142

Yes, and the 4870x2 is a very powerful card right now. And you will need to enable crossfire for it to work correctly.

mike87

So if I enable Crossfire, will I have compatibility issues with some games?

In other words, is Crossfire buggy?

doc2142

Not really. Well not that i know of.

Mitchell7

No, Crossfire does not need to be enabled on a single 4870 X2, even though it's a dual GPU card it is really treated as a single card. If you were however to purchase a second 4870 X2 then yes, Crossfire would have to be enabled.

Crossfire isn't exactly buggy, depending on the game scaling performance can vary. Some games get a better performance hit than others while some actually do worse in a Crossfire configuration. This issue seems to be more prominent with dual GPU cards in a multi GPU configuration such as Crossfire and SLI rather than single GPU cards.

Darren9

The massive heat/power consumption is all you need to worry about really, I haven't had any issues that weren't sorted with an updated driver or a patch for the game. They do run hot, and the fan is loud.

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mike87

NEVERMIND! Gonna pick up a GTX 285 tonight for $200!

Jtwizzle

Well thats a good deal! Good luck with it you wont be disappoint!

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Pao

Great price on that 285 for sure, good find.