4850 X2 vs. 4870 vs. 4890 vs. ??

[dahai]

Hello guys,

It is my first post here so please take it easy on me. I did some search and I think I've found the answer already, here is just to make sure. The question is, which card is better?

Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB
Radeon HD 4870
Radeon HD 4890
or
Anything else?

I think the 4850 X2 is better, the only game I play is world of warcraft, and I'd love to be able to turn everything to max and still run a smoothly. Anyway, here is my current computer set up(built in 2007 Q3):

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600
VIDEO: EVGA 512-P2-N747-LR GeForce 8500 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail (STOPPED WORKING)
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
POWER SUPPLY: Antec True Power Trio TP3-550 550W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply with Three 12V Rails - Retail
CASE: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail (COULD BE TOO SMALL FOR THE 4850 X2?)
MEMORY: 6GB (I THINK I BOUGHT TOO MUCH FOR THE JUST XP..)
DRIVE: LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray DVD-ROM SATA Model DH-4O1S-11 - OEM
OTHER DRIVE: SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S183L - OEM


Again, thanks for the advise!!

 

[rewindlabs]

If that is the only game you play aren't these a bit overkill? iv read wow isn't really gpu hungry and in populated areas it will rely more on your cpu?

 

[r_manic]

-not to mention your latency.

I think you can do with the upcoming 4770. Or, if you can't wait for its rumored $100 price and 9800-killing performance, the 4870? rewindlabs is right though, your options are overkill!

 

[dahai]

Thanks for the reply. Let's just say I have about 300 bucks to spend on this..

 

[rewindlabs]

This is just an expected suggestion from someone who hasn't played wow...il try it soon

Buy some better games or porno memberships....a nice 4770 will do you just fine....

 

[dahai]

lol thanks again, 3D shooting games like Crysis Warhead makes me dizzy and I do not think there is any games better than WOW at the moment...porn...I think I have enough. So I guess a 4870 is good enough then in this case?

 

[rewindlabs]

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33930403

EDITED!

I'm running WoW at 1920x1200, 8x box AA and 16x AF with a 2.6 C2D, 2 gigs, and a 4850. I'm not sure on the frame rate, but the game is very smooth. I have noticed a slight slowdown with the flame effects in hellfire, when they take up most of the screen. This is because those are super sampled.

A 4870 should be more than enough for WoW. A 4850 handles it just fine, for me.

AND THAT IS BULLSHIT....you can never have enough porn...why not a new hdd and start looking for 1080p porn vids...yum yum...i thought porn couldn't get any better til i saw it in 720/1080p

 

[dahai]

LMAO!! Your comment about porn is so true.

Oh..I forgot to mention..I am on a 32 inch Olevia monitor and occasionally I like to hook the desk top up with a 65 HDTV to watch a movie..does that effect the decision? I doubt but thought I might ask..

For wow, it is an addictive game..don't know why, it's just addictive. I play at pretty low res but would love to go higher, as high as I can with a 32 inch I mean.

Thanks again.

 

[rewindlabs]

Read through this entire thread and it should answer any questions you may have

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=b28ce4e357918f8e1856404eed57cac6&t=33930403&page=2

If you would like to use all of your monitors every now and then and resolutions up to 19xx/10xx than you are best off getting the 4870 as it will surely keep you at high frame rates with the settings cranked....albeit if one of your monitors is 25xx/16xx that odd high pc resolution that i can't remember then you may see alot of fps drops when doing certain wow specific things like...30 man raids or w/e and i wouldn't recommend playing on it

You should try to get a 4870 with an hdmi out...if your motherboard supports it the 4870 has a sound card onboard and if you plug it up right you can send hdmi with audio and video out of the graphics card alone...thought you might be interested in that


http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048%20106792627%201320923120%201067940678&name=Radeon%20HD%204870

Those 4870's have the hdmi output and should do the audio out stuff...albeit if you don't think need that audio via hdmi the 4890 after rebate is an amazing deal and it has free shipping so you would be spending around 20$ more

It is just an overclocked 4870 though so not a major performance increase..... http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048%201305520549%20106792627%201067947106&name=Radeon%20HD%204890






Im really interested in wow now...i might give it a try for the hell of it

 

[dahai]

Yep I was looking up on the newegg as well.

Is there a difference between 4870 1GB and the 2GB version? The price is different by so much.

 

[dahai]

Just saw the edited post...true again..1080P is killa..but still not as good as the real thing...lol

 

[rewindlabs]

Hmmm

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=2287611

A post there states wow uses 1500mb on max...and with all of the things you can have on screen in wow it actually wouldn't be a bad idea in the case of wow...start adding up the aa and all of those other filtering

Im not seeing any other benchmarks at this point...go for the 2gb as it can only give you better performance since you have the spare cash..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16814102826

On of the buyers here says they see alot of improvement with the extra vram in wow..than again he is running two of em...if you would like some serious draw distance the vram would probably do quite well

Also if you haven't already overclock your cpu...that will give you a great boost in fps

 

[Ogdin]

Wow will run on a 4 slice toaster,anything over the 4850 is overkill.

