4850 or 4870 @ 1680x1050

Right, so I'm planning on building a new computer, and it's be using Phenom II 940 on MSI K9A2 CF-F V2 mother board.

I guess my question is, since my monitor is a 20" LCD with max resolution of 1680x1050, will using 4870 make much difference over 4850?

Also, will a Corsair HX520 have enough power to run the whole system?

Thanks.

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The HD4870 512 offers better performance at 1680X1050 resolution then the HD4850 512 by a decent amount.

http://www.guru3d.com/category/vga_charts/

right now the price difference is pretty close. (about $25)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127401
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814121288

The Corsair HX520 would be fine for either card as long as you're not crossfiring them.
http://forums.atomicmpc.com.au/index.php?showtopic=264

I'd go with the HD4870 512 at the prices available right now.

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Message edited by dirtmountain on 04-27-2009 at 08:39:09 AM

Reply to dirtmountain

it never hurts to get better if its reasonable price difference....a 4870 is definitely Stronger... PSU is ok, but think about later on if you decide to add a 2nd video card, go for something like a 650 so you always have the option, Phenom II being pretty strong, strong card to match it, and a possible 2nd card later for a simple upgrade, can always add more ram too... more food for thought....

Reply to sharken

cool, thanks for the replies. I'll go ahead and check the local price listing for the price difference between 4850 and 4870.

btw, why are the Corsair HX series offered in *20 W instead of the more common *50 W scaling?

Reply to dragoon190

i trade my 4850 for 9800gtx+ in coh phsx game no lag phsyx high ati : phsxy low/off all 4AA 1680p, so 250 or second 260 !!!!

Reply to spotless

4870 is the way to go. And the HX520 is plenty. I run my rig on a VX450.

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rags_20 wrote :

4870 is the way to go. And the HX520 is plenty. I run my rig on a VX450.

Right, thanks for the input. Another question, if I am to add another 4870 for Xfire in say 4 months or so, will the HX520 be able to handle that or should I get HX620? (There's about $20 difference between the two.)

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Reply to dragoon190

Yeah you should have a min of 650Wats just to be on the safe side.

I run two HD4870 1Gb in Crossfire and I got myself a Corsair 750W PSU

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Reply to Euphoria_MK

4870 definitely. I have 22" 1680 x 1050 monitor from Samsung and 4870 1GB is breezing on it!

I play L4D, TF2, Bioshock, Mirriors edge, GTA 4

Only in GTA4 and Mirrors edge do I have to reduce the settings slightly.

Reply to murdoc

Euphoria_MK wrote :

Yeah you should have a min of 650Wats just to be on the safe side.

I run two HD4870 1Gb in Crossfire and I got myself a Corsair 750W PSU

It seems that the Corsair HX series doesn't have 650 (they have 620 instead). Is there a huge difference between the HX and VX series (in terms of quality and reliability)? I'm asking that 'cause on the PSU tier page only Corsair HX was listed as tier 2, and nothing said about the other Corsair models.

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Reply to dragoon190

i play on 22" 1680x1050 monitor. my 4850 can crank most games fully maxed out. i play fallout maxed with 8x AA instead of 16x - everything else cranked , view distance, antroscopic etc. its a great card but sometimes i wish i had a 4890. i would wait a little bit more till the 4870 becomes the 4850 and the 4890 drops in price and go with that.

with the way the games are being developed these days, its not all resolution that effects gameplay, its the raw power of the card.

------------------------------ E8500 oc'd 3.8 @ 1.25 vcore with 92mm Zalman
ATI 4850 oc'd 680/1158 with aftermarket Zalman
Asus P5Q Pro mobo
2 gigs 800 Corsair ram @ 4-4-4-12
Reply to werxen

All the Corsair power supplies are tier 2. They are good quality supplies across the board. The HX series are modular, the TX (iirc) are standard and usually quite a bit cheaper. If there's a chance that crossfiring 2 HD4870s is in your future you should get a 750w power supply.

