Core i5 - 4850 Crossfire/4870 OC'ed/4890?

Cyrl

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May 30, 2009
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Ok so I'm planning a Core i5-750 build with one of the better motherboards (ASUS P7P55 Evo/Deluxe) and 1033MHz DDR3, my question to you guys is as to which graphics card I should go for? I'm aware of the threads advising to hold off and wait for the 5xxx series but my budget won't stretch that far + I'd like the machine sooner rather than later.

The current Sep '09 Best g.card for the ££'s recommends 2x4850's in CrossFire at the price point I'm looking at however I'm abit concious of the power requirements of a crossfire rig + with GDDR3 would I be correct in assuming these cards won't hold up so well going forwards? The 4850X2 is also an option however it's price quickly catches up with a 4870 and I'm assuming the single 4870 may outperform it? (Single-card CrossFire/Sli cards seem an intuitively bad idea to me - heating must surely be much more demanding + impact their lifespan, no?)

Next up is the 4870 - this would be ideal if it's possible to OC to be comparable to a 4890 as it'd save a few tens of £'s I can put into something else. I've read that the 4890 is just a stock OC'ed 4870 anyway, in which case I don't see any great advantage in shelling out a little more.

If you could make any brand recommendations that'd also be really useful, I hear the Sapphire 4890 is one of the best around and so I was considering: http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=4870&cid=18065035809881822629&sa=title#p.

Thanks for any help you can send my way,
Cyrl :hello:
 

Cyrl

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@FallenSinper: With the 4870 is it possible to OC it to comparable levels to the 4890?

@invisik: AS i mentioned in the OPI thought the 4890 was just a 4870 with a small tweak and factory OCing, if thats the case does it have comparable overhead to the 4870 or will I find myself reaching the performance wall relatively quickly?
 

orangegator

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The 4870 probably won't OC to 850mhz without volt mods and very good cooling. Mine only does 810/1150 with a small volt mod and stock cooler. The 4890 can typically get 900-950mhz when overclocked. It also idles at much lower power than the 4870. If the price isn't much higher, then I'd recommend getting the 4890.
 

Cyrl

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Ye I got the 5850 after waiting a while, just took delivery (finally after the 2 national holidays, UK) of a 24" Dell ST2410 to go with the new rig - awesome :)

Cyrl