HD4870 512M or HD4850 1GIG ??????

I just upgraded my PC from a P4 3.4 to a Q6600 and I am now looking to upgrade my video card. I got right now a 7800 GT OC. I use my system mostly for 2D/3D work.(photoshop,real flow, XSI,3dmax, etc...)
I have seen a serious difference when I change my processor but this is my questions....

1.Am i going to see any difference when it comes to rendering if I change my video card?
2.If I am going to see better performance, am I better buying a 1GIG video card (HD4850) instead of a 512M that just got out(4870).

Again, I am using my system mostly for 2d/3d applications and undecided between the HD4870 and the HD4850. Waiting for your advise.Thanks in advance.

that's what I was thinking but wasnt sure. A image render test before the processor change took 4 minutes to render and now the same image takes 28seconds. The cleck at the store was telling me that it would make it even faster but I decided to wait and ask.Thank you so much for you reply.

Well, the FireGL's are $900+, and the Quadro is $850 (all PCI-X 2.0 x16). For rendering I'd go with the ATI: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814195063
(these are a dual slot too)^
here is the Quadro: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814133218
(single slot)

P.S. as you can see, these will probably cost as much, or more than the rest of your build.

What about one of the cheaper professional cards?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814195009

I agree, go with either ATI FireGL or Nvidia Quadro. I work for a school district, and one big project I was on was to pick out video cards for a thing we do called project lead the way. According to documentation about some of the Autodesk software, like autocad, inventor, etc, some of the documentation seemed to suggest that the gamer cards will give you lines and different things sometimes. I too was considering the gamer card for price, but we saw that and then heard information that sometimes the gamer cards don't render things as thoroughly as the Quadro or FireGL cards, so sometimes you may have to waste time rerendering things. I think if you are looking for a card for primarily using autodesk products, the FireGL or Quadro is going to run you more, but would probably be a better investment than say a 4850. As someone suggested, maybe go with a cheaper low end quadro, and then use the rest to get more ram.

better softmod the card; ie. nvidia 8800gts 320 (selling for 80EUR second hand) can be modded to a quadro counterpart, which costs €400-500.

Te only thing you pay for if buying a quadro/firegl is software. These cards make full use of opengel in 3d environments+ are mostly way slower than their newere gamer-counterparts. So, u pay bigger money for a slower card... lol...

see http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=539 for info on softmodding the cards.

ur 7900 can be softmodded also, and it will gain you helluva lotta speed in realtime rendering, but it wont cost you a thing, and since its a softmod and not a bios flash, its harmless too; cant possibly go wrong

Lemme know if u used my advice and what ur speedgain was ^^