Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3

[The Deco]

OK im about to buy the motherboard model GA-EP45-DS3

Now it says it supports crossfireX for the ati cards but I got a problem I don't understand: It has only 1 PCI-E 16x and 1 more PCI-E 8x and they both support PCI-E 2.0

Now what I don't understand is that cards like Radeon HD 4870 need PCI-E 16x so how come this board supports crossfireX if it has only 1 PCI-E 16x ???

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products...rboard&ProductID=2843&ProductName=GA-EP45-DS3

Please note: I could have done some stupid mistake as I don't know very much about computers and I wanna know good on what computer I spend my hard earned money.

 

[wheres_]

Get a x48-dq6 instead.

 

[The Deco]

bahh it is almost double price

Edit: It is more than double

 

[kam!]

If you want a good pc, you shouldn't buy cheap mobos

 

[The Deco]

Its not that cheap, it supports very good stuff. PCI-E 2.0, a new chip P45, all the stuff I need. Im not gonna pay double for crossfire, it doesn't worth it.

Can someone please explain me how this CrossfireX works on this mobo?

I think it means 1 will be on the 16x and the other on the 8x am I right?

 

[Hishi]

If you want a good pc, you shouldn't buy cheap mobos

That's partly true however it shouldn't cost more than $100 for a good reliable mobo. And not much more over $130 for a descent SLI or Crossfire.

Anyways, from what I read 8x has little performance difference from 16x, at least not enough to justify dishing out $200 for a mobo in my opinion.

 

[The Deco]

Well the EP45-DS3 is cheaper than the EP45-DS3R only because the DS3R got a raid, that is it, nothing more, and the DS3R is about 127$ like as you said closing to 130$. sometimes they just make it more expensive because of something certain people don't really need.

here comparison: http://www.gigabyte.com.sg/Products...risonSheet.aspx?ProductID=2841,2842,2844,2843

so it has actually the same crossfire.

So as you said Hishi, for a decent crossfire mobo I need to spend about 130$ and the EP45-DS3 answers that, am I right?

I think my build is smart enough.

Now I need about 650 Watt for the upcoming crossfire HD 4870.

But if I add another GPU it will make more heat in the case, much more, how do I take care of that?

 

[Hishi]

By making sure you have at least a intake and exhaust fan. You must be a real hardcore gamer to buy two of those bad boys. Looking to play PC games for the next 10 years eh? XD

If you don't need one anymore be sure to send it my way. =D

Also, make sure you have a total of four 6-pin PCI-E connectors from your power supply, each 4870 requires two of them.

 

[Quagmire]

You might as well can the Idea of getting a Crossfire'd HD4870 setup when a HD4870x2 is Crossfire on a single card plus the fact that each GPU has a 1GB frame buffer compared to a conventional HD4870 crossfire setup. Whats more is that both solutions are roughly the same cost wise as far as a price range goes. You'll need a 8pin PCI-E connector on your power supply and if you don't have one you can get an adapter for it (Usually either a 2x6pin to 8pin or 8pin PC-E to molex connector).

As far as motherboards go, I suppose you can stick to a P45 chipset if you went the 4870x2 route unless you'd want to get a 2nd one later but truth be told there will probably be another graphics solution out that you'd want to get and probably end up more worth it in the wrong run as far as power, heat and performance are concerned (Those cards like to get really hot).

 

[The Deco]

By making sure you have at least a intake and exhaust fan. You must be a real hardcore gamer to buy two of those bad boys. Looking to play PC games for the next 10 years eh? XD

If you don't need one anymore be sure to send it my way. =D

Also, make sure you have a total of four 6-pin PCI-E connectors from your power supply, each 4870 requires two of them.

Well that is the idea, buying 1 now, let games requirements get higher and after some time(I guess about 2 years) ill need to add that crossfire and the HD 4870 price will be pretty low there, im sure.

I also bought a E8400 which I hardly think will bottleneck any games upcoming in the next 4 years.

