The Official Budget-Conscious Dream Machine!

Then leave it stock. The card is DEAD silent at idle, and makes a slight air-rush like noise at load, no tonal noise or vibration whatsoever.
The fan speed adjustment program does work for the 4870, but I didn't know about it until I got the X2.

 

I want the fan spinning faster than that. I'll see what happens when I get the card.

Did you check my edit?

 

Which one? You edited both posts...
By overclock, I meant the CPU, I know what effect OC'ing has on the graphics card, the 4870 overclocks relatively well with a noticeable difference in real world performance, but due to my CPU limit, in 3dmark at least the score didn't go up much - 12,759 to 13,016. With the 4870X2 my score rose further to 14,164, but given that my old HD3870 Crossfire pair achieved 13,801 when overclocked, it seems pretty clear my CPU is a limit in 3dmark. Solely for 3dmark, I'd say 'who cares?' but given what I've found in some games like Crysis and Age of Conan, my CPU may be more of a limit than I thought. I'm intending to get a Q6600 not a Q9450 because it's barely more than half the price, but a 9450 should give me a pretty good idea of what to expect.

Also, at the start of the first test, Return to Proxycon, when they're still in the landing craft, my frame rate has been limited to 86 every time, HD3870CF, HD4870 and HD4870X2. Upping my CPU to 3.2Ghz means I now see 87-88...

 

Well, then I'd suppose a quad will help your scores a lot. I'm not sure what to expect in 3D mark.

I'm aware you meant CPU. I'm leaving the 4870 at stock for sure.

 

I'd never dream of using vmods etc, but I tried overdrive and it worked quite well, it reached the end of both sliders without crashing, and set valus one off the maximum attainable, so from 750/900 to 790/1090.

As for 3dmark, I'm not sure what to expect either, which is why I'm asking. I make 14,106 with my 4870X2 and E4300 @ 3.20Ghz now, my friend Jon made 16,300 with an 8800GTS G92 (overclocked) and Q9450 @ 3.36Ghz.

 

I'm expecting maybe 16,000 or so. Maybe it'll be higher but I don't know really.

I got the Q9450 in the hopes that it would give me a boost in benchmarks, multi-tasking, winRAR, encoding, etc. I never expected a gaming boost at all. So if there is one, it'll probably be very small.

I could have gotten a Q6600 but I wanted the higher multi and the newest technology. Aside from the extra cores, the Q6600 would have nearly been a downgrade for me. The Q9450 is a happy medium. I thought the price was fair for both the specs and the 45nm.

 

Given over here that the Q6600 is only 60% of the price of the Q9450, I think it's really a bit of a sore deal, so I'm sticking with the 6600.

 

Actually the Q6600 has the higher multi

 

Q6600 = 9x266 = 2.4Ghz
Q9450 = 8x333 = 2.66Ghz

 

that didn't justify anything. The multiplier is still higher on the Q6600 at 9 instead of 8. The Q9450 is set to a higher frequency stock.

 

It justified that the Q6600 had the higher multiplier...

 

Well fine then, rip me a new face...

Anyway I'm glad to be getting a Quad at all.

 

Ahaha, you know we're just kiddin around.

 

IMO for me, E8600 > Quad (unless its a Qx9770)

 

Well that's because you don't encode videos, use WinRar, or the many different things in which a Quad core comes in handy.

 

well that and the new E0 stepping of the E8600, infact id inlude the Q9650 over the QX9700 as it also has the E0 stepping

i use winrar, but as i am pirating less and less, and buying more legitly, i dont have the need

 

lol

WELL, there are other uses for it you know.

 

not for most of you people

 

its not as if one will be winzipping 10 hours a day, maybe once a week, so a dual core with a higher clock> Quad with lower