GTX280 in SLI or 4870's in Crossfire. which is better?

[MikuMiku]

This seems to be a contraversy that i have seen and from what i've seen so far the 4870 is the best single slot card out there right now. but my question is what would happen if i put 2 4870's in my comp. would that wup 2 GTX280's or will the GTX280's come ahead for the better. the reason why i ask this is because i wanted to make a BA comp for myself, but i think this conversation will help out alot of people on this forum. Post your thoughts on this.

 

[dagger]

2 4870s are faster than one gtx280, 2 gtx280 faster than 2 4870.

 

[MikuMiku]

thats wat i was thinking and 2 GTX280's are probably on the cheaper side

 

[dagger]

thats wat i was thinking and 2 GTX280's are probably on the cheaper side

Why would 2 gtx280s cost less than 2 4870s?

 

[MikuMiku]

on newegg the price for 1 GTX280 is $499. for 1 4870 its $549

 

[dagger]

on newegg the price for 1 GTX280 is $499. for 1 4870 its $549

Are you sure? Or did they raise prices while I wasn't looking?

 

[invisik]

the 4870 is much cheaper then the gtx280. i guess depends where u live. newegg has a gtx280 for 380$ and 4870 for 240$. the 4870 in cf will perform about the same as the gtx280 in sli or slightly less but its not worth the extra expense.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048%20106792627%201067940678&bop=And&Order=PRICE (4870)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500053 (gtx280)

 

[MikuMiku]

but is that 4870 an X2? send me the link of both of those cards at that price i want to see for meself

 

[MikuMiku]

is X2 even worth it?

 

[dagger]

but is that 4870 an X2? send me the link of both of those cards at that price i want to see for meself

Lol, you didn't mention the x2, only 4870.

Benchmarks:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3372&p=5
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3372&p=6
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3372&p=7
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3372&p=8
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3372&p=9

 

[MikuMiku]

i also looked at those prices on the GTX280's and no. the cheapest one i see is MSI for 389.00 and i dont know too much about MSI GPU's.

 

[dagger]

i also looked at those prices on the GTX280's and no. the cheapest one i see is MSI for 389.00 and i dont know too much about MSI GPU's.

There is no difference. They all buy the chips from Nvidia. Those "manufacturers" don't actually do much manufacturing, they're more like distributers. Early reference cards are literally a matter of pasting on different stickers.

 

[kazuya-kun]

I would just get a 4870x2 and be done with it. You save alot more $$ than buying two 280gtx for sli.

Also I've noticed that in most of the reviews out there for the 4870 shows with resolutions at about 19x12 or even 16x10 resolutions with the AA and AF all set to the max do better than 260gtx and are close/equal/better than the 280gtx but it really varies with games. Besides, most games don't even support sli let alone quad-xfire. If you're going to buy a board with the gfx card get a P5Q and a 4870x2 or 4870.

 

[wonderingwhatis]

Your first post was slightly misleading as it wasn't clear you were talking about 4870X2's.
Is your Computer already built? If so you only have a crossifre or SLI board; not both so you need to find out if you have what you can even put in your system if you want to use 2 cards.

As of now it seems for a single card (dual GPU) solution the 4870GX2 is the best; above a GTX280.

 

[dagger]

Your first post was slightly misleading as it wasn't clear you were talking about 4870X2's.
Is your Computer already built? If so you only have a crossifre or SLI board; not both so you need to find out if you have what you can even put in your system if you want to use 2 cards.

As of now it seems for a single card (dual GPU) solution the 4870GX2 is the best; above a GTX280.

If it's single card, also consider 9800gx2 for performance on the cheap.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=13
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=14
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=15
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=16
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=17
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=18
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=19

It's only $275 on newegg, no mail in rebate, free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130338

 

[wonderingwhatis]

^
Very true the 9800gx2 are pretty much a steal right now and preform awesome!

 

[MikuMiku]

cool no its not built yet.