 

[simplyderp]

IMO, you would get more performance for $300 by getting a faster CPU and less-overkill graphics card. WoW is not hard to render, but a CPU can get killed by a billion players and NPCs raiding on one screen. This would work for Valve games as well.

 

[rewindlabs]

Wow will run on a 4 slice toaster,anything over the 4850 is overkill.

informative post indeed

 

[dahai]

Thank you everybody!

I've always thought it'd be so much more trouble to upgrade a CPU on an already built computer than upgrade the video card. I've never overclocked any CPU before (Nor do I know how to do it) so my quad 2.4 is still a virgin in that field. Simplyderp's post had given me some new ideas.

With that being said, I noticed that the 4870 2GB is $244 and the 4850X2 is $279, with just a 30 dollar difference...so should I really go for the 4870 2GB even in this case?

Thanks again.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

^ A single 4870 isn't powerful enough to use 2GB of ram. Just stick to the 512mb or 1GB version.

 

[rewindlabs]

^ A single 4870 isn't powerful enough to use 2GB of ram. Just stick to the 512mb or 1GB version.

What about in the case of wow? with increased draw distances it can make use of the extra ram indeed? or did you not read the links?

 

[Bluescreendeath]

What about in the case of wow? with increased draw distances it can make use of the extra ram indeed? or did you not read the links?

You don't need a 4870 to play WoW. Even if you're playig on a 24' monitor, a 4870 is a total waste.
Getting anything past a 4830 for WoW is a waste of money.

WoW is a game with sh*t coding...people don't need high end GPUs to play a game that has PS1 graphics.

 

[rewindlabs]

The 4870 wouldn't be wasted if the op cranked his settings and wanted to stay at a nice smooth high fps....

Terrokar drops my 4870 down to 30's if I have 8x AA with quality AAA enabled also.

The WotLK beta has some areas that can drop my system down to 40 fps without AAA enabled, when you turn on the new dynamic shadow system it can drop down to 30 fps, again without AAA enabled.

I'm pretty sure most of the people posting saying they ran WoW fine on old hardware have never tried TBC or the WotLK beta. For an old game WoW can still drop even new hardware, probably due to engine coding but still.

 

[doomsdaydave11]

Seriously, WoW is a 4 year old game. Sure the expansions have added some graphics effects... but you really shouldn't need anything more then an HD4830 ($75 AR) or HD4850 ($105 AR). Those would do very, very well at 1680x1050, and the latter would run pretty smooth at 1920x1200. An HD4870 would be more then enough for most resolutions above that. Do you really want to drop 3 benjamins just so you can play WoW with 128xAA? lol

 

[geofelt]

Is there a reason why only ATI solutions are being considered? Since the OP has a nvidia card installed already, it would be easiest to just drop in a nvidia GTX260 which is similar in performance and price to a 4870. No driver removal/reinstallation necessary. Even a GTTS250 should do well.

 

[dahai]

Thanks geofelt! The reason why I choose to give ATI a try is because I have heard that ATI is now leading the GPU market and their products are slightly better than nvidia's. I may be wrong so please correct me if I am mistaken. The main reason for me to replace my video card is to upgrade the best one with 3 bills, and along the way I thought I just put the game I play in there just in case if this would effect the decision. So, any brand can be put into consideration here.

 

[geofelt]

Thanks geofelt! The reason why I choose to give ATI a try is because I have heard that ATI is now leading the GPU market and their products are slightly better than nvidia's. I may be wrong so please correct me if I am mistaken. The main reason for me to replace my video card is to upgrade the best one with 3 bills, and along the way I thought I just put the game I play in there just in case if this would effect the decision. So, any brand can be put into consideration here.

The 48701gb and GTX260-216 are comparable cards and cost about $185.

The next step up would be the GTX275 or 4890 or 4850X2 which are in the $250 range.

After that, you get dwindling returns for your dollar.

Don't sweat the minor differences from one game to another with different cards.

As an aside, try civilization 4. I am not so swift on FPS games either, but Civ-4 is a turn based strategy game with lots of replay value. It is different every time.

 

[jassao]

Dahai, if you're using XP then I recommend you not getting a 2GB GPU (like a 4850x2 2gb), because XP cant recognize more than 4gigs of memory, and that is INCLUDING your video ram.

So you will end up seeing 2gb of ram and 2gbs video memory...

IMO you should get a 4870 1gb, excellent performance, DDR5 memory, and if you're worry about WoW and that card, to make it simple, you can put all the eyecandy it has and still it's going to give you more FPS than your old card.

is it a bit too much for just WoW graphics? yes it is, but it can give you peace of mind you won't lag because of the card