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The ATi 4770, Crossfire, and other assorted annoyances

Started by NightBlade , May 13 2009 11:59 PM

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14 replies to this topic

#1 NightBlade

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Posted 13 May 2009 - 11:59 PM

For those who don't know, the Ati 4770 is the latest budget card that supposedly delivers unbelievable performance for the price (trumping the 9800 GT in price and performance)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814150366

For awhile I've been watching the ati 4770. After looking at all of the benchmarks, I've decided to try this out... But there are a few questions before I just run to newegg and buy two of these things with a new power supply.

The first of my concerns, my motherboard : http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813130141 (MSI P35 Platinum Combo LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard)

I'm pretty sure I could use two ATI 4770s in this machine, but to be sure... Can use crossfire with this motherboard?

Next comes the power supply. I currently have a measly 480w power supply. Naturally; if I want to crossfire two ATi 4770s, I'm going to need a new power supply. Does anyone have a suggestion? I was considering a 750w with crossfire/sli support; but I don't know which to get. If you could recommend one from Amazon, that would make things much easier for me, as I have a gift card laying in wait that can only be used there.

Next up is the Crossfire bridge, which bridge should I get for connecting two of these cards?

Lastly, does anyone have the Ati 4770? Which manufacturer should I go with to grab this card? I'm leaning towards XFX, but I'm open to any suggestions. Also, I've heard of some driver issues regarding this card and certain games, some report playing everything just fine while others have problems with games I frequently play (Source games such as Left 4 Dead and TF2).

Edit:

It should be noted that I currently run in 1680 x 1050 resolution.

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#2 something bizarre and impractical

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Posted 14 May 2009 - 12:24 AM

What resolution do you game at?

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#3 `~congresman Ron paul~~

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Posted 14 May 2009 - 12:25 AM

640W is more than enough to power that i think.

That’s right, you have the young gaming with the old(er), white people gaming with black people, men and women, Asian countries gaming with the EU, North Americans gaming with South Americans. Much like world sporting events like the Wolrd Cup, or the Olympics will bring together different nations in friendly competition, (note the recent Asian Cup; Iraq vs. Saudi Arabia, no violence there) we come together. The differences being, we are not divided by our nationalities and we do it 24-7, and on a personal level.

We are a community without borders and without colours, the spirit and diversity of the gaming community is one that should be looked up to, a spirit and diversity other groups should strive toward.

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#4 NightBlade

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Posted 14 May 2009 - 12:36 AM

What resolution do you game at?

1680 x 1050

This psu has a good sale going on, but I can find no reviews on it.

http://www.amazon.co...&pf_rd_i=507846

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#5 something bizarre and impractical

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Posted 14 May 2009 - 12:39 AM

Do you really need two then?

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#6 NightBlade

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Posted 14 May 2009 - 12:58 AM

Do you really need two then?

Probably not, yet at least. But I do like being prepared.

But now that I think about it, I could always get the second one later, when I actually need it; and save the money for a new hard drive that I might be needing soon...

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#7 something bizarre and impractical

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Posted 04 June 2009 - 09:08 AM

Hey, I've been looking for one of these but they aren't even listed on Newegg.ca or Tigerdirect.ca (.CA) anymore? What happened with these? Are they available in Canada?

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#8 Verne

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Posted 04 June 2009 - 04:01 PM

The problem with that MoBo is that it has only one x16 PCI-E slot. And judging from the photos you can only fit 1 of those cards in it because the x4 and x1 slots are different to x16 slot.

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#9 goat

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Posted 06 June 2009 - 07:22 PM

Yes, you'll need at least two x8 PCIE slots for crossfire.

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#10 flappybluevein

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Posted 14 June 2009 - 12:57 AM

G'day peeps,

I'm using a Gigabyte 4770 single card setup on an Asus AM2+ with a X3 720. The card goes well although on boot-up it revs like a V8 which gets annoying. If you're a rev-head then I guess it's kinda cool. Other than that it goes very well. It's quiet and handles most anything that's thrown at it albeit at the lower resolutions.

Anyway, i'm also seriously considering getting a Cross-fire mobo and a 2nd 4770. Revealing review here that shows this card goes like the clappers in crossfire and bests single cards that cost much more than 2 x 4770.

http://www.tomshardw...sfire,2288.html
http://www.legitrevi.../article/966/1/

If anyone has any ideas I'm all ears!

Flapp

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#11 Frisky SKeleton

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Posted 14 June 2009 - 01:04 AM

consider the price of the new motherboard and the new graphics card vs selling your current single card and buying a much better one.

I USE Q'S INSTEQD OF Q'S

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#12 flappybluevein

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Posted 14 June 2009 - 05:06 AM

True true.

I'm selling the current motherboard with one PCIx16 and will upgrade to:

http://www.ecs.com.t...uID=123&LanID=0

For what I'm hoping to get for my current M4A78-EM it should only be a little more to then get the ECS dual PCI x16 board and then the 2nd card will unfortunately be around $155 AUD.

All in all - according to the reviews, dual 4770s match up to single slot solutions that cost between 10-20% more than the cost of 2 x 4770 GPUs (such as 4890s for example or GTX275 and in some cases GTX285). I'll be eating into that 10-20% savings though to get a compatible motherboard.

Will probably break even but meh... need a project.

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#13 Frisky SKeleton

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Posted 14 June 2009 - 05:52 AM

i love crossfire but i wouldn't go out of my way to get it. the best thing about it is that you can buy a good single card, then when the card is old, instead of replacing the card completely you pick up a copy, which by then would be relatively cheap for a decent performance boost.

also keep in mind if one card sounds like a v8 on start up two cards will sound like bathurst

I USE Q'S INSTEQD OF Q'S