Sapphire Radeon 4870 (X2) OC-Edition?

[Eagle]

Hey guys,

I'm coming from a long, long road labeled "nVidia", because since 2001 (where I bought my first real "self-made" machine) I stuck with nVidia and was always happy about their products.. - Even during the Radeon 9700-time..

But when Vista, together with Crysis came in, I got really mad.. The average fps-rate (compared to XP with _exactly_ the same hardware) was about 33% lower - how could that be? Especially because ATI-based cards only dropped about 7% in the first place and after some optimizations from ATI's staff even less (around 1-3% AFAIR)..

So, I'm fed up with nVidia, its _very_ crappy performance and pricing policy which fell beyond the pale - ATI won me over and I'd like to buy a card from them (especially because I'm kinda "AMD stalker" )..

Since I'm interested in buying an ATI-card, Sapphire seems to be a good supplier - particularly because of the fact that I want an overclocked card with a _silent_ cooling-solution (no water-cooled stuff, though)..
But so far, I couldn't read any news from Fudo / Fudzilla-staff in general, talking about a "Sapphire 4870 (X2) Toxic/Atomic Edition"-card.. Sapphire does such cards, don't they?

Any information would be great - I'm really "hungry" for such a card.. Mid August will be the time when I get my first payslip and the remaining money will be spent on a 4870 (X2)-Chimei CMV-222H-combo..

Best regards,
 Martin..

[fwoot]

I dont think you'll need an OC edition lol...the result are in and in seems schools out due to awesome!

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/9225-palit-radeon-hd-4870-x2-2gb-video-card-review.html

[Eagle]

I got info from Sapphire and Gainward..

Sapphire will _not_ do any Atomic-edition, but a Toxic one (with water-cooling) -> FAILED (I hate GPU-only water-cooling solutions - either the whole system or none at all!)

Gainward however will do a 4870 with special cooler (air-cooled, of course) and maybe even a Golden Sample one with that cooler (= own cooler, OC-edition)..

Regarding 4870 X2, I believe in prices _below_ 300 € for a GPU, because paying 400+ € every year or two just sucks..
So, as long as this card won't happen to fall below that threshold, I'm going to buy a 4870 (air-cooled, OC-edition if available) and being some 10 FPS behind GTX 280 in Crysis @ 1680x1050 @ high is _definitely_ something I can live with..

[fwoot]

its definately the smarter option but the 4870 x2 looks sooo tasty. Although were both in the same situation because my lcd screens rez is 1680x1050 and its kind of in the middle caus it demands more beef than the 19 " screens but then many ppl say you need to be "well equiped" for a 24" screen (if you want AA). What about 22"?  Its only 2" smaller and they're generally cheaper by $150-$200 and its hard to find benchmarks that are run in it so what do you setttle for in terms of gpu?

[Eagle]

I settle for only one thing: Crysis @ 1680x1050 @ high for every option in its graphics menu @ 30-40 FPS - everything else is just too low IMHO..
Now I know about the troubles with Crysis and its "hardware hunger", but still I want it in that quality setting..

I'm going to buy http://geizhals.at/eu/a280578.html this weekend for about 260 € (including shipping costs) as that TFT is by far the best one (4 CCFLs, etc. - see http://prad.de/en/monitore/review/2007/review-chimei-cmv-222h.html)..

So, I need a 4870-card, because GTX 280 is way too expensive and GTX 260 just to low for my requirements..