4850 vs 9800gt

[nort]

I'm not sure which is better to get, evga 9800gt or diamond 4850. I really like both but the diamond is more expensive. I plan on getting a second video card in the future.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130380
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103060

I heard the 4850 has some heat issues, and that nvidia has been doing poorly lately, so i'm not sure which is worth getting.

 

[br3nd064]

The 4850 is the better of the 2. The 9800gtx/gtx+ are the equivalent of the 4850. The 4850 has high temps because the default fan speed is very low. If you manually turn the fan speed up, those temps usually drop ~20c.

 

[mihirkula]

4850 of course is a faster card. And don't worry about the heat... it won't melt your cabinet.

 

[Camikazi]

If you plan on getting a second card, then the question is, what Motherboard do you have or plan on getting?

 

[nrnx]

4850 is the way to go. Beats the 9800 GT in nearly every bench. Its the card I run in my main system and works great.

 

[cyber_jockey]

Hands down 4850 22 percent faster then the 98gt (88gt) .

 

[cyber_jockey]

Hands down 4850 22 percent faster then the 98gt (88gt) .

 

[omar954]

I'm in the same situation. 9800gt sli will be great on 750i mobo. 4850 xfire will be better on p45 mobo but costlier and hotter. So you could get dual slot cooling or pump up the fan speed. As for nvidia path you could get 4850 equivalent 9800gtx/+. But since 9800gtx/+ is dual slot it will have a hard time fitting in a 750i mobo (in the p5d-n model at least, the pcie x16 slots are a bit close). So I think Saphire 4850 (dual slot) is the best option with a p45 and you later xfire. But the only thing that worries me is that p45 only has pcie x8 xfire.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102770

 

[br3nd064]

I agree that getting a dual-slot card is a good idea. It will push all the hot air out the back of the case, so it won't affect other components as much. Don't worry about the p45 only having pci-e x8. It has x8 2.0, which is the equivalent of normal x16.

 

[dagger]

Hands down 4850 22 percent faster then the 98gt (88gt) .

On average, the performance gap is less than 22%, while cost difference is a lot more than 22%. Although 4850 slightly outperforms 9800gtx for less. It's natural for price/performance value to drop as you go higher in the graphics market.

I agree that getting a dual-slot card is a good idea. It will push all the hot air out the back of the case, so it won't affect other components as much. Don't worry about the p45 only have pci-e x8. It has x8 2.0, which is the equivalent of normal x16.

Pcie2.0x8 for cf does bottleneck if the game is graphics intensive. It should be avoided.
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1472/7/page_7_benchmarks_crysis/index.html

 

[br3nd064]

According to those benchmarks, while the x16 2.0 apparently does make a difference, a 4850 CF setup isn't going to offer playable framerates at any resolution on Very High.

Look at these benchmarks: http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=761&p=2 Instead of DX10 and Very High settings, these were taken on DX9 and High settings. There's an increase at a low resolution (1440x900), but any higher of a resolution and the difference drops. At 1680x1050, the difference between the p45 and x48 is only 2 fps.