Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > ATI > Is the 4870 a substantial upgrade from the 8800GT?

Is the 4870 a substantial upgrade from the 8800GT?

Forum Graphic & Displays : ATI - Is the 4870 a substantial upgrade from the 8800GT?

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grpace   03-04-2009 at 03:07:38 AM

Hi I have a PCI-E 1.0 or 1.1 (Not sure) Motherboard and I currently have a 8800GT. I have a Q6660 2.4ghz quad core. I play my games at 1920x1080. So is upgrading to a 4870 worth it also which one do you recommend the 512mb or 1gb version. Thanks.

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Bronze Graphics badge jaguarskx   03-04-2009 at 03:20:47 AM
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The HD 4870's performance is roughly in between the GTX 260 and the GTX 280 depending on the game. In Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, the HD 4870 is slightly slower than the GTX 260. However in Fallout 3 the HD 4870 will completely dominate the GTX 280.

Does that answer your question?

The 1GB gives you marginal increase in performance so if jumping from 28fps to 30fps or 65fps to 68fps (it depends on the game) is significant enough for you then go ahead.


Message edited by jaguarskx on 03-04-2009 at 03:21:48 AM
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grpace   03-04-2009 at 03:51:35 AM
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Thanks for the feedback im just wonding if putting it in pci e 1.0 is worth it? I really dont want a new a new mobo. Also will the pcie 1.0 effect the 512 vs 1gb? Thanks

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wh3resmycar   03-04-2009 at 04:27:32 AM
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considering the resolution that you're playing at. 1gb will make a difference.

and i have a 4870 on a pci-e 1.0 slot no problem whatsoever.

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keyter   03-06-2009 at 07:42:39 AM
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I play a 4870 1g on PCIe 1, and I believe your processor will have a bigger effect on performance than the PCIe bandwidth. In your case you should be 100% good to go.

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EAZY-E   03-11-2009 at 02:35:48 AM
- -1 +

To answer your question, i have a q6600 (3.6ghz) and a 8800gt (750/1850/150) and my friend just got a 4870 for his rig. He didn't have a CPU at the time so i put in mine to test it out. I ran a 3dmark06 and the 4870 got 15300, while my 8800gt gets a little bit over 13K. So my answer is no, its not a substantial upgrade from an 8800gt. I would wait until later this year, (for win7 and dx11) to consider upgrading your card, after all, an 8800gt can still max out most games.

Message quoted 1 times
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mikecs   03-11-2009 at 02:54:48 AM
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No its not a very huge updrade. Here is a versus list of the 4870 512 vs 8800gt 512:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts [...] 2074%5D=on

looking at the 3dmark score they are pretty close but some games the 4870 is quite a bit better. so the real question is, are the games you play on that list at a high enough framerate upgrade to warrant the upgrade? Really the only games where the 8800 isn't playable at high res with goodies enabled were Crysis (go figure) and World in Conflict.

Sure the 4870's are pretty cheapish now but its really up to you if you want to fork out the dough for a small upgrade when even more price drops and new tech will be out later this year.

PCI-e x16 1.0 wont hurt you much if any with either of those cards.


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grpace   03-11-2009 at 04:05:01 AM
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I ordered it. Its a upgrade for sure. I play Cod4 alot so the benchmarks were helpful.

Also I run osx in my system and the 4870 runs beautifully on it.

I am satisfied w/ the upgrade. So is my dad who got my 8800. he went from a 8400gs to it so he should be more than happy.

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strangestranger   03-11-2009 at 08:41:15 AM
- 1 +

EAZY-E wrote :

To answer your question, i have a q6600 (3.6ghz) and a 8800gt (750/1850/150) and my friend just got a 4870 for his rig. He didn't have a CPU at the time so i put in mine to test it out. I ran a 3dmark06 and the 4870 got 15300, while my 8800gt gets a little bit over 13K. So my answer is no, its not a substantial upgrade from an 8800gt. I would wait until later this year, (for win7 and dx11) to consider upgrading your card, after all, an 8800gt can still max out most games.



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wh3resmycar   03-11-2009 at 05:57:40 PM
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someone might be playing "3dmark06" all day long here. heard it was better than any other mmo out there.

Reply to wh3resmycar
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