Been looking around to replace my old trusty x1900xtx. Seems like there isnt that big of a difference between the 4850 and 4870 (performance wise), especially when you take into consideration the extra $100+ you spend on a 4870. I mainly game at 1680x1050 but always try to run at max IQ settings. What are people's thoughts on this? Because when I look at reviews, even at higher resolutions both cards are pretty damn close..... Thanks.
Psh. Who needs AA at 1680? If you wanna budget CPU, go for it. But don't cheap out on the GPU. A E6700, Q6600, E4300, and Q9450 will all do pretty much the same thing, but a Pro model Radeon is nothin' like an XT. I also notice your old 1900 is an XTX. Why did you spend the extra $$$ on that, when you could have gotten a 1900Pro?
I had a XTX over a Pro becuase it sounded more "pro" to me... but it was me and it was long ago when I was still a greenhorn... probably many people fell for something like that Back to the topic, I'd go with the HD4870, it's better future-wise and should perform you better now as well.
Thats the thing....all the reviews ive seen already have the aa/af bumped up and the fps difference isnt that much between the two cards (for the money),
I need AA at that res as there is a noticeable difference, unless your someone who's not very picky or doesn't pay attention. I'm not trying to be "cheap", I got plenty of money. But there's no need in my eyes to pay $100+ to have a hotter card that gives at best 5-10 extra fps (unless the reviews I'm reading are totally misleading? or the drivers were **** at the time of the review). I'm just trying to see were the 4870 fits in, unless like I mentioned, it was just because early drivers issues and the 4870 is that much more better now with newer drivers releases. I got the XTX because I bought it for $240 and at the time that was an amazing deal because they were selling for like $600-800 here so I couldn't pass up on a deal like that and I didn't feel like upgrading for awhile.
5-10fps difference between the 4850 and 4870....and hell, that's nothing a little OC can't make up. Problem is his E4300 becoming a bottleneck for a 4870, even at 2.8ghz....it's going to happen. Also, when refering to those charts....the results come from a high-end system....not an entry level system, so the actual results will vary per consumer based on system configuration. I did better with an 8600GT and E4500 at 1680x1050 than what that chart shows for an 8600GTS at 1280x1024...course, my 9600GT was doing worse than that....
I'll just overclock my e4300 more if I need to and I don't think its that much of an bottleneck because I'm not playing on a 24"+ screen?....but at this point I need a better card to keep up with IQ settings and newer games. I did notice in some of those games yes the 4870 was a bit faster, but I could care less about the games on that list to be honest. I need to pickup UT3, Bioshock, Dead Space, Fallout 3 and they are not on that list.
I just went from a 1900xt to a 4850 and I run a 22" monitor at 1680X1050 I haven't had any issues and I run all games maxed.
I would go with a 4850, for the price you can't beat it and if you want more performance later on. Just grab a second card for crossfire.
They are pretty interchangeable, the only major differences you see are in the some games the GTX runs better, others the 4800 runs better. What really matters is how long you plan on having the card last. If you want the card to last you 2 years, the 4870 1GB is the way to go. If you only want a card to last you 1.5 years the GTX 260 or 4870 512MB is the way to go. If you want a card to last you a year or until the next generation then the 4850 is the way to go. With the current price/performance values you could buy an ~x850 every year or 9 months for ~150 bucks and have great performance and the latest features every year. Where if you want to spend more money and have it last a little longer you can go with another card. Another consideration is a GTX 280 as it is apparently dropping in price. However you could do the same with 4850 CF. If I was looking for a card to last me until the next generation (or when their prices drop) I would get a 4850 1GB card with non-reference 2 slot cooler. I think best bang/buck.
Thanks for your input everyone. Yes I don't want to upgrade in a year. Yeah I've been looking at the GTX 280 because like you said its dropping in price now and that will save me from buying a new motherboard to CF 4850's because I was considering that. Or maybe 4850x2....but theres reports of micro stuttering with the x2 cards. Have u had any issues with your 4870x2 w/ stuttering?
I doubt any current graphics card will need to be replaced within the next year or 2. DX11 is coming and will supposedly be based off DX10.1 with full compatibility...which all current gen ATI cards support, which means for full compatibility you'll be replacing any current gen nVidia card sooner.
