As any PC enthusiast will be well aware, the new ATI/AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 video card has been released to a plethora of rave reviews all praising it's phenominal performance in most games. However, this does come at a bit of a price and people should be made aware of these prices if they are considering purchasing this behemoth.
Firstly, the card is power hungry. AMD/ATI list a minimum of a 650 watt PSU to power this beast. I would recommend reading my Power Supply guide if you haven't already with regards to power requirements. This card is the most demanding in terms of power requirements by some margin. The performance of this monster needs to come from somewhere after all.
The second is one that may not be so obvious. Most people are using 32-bit Operating Systems, such as Windows XP Home or Professionaland standard versions of Windows Vista (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business or Ultimate). This is fine, since this card will work perfectly well on such a PC, but it may not be the greatest idea. As my guide to using 4gb RAM points out, a 32-bit Operating System can utilise a maximum of 4gb total system memory, which is the sum of the system RAM, the video RAM (on the video card itself) and if you have an X-Fi sound card, the X-RAM found on that too. This card has 2gb video RAM, meaning it will use up half the maximum total that a 32-bit OS can address, leaving you with a maximum of 2gb system RAM which you can use (less if you have an X-Fi sound card). With games becoming more and more demanding in terms of system requirements, some already needing 2gb as a minimum to play well (note, this is different to listed minimum system requirements which often mean little more than what is needed just to get the game to start), you can see that this may present a bit of a problem. In this scenario, a 64-bit OS (Windows XP x64 Edition or any 64-bit version of Vista) would be preferable, although it is not vital.
Where a 64-bit OS does become vital is if you intend to build a monster of a gaming PC and use two of these cards in a CrossFire X setup. With two of these cards, you will obviously have 4gb video RAM, so with a 32-bit OS, that leaves nothing at all for system RAM, or even X-Fi X-RAM. The result is Windows will not work. You MUST have a 64-bit Operating System to use two Radeon HD 4870 X2's in CrossFire X, it's as simple as that. The second thing to consider with regards toCrossFire X is the enormous power requirements. While you don't have to double the required wattage to run two 4870 X2's in CrossFire mode,it is recommended to have an 850 watt PSU at a minimum. Not to mention that the PSU will need toprovide a good supply of amps on the 12v rail(s).
The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is one seriously impressive piece of kit, and hardcore gamers will desperate to get their hands on them, but keep in mind the requirements or you could be heading for a lot of disappointment.
*UPDATE*
Time for an update on this, hence the new and more appropriate title. At the time this guide was written, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 was the only 2gb graphics card available. Now there are several more, such as the new Radeon HD 5970 and 2gb versions of the Radeon HD 4890, 4870 along withforthcoming 2gb versions of the 5870 and 5850. Nvidia cards are also available with large amounts of RAM installed, such as the 2gb version of the GTX 285 and GTS 250. Whileothers do not have as much as 2gb, they come close enough to be worth inclusion of this guide with 1792mb. These cards includeGTX 295 as well as some versions of the GTX 275 andGTX 260.
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