Dual 470s or Single 480

[v12dock]

So my buddy is getting a new computer, and were not sure what to get. Either two 470s or a single 480. I would save $200 with the 480... Maybe I could put the money somewhere else. Performance wise how much would I lose with the single 480 on a Phenom II X6 @ 4.1Ghz

[DanishDevil]

Found this:

[n-ster]

I would go single 470 or 480... Dual GPU can be a PITA, and doesn't leave room for upgrade. and 2 Fermis use ALOT of power and creates a lot of heat in a case


on the other hand, they scale great. If you have adequate cooling and power, dual 470... what's the plan for his comp?

[v12dock]

I am not worried about heat, but would you think a 750W or even 850W psu could power 2 470s and a overclocked Phenom II X6?

[DanishDevil]

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

I'm gonna rack up the Thanks today

[erocker]

Are you going to be running a Nvidia motherboard chipset for SLI?

[v12dock]

Do I have too?

[erocker]

Yes you do. Go with the single 480.. or a couple of ATi cards.

[DanishDevil]

Yep, with AMD chipsets, you need to have a board with an nVidia chip onboard. Intel P55 & X58 have Crossfire & SLI compatibility built in.

[v12dock]

Well if needed I can buy a 980a board instead. How does the 980a compare to the 890FX?

[Lionheart]

Originally Posted by v12dock

Do I have too?

Well, yes you do, with AMD boards, most of them are only crossfire enabled or only have support for crossfire since AMD own ATi You will need a AMD board thats supports SLI & and I don't see them much around, but there should be several out there that are available, sry bro, I don't know much when it comes to AMD boards and SLI configs but I can look around for you

Personally I would choose right now a single GTX 470 and overclock the hell outta of it, I have read they overclock really well and should perform great, but first make sure that if your friend wants to go SLI, you have to get the right board that supports SLI, when yu do that, I would just buy another GTX 470 and overclock that too

Oh yeah, I would go with a 850W PSU, grab a HX850W PSu from corsair, cant go wrong with that

[v12dock]

Well I can get $70 off a power supply with the 480... Thermaltake 775W

[eidairaman1]

980a is getting long in the tooth, and from Nvidia's future it looks like they wont be releasing anymore glue logic, otherthan a bridge chip which intel uses on their boards.

[Apocolypse007]

have you considered a 5870 instead? This one can be had for about $40 more than a gtx 470.

XFX HD-587X-ZNFV Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 2...

If you get one of these, you can keep the motherboard and leave room for an extra card later on if you decide you need it. The 5870 is also more powerful and efficient than the 470.

[n-ster]

or even 5850 CF or 5970? A 850W can barely do an OCed 480 + OCed pII x6

Originally Posted by trt740

My 850 power supply couldn't handle a 250 gts card for physx and a 480 gtx oced, my system would shut off. However, two 5870 overclocked to hell and back were fine and faster.

(he has a PII)

A 775W TT PSU will have troubles with a 470 SLI if you OC any, it might have problems even if you don't OC. it would do fine with a 480 non-OCed + OCed pIIx6, but no room for more

[DanishDevil]

In either case, I would look for a PSU like the one I've got in my FS thread: Enermax Revolution 950W. That puppy will power dual 480s without a hiccup, and it's one of the best high-end PSUs out there.

[alexsubri]

If your getting the AMD X6 core processor, it runs better with ATI in my opinion. For that matter, your better off getting a 5850 Crossfire and you don't need that power to run it. I have a Warlock Apevia 750 watt, never gave me problems.

Get this motherboard = Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H - $82 new

ATA-133, Serial ATA-300 (RAID), 0 MB / 16 GB (max), DDR3 SDRAM, 7.1 surround, 12 x USB
The GA-MA785GT-UD3H introduces revolutionary Gigabyte Ultra Durable 3 technology on AMD platform with featuring 2 oz copper PCB and further helps to reduce the system temperature and dramatically enhance the performance. Based on AMD 785G chipset, GA-MA785GT-UD3H is integrated ATI Radeon HD 4200 (DX10.1) graphics engine and supports the latest 45nm AMD AM3 Phenom II/ Athlon II processors, HyperTransport 3.0 technology links, DDR3 memory, PCI Express 2.0 graphics interface and so on. With the innovative Gigabyte Easy Energy Saver technology, GA-MA785GT-UD3H is able to provide user friendly computing, reach the maximum system performance easily while still able to save the power and environment in real life at the same time.

And these two cards in Crossfire (ATI 5850 XFX XXX) - $354



Grand total: $790 --that you won't regret. I have that motherboard and card, they work wonders

[n-ster]

354$ for a 5850 is stupidly expensive... get them at ~300$ for Ref ones or get a 5970 for barely more, saving 1 pci-e slot and getting more power and less power usage

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Go single 480. You wont see some good SLI scaling with an ancient nVidia chipset based motherboard imo. Those numbers from review sites came from x58 / P55 machines.

[Zubasa]

Unless you insist on getting a Geforce.
I say just grab a 5970 and be done with it.

[v12dock]

I really like the performance gain with the 257 drivers. I hated the Fermi when it came out but it grew on me and I really want one now.

[n-ster]

thought it was for a buddy?

[v12dock]

Same difference, He leaves his computer at my house for weeks at a time lol

[n-ster]

I'd still go 5970 if I were you

[slyfox2151]

have you considerd a single GTx470 for now and get a nother one later if you need it.... come on, 1 470 should be more then enough unless you plan on either
A: running more then one screen or
B: Nvidia 3D / more then one screen



the 470s overclock quite nicely, 25 % would be a safe bet.