Reply to dirtmountain

Corsair is very reliable. And the main difference between VX and HX is modular cables. And the HX620 will be enough for 4870 CF if you have a minimal amount of hard drives and optical drives. The HX620 delivers 50A on 12v. The 4870 CF consumes 21A at full load. The rest of your parts do not use more than 25A. So there shouldn't be a problem.

dragoon190 wrote :

Right, thanks for the input. Another question, if I am to add another 4870 for Xfire in say 4 months or so, will the HX520 be able to handle that or should I get HX620? (There's about $20 difference between the two.)

Eh, thats a tough one. Although I would say a VX450 would be plenty for a single HD4870... but 2 might be a different story. the HX520 is one of the highest quality power supplies I know of, although I would probably go with the HX620 just to be safe . Really, a few extra dollars to ensure your fresh $1G+ system's saftey, is good enough for me.

I have the HD4870 at 1680x1050, and I can max out any game (cept crysis, can only do that at high, noAA) and at least get 100 FPS. I would think it'd be worth the cash over the HD4850 though; turn up the AA!!

Reply to doomsdaydave11

dragoon190 wrote :

It seems that the Corsair HX series doesn't have 650 (they have 620 instead). Is there a huge difference between the HX and VX series (in terms of quality and reliability)? I'm asking that 'cause on the PSU tier page only Corsair HX was listed as tier 2, and nothing said about the other Corsair models.

Get the 750W. It should only cost about 10$ more, and trust me it's worth it.

Reply to radiowars

Well, the calculator on Corsair website said if I want 4870 CF, than HX620 would be enough, but if I want to do any overclock at all (which I still have no clue how to, and people's advise are to read up and don't do anything until I know what I'm doing) I'll have to get a 750TX.

Anyway, I think I'll go with 4870 and hopefully upgrade the system in a few month after I save up enough to get another 4870.

Reply to dragoon190

You really don't need a second 4870 @ 1680 x 1050.

How about the 4890? Not that expensive, but faster than 4870

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Reply to Moebius078

Moebius078 wrote :

How about the 4890? Not that expensive, but faster than 4870

Don't you think 4890 is an overkill for 1680 x 1050? There's only going to be around 4 fps difference between the two cards...

Reply to dragoon190

^ lol... 4 fps between 4870 and 4890? what crack pipe are u hitting nvidia fanboy?

------------------------------ E8500 oc'd 3.8 @ 1.25 vcore with 92mm Zalman
ATI 4850 oc'd 680/1158 with aftermarket Zalman
Asus P5Q Pro mobo
2 gigs 800 Corsair ram @ 4-4-4-12
Reply to werxen

ok, 5 fps, so what?

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 262-7.html

Here's the benchmark from Tom's before you say anything else.

Reply to dragoon190

ok, how about WiC, it's a few pages down and same thing.

Don't tell me to look at game that has 100+ fps, with a 20" LCD with regular refresh rate it wouldn't make any difference anyway.

Reply to dragoon190

^+1 It does not matter whether a game has 60fps or 600fps as long as its steady.

Quote :

you fukin noob

You're the one that deserves to be called that.

Message quoted 1 times

Hey Dragoon190. 4890 wont make much difference to you.
My DH4870 1GB OCed at 820/1100 by itself is performing as stock 4890.

Where HD4890 comes into play is if you are to Overclock the GPU. Due to the changed VRMs hd4890 can OC a lot. If you look at various sites you'll find that the card Overclocks to around 1GHZ on GPU.

If you are not overclocking save yourself $50 and get a HD4870.

I had one HD4870 1GB and now that the prices went down I purchase d a second HD4870 so I run them in crossfire. I am more than satisfied with its performance.

Cheers

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Reply to Euphoria_MK

Euphoria_MK wrote :

Hey Dragoon190. 4890 wont make much difference to you.
My DH4870 1GB OCed at 820/1100 by itself is performing as stock 4890.