As for cooling I got 2 intake 120 mm front fan, one 120 mm exhaust rear fan and one 200 mm exhaust top fan, if you are wandering which case, im talking about the Antec 900, is it good enough for the crossfire HD 4870 in the matter of cooling? I don't want my parts to get ruin faster just because my case isn't cool enough. My current computer suffers this ****ing problem, god damn it.

Quagmire I thought about it, and it will be much cheaper getting one HD 4870 now, wait a few years, let its price drop, and get another one. In the end it is much cheaper. And I don't need much RAM since im the kind of guys that the resolution they play is 768x1024.

So the P45 is good enough?

 

[Quagmire]

Well that is the idea, buying 1 now, let games requirements get higher and after some time(I guess about 2 years) ill need to add that crossfire and the HD 4870 price will be pretty low there, im sure.

I also bought a E8400 which I hardly think will bottleneck any games upcoming in the next 4 years.

As for cooling I got 2 intake 120 mm front fan, one 120 mm exhaust rear fan and one 200 mm exhaust top fan, if you are wandering which case, im talking about the Antec 900, is it good enough for the crossfire HD 4870 in the matter of cooling? I don't want my parts to get ruin faster just because my case isn't cool enough. My current computer suffers this ****ing problem, god damn it.

Quagmire I thought about it, and it will be much cheaper getting one HD 4870 now, wait a few years, let its price drop, and get another one. In the end it is much cheaper. And I don't need much RAM since im the kind of guys that the resolution they play is 768x1024.

So the P45 is good enough?

I can almost gurantee you that in a few years time you'll be eating your own words or never get the 2nd HD4870 to crossfire as there will already be a faster solution out that you'll moist likely want to get. You mentioned getting 2 separate HD4870 cards which roughly is the same price (if not a little cheaper) then one HD4870. If you're going to be running games @ 1024x768, hell you should be spending less but in all honesty I'm sure you won't run all of your games at one resolution, you're cpu limited at that res as it is anyway.

If you take a look here and do the maths, you will see that a HD4870x2 is $10 cheaper then the 4870 crossfire option and you're getting a better card all round considering the cost. What I'm saying for the here and now is you won't, or will most unlikely get a 2nd HD4870 later. Why do you ask? Because by the time you want to get another one, a newer graphics solution that is better, was in the same price range that the HD4870 was will be released and you'll want that instead as the performance of cards in two years will defiantly be better then the solutions available today, that I can assure you of. By that time too you might look at selling your HD4870 (or probably even before then) and you'd have to sell it cheaply as you'd imagine if you were to go ahead and get crossfire and if you are really are one on future proofing the 4870x2 would last you longer and have higher resale value at the same time.

Better to give a bit of food for thought really IMO :smile:.

 

[The Deco]

Thank you quagmire.

still, I need to add another 1100 NIS for HD4870x2 (New Israeli Shekel) which is almost 1 fifth of my all setup. (im buying at 4800 NIS)

I need to add a lot, and I don't think it worth it that much. Even if I won't go for the crossfire ill replace my card with a better one, probably in the same price range, so I don't lose much.

And I do plan to get a 2nd HD 4870 only when it price will drop, majorly, like a year or 2, so it will be much cheaper than a HD4870x2, and this way I get almost the same performance(2 GPUs) and I buy it in less in the end.

With the current games I can run with the HD4870 at high and very high. It will last me 2 years, then I could get a HD4870 bottom price, since it will be a old model then, but because ill have 2 GPUs it will give me more time to use my computer instead of replacing it all or buying a new graphic card.

Even if I won't get the same performance with two HD4870s compared to the new cards that will be then ill get pretty much close, and I won't have to invest money in a total new graphic card.

 

[Quagmire]

Thank you quagmire.

still, I need to add another 1100 NIS for HD4870x2 (New Israeli Shekel) which is almost 1 fifth of my all setup. (im buying at 4800 NIS)

I need to add a lot, and I don't think it worth it that much. Even if I won't go for the crossfire ill replace my card with a better one, probably in the same price range, so I don't lose much.

