260 v 4870 v 4850x2

[vonted]

Another "what should I do" question.

I was screwed out of buy.com's $200 280GTX SSC, so I am on the hunt for a new card.

For about the same price I am seeing:
4870 1gb $264
4850x2 2gb $279
gtx260 core 216 $260

I have a 30" monitor I'd to drive at high settings and play a variety of games (so pinpointing specific games to a brand of card is out).

As a side note, I am upgrading a Dell Studio 540, I already have a 650w PSU and I am pretty sure I can move the HD's around to make room for any card - lengthwise. Of course going for a 4850 or 9800GTX+ with 1gb is always an option to save money.

 

[montyuk]

reading material for you -

http://vr-zone.com/articles/sapphire-4830-4870-4870toxic-4850x2/6172.html?doc=6172 4850x2 vs 4870

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=456158 4870 vs 260/280

 

[cjl]

The 4850x2 will be the fastest of those by a fairly large margin.

 

[OmegaStalker]

I agree the HD4850X2 will be the best one you can get...

 

[coozie7]

The 4850X2 is a potent card, just make sure you have enough room in your case (28.5 C.M. or 11.5") long, good ventilation and check the cards power requirements against your PSU.

 

[spathotan]

Only buy the 4850X2 if you are willing to wait and deal with crappy driver updates from Sapphire. The drivers on the ATI site do not work with the 4850X2. Youre best bet is if you can find a driver that works with it, never touch the drivers again.

 

[vonted]

Hadn't thought about ventilation.... I have no idea if the Dell Studio 540 has good ventilation......

Time to measure, I know I'll have to move a HD at the very least. And i think the SATA connectors for the HD's plug in to the mobo in the adjacent slot, rear of the board. The dual sized card might interfere.

 

[spathotan]

In a dell case? Oh, youre pushing it now. The 4850X2 is the longest card out there, its even longer than the 4870X2. I think its 11.5"

 

[Guest]

http://microcenter.com/

Look for the replacement psu for the studio there, its hard work getting a gcard into a dell, for many many reasons, why u think dell are so cheap.

350Watt Delta Unit is the psu for the studio - or if you are unlucky a 300w piece of crap,
the 9800gt should run well enough in this, on the psu though i would not bring it much higher, or you will be seeing alot of the black screen, freezes etc etc.

 

[vonted]

Well good news. The 4850 X2 fits in a Dell studio 540 case. I had to remove the hard drive, move the SATA cables over, buy a longer SATA cable for one HD, slide the card in and then reinstall the HD.

The bad news, CCC refuses to load for me, and I am totally sick of uninstalling and reinstalling the drives, etc... but the driver is installed and working. Soon I need to suck it up and figure this out

I am a little afraid of the heat in the case, but I am not sure what it is getting too since CCC won't load. ...

 

[spathotan]

I told you the card would be a driver nightmare.

 

[vonted]

I was hoping that going from an ATI card to an ATI card would be easier than switching to nvidia

 

[vonted]

Update. Uninstalled the drivers and CCC, before i could reboot Vista re-found the driver and installed (so I let it). I then rebooted and reinstalled CCC (CCC only) and now CCC works fine.

Of course I have no idea what to do with it, need to learn about that. But it is nice that I see what is going on with the card now