Where HD4890 comes into play is if you are to Overclock the GPU. Due to the changed VRMs hd4890 can OC a lot. If you look at various sites you'll find that the card Overclocks to around 1GHZ on GPU.

If you are not overclocking save yourself $50 and get a HD4870.

I had one HD4870 1GB and now that the prices went down I purchase d a second HD4870 so I run them in crossfire. I am more than satisfied with its performance.

Cheers

Thanks a bunch, that's very helpful

Just wondering, though, what PSU (650W or 750W) did you use for your CrossFire system?

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Reply to dragoon190

Like I said, 4870 CF in full load uses about 22A and the 4850 uses 9A full load. A simple calculation will tell you that if the 4850 can run on a 33A PSU, 4870 CF needs 13A more and the HX620 gives 17A more than a VX450 which is capable of running even a single 4870.

dragoon190 wrote :

Thanks a bunch, that's very helpful

Just wondering, though, what PSU (650W or 750W) did you use for your CrossFire system?

I had a Cooler Master 650W but recently purchased a Corsair 750W, just to be on the safe side.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139006

Reply to Euphoria_MK

rags_20 wrote :

^+1 It does not matter whether a game has 60fps or 600fps as long as its steady.

Quote :

you fukin noob

You're the one that deserves to be called that.

qft and qft.

For instance: 60FPS in CoD4 has a tendancy to be fairly choppy, as it dips many times a second down to very low FPS (15-30), on the opposite end of things, TF2 (At least I think so) plays very nicely at 30FPS, because it stays very steady.

I personally think the HD4890 would be way overkill for the time being, seeing that there would be very little performance gain at 1680x1050. I would recommend an HD4870 512MB for now . One can be had for under $140 on newegg, while the cheapest HD4890 is nearly $100 more than that. Also, 1GB of video memory would have little to no effect on performance at that resolution.

Reply to doomsdaydave11

Euphoria_MK wrote :

Hey Dragoon190. 4890 wont make much difference to you.
My DH4870 1GB OCed at 820/1100 by itself is performing as stock 4890.

Where HD4890 comes into play is if you are to Overclock the GPU. Due to the changed VRMs hd4890 can OC a lot. If you look at various sites you'll find that the card Overclocks to around 1GHZ on GPU.

If you are not overclocking save yourself $50 and get a HD4870.

I had one HD4870 1GB and now that the prices went down I purchase d a second HD4870 so I run them in crossfire. I am more than satisfied with its performance.

Cheers

Way off topic I know, but is your avatar the Metallica logo with a wave distortion applied? . Sure looks like it.

Reply to doomsdaydave11

dirtmountain wrote :

The HD4870 512 offers better performance at 1680X1050 resolution then the HD4850 512 by a decent amount.

http://www.guru3d.com/category/vga_charts/

Ugh, I hate Crysis benchmarks that use the "medium image quality" setting...especially if they're benchmarking high end cards.

Those benchmarks are absolutely worthless for comparing high end cards.

------------------------------ i7 920, E5300
GTX260, HD4870, HD4830
Reply to Bluescreendeath

^+1
And CoD4 60 fps does not dip to 15fps.

Message quoted 1 times

rags_20 wrote :

^+1
And CoD4 60 fps does not dip to 15fps.

Sure it does. I'll upload a screenie as soon as I fix my computer :pfff: . This primarily happens in smoke.

Your statement was retarded anyway; it's like saying "Counter-strike doesn't run at 35 FPS". Different rigs get different FPS...

Reply to doomsdaydave11

I don't have to prove anything to you.

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rags_20 wrote :

I don't have to prove anything to you.

lol when did I say anything about proving anything to anyone? Usually statements like that mean you got your information from nowhere.

Reply to doomsdaydave11

It seems to me you play CoD4 @ 15fps. LoL That's why you talk about tendencies. hehe

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