Radeon HD 4850 versus Radeon HD 4870

wait until some proper reviews come out.

Nobody can tell you that yet.

You're going to have to wait until the cards launch to get real reviews.

I play on a 19 inch CRT monitor... the desktop is around 1280x something....

Playing a game on a WS at 1600x1200 is supported by most games now. it's an incredible difference. You can set the resolution in 90% or more of the games.

The big key is at above 1680x1050 or so and very high settings you need a fast card, and 1 gig of memory starts to make a diff for loading frames etc.

As long as your not a resolution freak and need to see every pixle in a game at it's most highest setting (expensive) the two 4850's will be plenty.

I'm looking at a single card solution tho, always easier.

Waiting for the 4870x2 and the GTX280 to be shown in head to head battle before I make my decision.

There have been a few previews of the 4870, and it is markably better than the 4850 however something you have to understand about computer hardware is that the higher you go on the performance scale the more it will cost you with the less return

If you are building a //BUDGET// gaming PC the first thing to think about is what kind of games you like to play - if you are not that interested in new games coming out like Fallout 3, Farcry 2, or Stalker: Clear Sky ; then single 4850 or 4870 is probably enough for you for now. Either plays Crysis quite acceptably, apparently.

You can always add another video card later on if your gaming needs increase - but basically just build to your current needs and if you want to make a performance upgrade then Crossfiring would be your most cost effective later increase.

Thats my opinion, in a nut shell - and it pretty much goes for any hardware. Build to your needs, then you won't be regretting your decisions later; the fundimental idea is to make well educated decisions with your money regardless of what performance level you are trying to target~

The 4870 is about 5% faster than the 4850, not sure what ovaltineplease saw.

Unless you are at 1600x1200 or greater one will suite you just fine. If you pickup a 4850 get one of the dual slot cooler models or go after market for cooling. The 4870 just doesn't make sense from a cost perspective.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25 [...] g-of-rv77/

I stand corrected even at 20% it's not worth the price. In the games that bring them to there knees that's about 5FPS and the game would still be unplayable or hinder your playing. Not worth $100 in my book and if you go crossfire to solve issue I have a stronger argument. The problem is crossfire is very title specific.

The 4870 is a great card but just not good enough because the 4850 is such a great value. The real issue to me is that crossfire doesn't work worth a crap in anything I currently play. I will hold out for the X2 version reviews if they keep there word that will cost around $399 and may avoid their crossfire issues in many games.