the new Radeon 4870x2

[Flyby]

ATI is going to be cming out with a dual gpu version of the 4870 video card. It will cost about $500.00 (so will the new Nvidia GTX280 with announced price drops). Anyone think this new ATi card will be overkill for the Black Shark world?

I'm thinking that finally I will go with a single card solution on the new P45 chipset. No Crossfire as the P45 only implements it in 8x-8x versus 16x-16x for the X38 and X48 chipsets. Then again, one day the price of the 4870X2 will drop, and having that in Crossfire m ight be just SICK! Besides, I don't think an X38 costs too much more than a P45 mobo.

 

Comments? Spare gum? Spare change?

Flyby out

[Kuky]

Overkill... no... I recently got 2x HD4870 and I'm running them in CF and eventhough LockOn is still CPU limited and will benefit the most from faster CPU at least in graphics quality you'll be able to crank the game up, and I tell you running the game now at 8xAA 16xAF and frame rate is still very good, infact excellent is well worth it... I mean with terrain textures mod, runways mirrors on etc (I found water on Very high is bit too much with so much AA and AF though so I dropped it back to medium because of game crashes with overclouds enabled) the game looks really really nice... my terrain LOD's are now 30/40km and it still doesn't give problems, so if you ask me, yes the video card will be somewhat limited by the CPU you don't really need lot more then 30fps and the only time you will get lower framerates is over cities (because of large number of objects/buildings) which hogs the CPU.

[Pilotasso]

I dont think you need such hardware to run LOMAC with 8XAF and 16XAA, I can do that with my current card no sweat. I currently have 20/50 Km LOD, surface texture sharpness to 150km and 16XAA (AA tends to make aircraft disapear).

Edited July 6, 2008 by Pilotasso

[Kuky]

Well untill recently I had HD3870X2 and it wasn't enought to run LockOn with same settings I have now with 8xAA 16xAF with always good framerates... so what card do you have?

 

here's Fraps benching flying online tonight in Su-25T (time flown is about 40min)

 

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg

99318, 2375900, 25, 63, 41.802

 

1068x1050, 32bit, 8xAA, 16xAF, V-Sync on, High Quality mipmap, Adaptive AA on...

 

In game graphics.cfg:

 

Precaching

{

around_camera = 100000;

around_objects = 100000;

 

Camera

{

current = "Custom";

Custom

{

near_clip = 0.1;

middle_clip = 2;

far_clip = 80000;

structures = {50, 10000};

trees = {100000, 10000};

dynamic = {100, 9000};

objects = {3000, 50000};

mirage = {3000, 5000};

surface = {20000, 80000};

lights = {50, 10000};

lod = 2;

 

ShadowLevel = 2;

LightsLevel = 2;

MirrorsLevel = 2;

TextureLevel = 2;

WaterQuality = 1;

EffectOptions = 3;

Exhaust = 1;

FogQuality = 1;

SceneFile = "Medium";

 

LandLodDistances

{

LandDay

L01 = 30000;

L12 = 40000;

 

LandNight

L01 = 30000;

L12 = 40000;

 

MFD

L01 = 20000;

L12 = 30000;

 

OldLandNoise

{

perSquare = 5;

perSquare2 = 150;

front = 1000;

back = 20000;

top = 5000;

map_high = 20000;

bottom = 200;

noisemax = 1;

noisemin = 0;

Edited July 6, 2008 by Kuky

[Pilotasso]

Using the F-15 scramble mission I got 14 FPS on ground and 25 in the air. The pic I show below is over Gudauta and surrounding urban areas at 22 FPS. Although not a stellar figure 22 FPS was perfectly playable with all setting maxed out and 16X on AA and AF...and I forgot to turn off E mule and antivirus :D

[Kuky]

oh wait, I see in your sig the video card you have :) 8800GTS. Anyway, Flyby, if you can afford the HD4870X2 do get it, you will love it...

Edited July 6, 2008 by Kuky

[Pilotasso]

I can afford it but I would spend 500 just to play LO and supreme commander... and this one cost me 400 just last year. I will save it for when the next SIM comes out (excluding black shark because it should run fine). :)

[Flyby]

thanks for the replies, guys. I read somewheer that the 4870X2 will have it's memory speed tweaked so that it will be faster than 2 4870s in crossfire mode. I'm just vascillating between going Crossfire or not, and so the 4870X2 looks good for a single card solution. @ $500.00 it will severely test the Nvidia gtx280 which will drop to $500.00 soon too. I don't know this for a fact, but I think the 4870X2 will be a bargain comapred to the '280, and faster too. But it's just all too much to take in and decide on. I'd like to save a few bucks somewhere on my new system, but it seems crazy to not go with an X38 chipset for the erventual price drop of the 4870X2. Now running two of those in Crossfire on a chipset that supports both cards at 16x (unlike the 8x each for the new P45) would be something.

