Radeon HD4870 X2 2GB DDR5 PCI Express

[jigglyj0]

im looking for a graphics card for a new desktop so i went to a gaming forum and they recommended this card

when i googled i saw that there are radeons made by saphhire, asus and ATI. i know that ATI is the original brand but are these other brands similar?

the site also recommended that i use two of those graphic cards
is that necessary? i only want to do some simple gaming
if its not necessary, how much of a difference would it make if i bought a lower performance graphics card to complement it?

as a side note, do the higher end computer coolers actually increase performance? can't i just buy a regular fan? and blow it towards my computer?

 

[PokerDegenerate]

Well to answer your questions we would really need some more information such as:

What are the specs of the rest of your computer?
What is your monitor's resolution?
What games do you play?
Where are you located?

 

[sniperviper21]

if it is named after an ATI product, ex,

ATi makes a 4870,
so does Asus and the rest, as long as it is a 4870, it is the same as any other 4870, nothing diffrent, just diffrent brands, nothing special

and blowing a regular fan probably wouldnt really do anything if at all for your computer. Might feel good to you, but to your computer it just dosnt even notice it, lol.


and for casual gaming id easly recomend a XFX 4850, should handle it all, even some mild play on low end crysis settings, and it still looks good.

 

[dude_56013]

If you are only doing casual gaming, you only need ONE 4870 (not the X2), at the most. To crossfire 2 4870s, you are looking at needing a big PSU, and to crossfire 2 4870 X2s?...well that's just over the top and probably never needed by 99.9999% of people..not to mention the PSU it'd need.

 

[jigglyj0]

im planning to get an amd phenom 2 x4
i dont need massive amounts of power but cos i want this computer to last me a bit id rather something stronger that can also run windows 7

4GB Corsair DDR3 1600MHz C9 Twin3X
Acer 18.5-inch Wide LCD TFT Monitor
would a standard cpu cooler suffice?

im living in leeds, uk
im new here so i dont really know any of the shops selling computers hre

 

[PokerDegenerate]

well if you are only running an 18.5" monitor I don't think you will need a 4870 x2 graphics card. You can save yourself some money and just go with a 1gb 4870 if you are looking to stay with ATI. That will be more than enough for your monitor.

Yeah as long as your not overclocking the stock CPU cooler will be just fine.

I am in the US so I honestly can't help ya with the best sites in the UK to buy parts from but Im sure that someone here can.

 

[ZackDawley]

As a side note Windows 7 needs 2 GB of ram to boot in x64 (why you'd still be running 32bit is beyond me) so you might want to look at 6 or 8 GB depending if you're 2 or 3 channel for ram.

As for the gaming, it really depends on what game you want to plan for what you need.

 

[foothead]

As a side note Windows 7 needs 2 GB of ram to boot in x64 (why you'd still be running 32bit is beyond me) so you might want to look at 6 or 8 GB depending if you're 2 or 3 channel for ram.

As for the gaming, it really depends on what game you want to plan for what you need.

No,4gb is plenty.
Also, AMD doesn't support triple-channel yet, so thats out of the question.

 

[ZackDawley]

No,4gb is plenty.
Also, AMD doesn't support triple-channel yet, so thats out of the question.

I thought AMD was going to have 3 channel support, but I guess that's why I finally got converted to Intel.

You might say 4GB is plenty, but I'm telling you that if Microsoft is recommending 4GB for Windows 7 you need double that. Just loading Windows takes up 1.7GB.

I often have 4.5 or more GB used just watching video's and streaming. Then again my computer runs really fast, and Windows 7 likes to keep everything in ram so it's not as bottlenecked with the HD's.

 

[sniperviper21]

whats ur user experience score?

and you must have alot of crap running in the background to use 4.5GB's being used, with me playing crysis, running HD content, avast, ect, an i use about 3gigs