Today there is a video card for just about every user. Some cards are extremely affordable for those on a tighter budget. Some have mid-range prices for the mid-range users. Some, price tags suitable for Bill Gates or Warren Buffet.. That being said some people may actually need the ridiculously priced cards. This can be for a few reasons; such as that the user is trying to max out games on a 30" monitor. However, many people that purchase these extremely expensive cards don't actually need them. They'll buy it to get the highest scores in benchmarks, or just to have an extremely cool rig. In the end it's purely subjective, because it is your wallet and your computer. The key to buying the best video card is to figure out what is best for you.
Today I'll be looking at one of the higher priced cards. Sapphire's Radeon HD 4870 X2 is priced at $379 and is one of ATI's best performing cards. As most of you will already know the HD 4870 X2 isn't technically a single card solution. Instead it has two RV770 chips attached to a single PCB. This in itself is actually really cool. Before the HD 4870 X2, "dual cards"
like the 7900GX2, 9800GX2, and even the GTX 295 have two GPU's on two separate PCB's. This takes up more space and add extra heat to both chips.
The HD 4870 X2 itself is, you guessed it, two HD 4870's. Using this card should be like using two HD 4870's in CrossFire. For that reason it will be interesting to see how it performs against two HD 4870's in CrossFire. One thing is for sure. The HD 4870 X2 should require less power then the two cards. How exactly will it perform in games and synthetic benchmarks? Let's find out.
