Sapphire 4870... 512mb vs 1GB, Toxic vs non-Toxic

[caselogic]

I have an ATI X1950XT which is way past its prime. A long time ago my mobo was fried when lightning struck out power lines, and it took a piece of my graphics card with it. Ever since then, I wasn't really able to play games without graphical problems/crashing. Now, pixels are starting to flash and I get defects when watching DVDs, etc. In a nutshell, time to get a new graphics card...

I like the new sapphire 4870's, but is 1GB really necessary? I don't do very much PC gaming these days, but I do have Bioshock which I need to finish. Also, considering getting left 4 dead and maybe another game to play during my off time. It'd be nice to have something that'll last me another 2-3 years at least. Should I invest another $60-70 to get the 1GB over the 512MB, or is it not really worth it if I don't need it? FYI my monitor is 22" @ 1680x1050 resolution.

Second, is 'toxic' worth it? When searching for a 4870 card, I care more about noise than performance. The 4870 stock performs well enough for me, so beyond that I would like to find the card that is the quietest. I don't fully know what Toxic is, but it seems to have to do with the cooling system. A 512MB non-toxic card is $180, and a 512MB toxic card is $205. Is it worth the extra $25 for "Toxic"? I haven't found anywhere that really reviews toxic vs non so I don't know what it helps with.

Thanks for your help

edit: I should add that I'm not looking to overclock any card I get.

 

[caselogic]

or I suppose I could go with a visitiontek 512MB for almost as much as the sapphire 1GB, which doesn't make that much sense to me right now

 

[meodowla]

Better get something with good cooling facility.

 

[boulard83]

if you plan on playing GTA4 , 1gb version ! if not ... 512. Rea reviews about noise and cooling for those.

 

[bknight]

If you are going to games like Cyris the 1 gig will be useful.

sapphire 1GB comes with same cooler as the Toxic but the Toxic is overclocked

 

[hotroderx]

I currently have a VisonTek 4870 and Its a really good card and VisonTek seems to be a solid company. But from what you said ( you want a quiet card) I wouldn't recommend Visontek or any ATI 4870 with the reference cooler. Reason being is they run extremely warm tell you up the fan on them which makes them loud (currently mine is at 65%) with fan on auto the card runs around 80c's and the fan rev's up high to give a quick shot of air then revs down (extremely annoying and is loud if you do leave on stock). I am not sure about the toxic addition of the HD4870 sorry. Also I wouldn't recommend the 1 gig version something tells me with DDR4 memory isn't going to be any faster regardless of 512mb vs 1gig due to limitation of the 256bit bus ( basically from what I have read it will not be able to address the memory quick enough kinda the same logic behind why 128bit cards with 512mb where worthless and just for show). I cant really give good advice on which card has a good cooling solution. But one place to look is maybe newegg reviews just be selective about which reviews you be leave also just in case your wondering and to make sure I cover ever thing I can HD4850 is a good card and I would recommend it except 1 fatal flaw in it HD4850 uses a single slot cooling solution with the same chip as the HD4870 so from my experience with one they tend to over heat unless you have then set to 100% fan speed which is LOUD to say the least that was the only reason I returned it and went with the HD4870 and yes I could tell a real world difference between the 2 cards the DDR4 memory makes that big a difference. The Link below is to a reference design cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161236

as you can tell its just a everyday stock cooler most the cards come with.


I hope I answered most your questions and gave you better insight into what your looking for also from what I have seen and gamed the card should easily last 3 or 4 years (had a ATI x800xl that lasted will over 3 years tell lighting struck and it played everything medium settings so ati cards are built to last)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161236

as you can tell its just a everyday stock cooler most the cards come with.


I hope I answered most your questions and gave you better insight into what your looking for also from what I have seen and gamed the card should easily last 3 or 4 years (had a ATI x800xl that lasted will over 3 years tell lighting struck and it played everything medium settings so ati cards are built to last)