And I do plan to get a 2nd HD 4870 only when it price will drop, majorly, like a year or 2, so it will be much cheaper than a HD4870x2, and this way I get almost the same performance(2 GPUs) and I buy it in less in the end.

With the current games I can run with the HD4870 at high and very high. It will last me 2 years, then I could get a HD4870 bottom price, since it will be a old model then, but because ill have 2 GPUs it will give me more time to use my computer instead of replacing it all or buying a new graphic card.

Even if I won't get the same performance with two HD4870s compared to the new cards that will be then ill get pretty much close, and I won't have to invest money in a total new graphic card.

Even thoguh you get part of what I am saying, you can't predict the future and assume that performance of 2xHD4870s in crossfire (especially the 512mb models) will be equal to performance of products that are two years away, such a comment is blasphemy and a very, very wrong prediction. By then, newer games should be pacing older graphics cards in comparison to newer products from both ATI/nvidia.... It's almost like saying "Not a lot will change in the graphics hardware industry", when in fact it will.

 

[The Deco]

Well buying a HD4870x2 won't do much since its sort of the same as crossfire.

And I need the P45 because its the cheapest thing I can get with a PCI 2.0.

So I need the P45 anyhow. But maybe you are right, maybe ill just replace it, it is still good for me.

 

[Quagmire]

Well buying a HD4870x2 won't do much since its sort of the same as crossfire.

And I need the P45 because its the cheapest thing I can get with a PCI 2.0.

So I need the P45 anyhow. But maybe you are right, maybe ill just replace it, it is still good for me.

HD4870 (Base model anyway) 512mb models only have 512mb frame buffer
HD4870 in crossfire (Whether it be 1GB of 512mb models) is more expensive then a single HD4870x2
HD4870x2 has 1GB frame buffer for each GPU and is the cheaper better solution
HD4870x2 also has a backside bus (quoting from the AMD slides when it was first launched) that will be enabled in a future driver release which should give a significant performance boost and obviously you won't see this gain on a HD4870 crossfire setup consisting of separate cards compared to the one HD4870x2. This means that the card will have more internal bandwidth (about 21.6gb more I think?) for communication between the two GPUs on the PCB.

It is for the above reasons alone why I recommend you get the HD4870x2 as it will last longer and perform better at the same time. It should last you for a long period of time and your intention is to keep this purchase for a while (2yrs or so), so it would make sense to buy the best you can now rather then buy yesterday's technology (Sure might be cheaper), but performance won't be as great especially if you chose a 512mb model as for future usability in newer games it won't be sufficient to your expectations. It'd make more sense now to get the HD4870x2 (If you can afford it, you did mention money as a concern especially with your currency), but in all honesty I really do think it is worth the extra money spent if you can save up especially when considering the things you want to do with this purchase:

-Keep it for some time to come
-Get the most for your money
-Get the best performance possible at the time should you be able to afford to do so

As I said before, by the time you consider the option of a 2nd hand HD4870 for crossfire, their may be a newer game or gfx card out on the market that may entice you to upgrade to play newer games which would potentially be a better solution at that point in time then a 2nd HD4870.

 

[The Deco]

It will be smarter to plainly replace the HD 4870 later on.

In the correct time that I will buy the new card to replace my old HD 4870 it will be on the same price range I buy the HD 4870 now, instead of paying now almost double.

 

[Quagmire]

It will be smarter to plainly replace the HD 4870 later on.

Did I not just day that about, oh I don't know, I said it quite a few times already...

In the correct time that I will buy the new card to replace my old HD 4870 it will be on the same price range I buy the HD 4870 now, instead of paying now almost double.

You were thinking about going crossfire with two weaker cards, in 2 years might I add... That's why I suggested you either A) get the HD4870x2 or B) Get a 1GB HD4870 now and just simply replace it with whatever comes out around that time when you next want to do an upgrade...

 

[The Deco]

well buying a hd4870x2 won't do much since its sort of the same as crossfire.

And i need the p45 because its the cheapest thing i can get with a pci 2.0.

So i need the p45 anyhow. but maybe you are right, maybe ill just replace it, it is still good for me.

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