Anysuggestions of a cpu? I'm thinking an E8500 to overclock a bit.

thanks again! :D

Flyby out

[Fodder]

I'm hoping they come up with a version with 4xDVI connectors on the back so a 3 monitor setup with SoftTH could be done without a second card. I'm just guessing here that it might work but this card will be a candidate for my next GPU :) Determined to save money and get 4480x1200 or 5760x1200 resolution system running in december when BS will be released :cheer3nc:

[Flyby]

good luck with that, Fodder!:thumbup:

Flyby out

[Highwayman-Ed]

I'm definately switching back to ATI again, and the 4870X2 is the card I'll do it for.

 

I currently run a 1GB ASUS GeForce 7950GX2, which whilst this has been an excellent card and produced superb results at 1680x1050 and 1920x1200, it's starting to show it's age.

 

It's also my first non ATI card for a while now, and I can say that I've been seriously dissopointed with Nvidias drivers in comparison to ATI's. I have had a problem with at least one of my main titles (Lock On, EECH, EVE-Online, Armed Assault, FSX, COD4) with every single WHQL driver since 163.75 and some of the drivers have been terrible. Some times it's just that Anti Aliasing doesn't work, sometimes it's a complete system crash within a couple of minute of play.

 

Come back Radeon, all is forgiven!

Edited July 7, 2008 by Highwayman-Ed

[VMFA117_Poko]

I'm also thinking about buying HD4870x2. This could be my first ATI (AMD) card. However, nVidia plans to develope PhysiX technology in nearest future. Coming new drivers should already have libraries for it. What to do? Help.

[Feuerfalke]

I'm also thinking about buying HD4870x2. This could be my first ATI (AMD) card. However, nVidia plans to develope PhysiX technology in nearest future. Coming new drivers should already have libraries for it. What to do? Help.

 

4870 already has the physics-coprocessor :smilewink:

[VMFA117_Poko]

4870 already has the physics-coprocessor :smilewink:

Thanks man! Didn't know that. Now the choice is abvious for me ;)

Edited July 7, 2008 by Poko24

[Groove]

4870 already has the physics-coprocessor

 

Which one ? Which API ?

[VMFA117_Poko]

Which one has? What is API? What is CUDA?

 

:doh: What a noob I am...

 

I've found this:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=2761051

Edited July 7, 2008 by Poko24

[Groove]

I meant: Which Physic Co-Processor and which API is used.

 

Dont have the time to inform myself ;)

[Kuky]

I doubt there are any games that use Physix engine...

[Groove]

There is a couple of them. I think most known would be GRAW 1 and 2

[33rd_bratpfanne.]

@ Acedy: Your post reflects 100% the actual situation. Well informed you are :thumbup:

 

S~

Brati

[Pilotasso]

4870 already has the physics-coprocessor :smilewink:

 

Actualy it doesnt, so doesnt NVIDIA but both will run Physis. why? because GPU's are 100% reprogramable therefore you can do without ageias chips wich are by comparison far less capable.

 

EDIT: ah Acedy was faster than me :D

[VMFA117_Poko]

Actualy it doesnt, so doesnt NVIDIA but both will run Physis. why? because GPU's are 100% reprogramable therefore you can do without ageias chips wich are by comparison far less capable.

So are You trying to say it's all about drivers to be able doing same operation as Ageias chips with GeForce and Radeon gcards?

[Mustang]

CUDA is already in the early phases of being used by AMD/ATi http://www.tgdaily.com/html_tmp/content-view-38137-135.html

[Flyby]

yet another take on PhysX and CUDA

 

Found this over at Extreme Tech. It's an article about why ATI won't buy into PhysX and CUDA:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2324555,00.asp

 

Also, I read oevr at GPU Review that NVIdia is droppping the price of the GTX 280 (yeah the 280) to $499.00 USD. That's about the same price as the 4870X2 is said to cost. But the latter card is hyped as being able to crush the '280. We'll see. I've read the 4870X2 will have 2bg of gddr5 ram, tweaked for higher bandwidth than the standard speed on the single gpu 4870. Now that would be CRUSHING!

On another note, I saw somewhere that Soyo is offering a 30 inch monitor that runs in native rez of 1900xwhatever instead of the standard 2500x1600 rex of the average 30 inch monitor. Refresh rate is said to be 2ms gtg. I know; in God we trust, all others bring data. :D

Flyby out

[Flyby]

to correct myself,

 

the Soyo monitor is actually a 26 inch model. see the review here: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=191&Itemid=1

the price aint bad at all.

me